{"id":3072,"date":"2021-09-08T12:13:43","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T12:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/squish.co.za\/?p=3072"},"modified":"2021-09-08T12:13:43","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T12:13:43","slug":"5-signs-your-baby-is-ready-for-solids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/squish.co.za\/6mnths\/5-signs-your-baby-is-ready-for-solids\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Signs\u00a0your Baby is Ready for Solids"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Starting you baby on solids is an exciting \u2013 and messy! \u2013 milestone in your parenting journey. These developmental signals from your little one will let you know they\u2019re ready to get tasting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The South African Department of Health and the World Health Organisation recommend that you breastfeed your baby exclusively for the first six months before you begin introducing them to solids. For your baby to cope with this new change in their diet, their digestive tract needs to be mature enough (usually around six months), and they need to be developmentally ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you introduce solids too early, you can put your child\u2019s health at risk. Your baby\u2019s individual developmental readiness cannot be determined only by their age, but at around six months your little one will start giving you signs that they are ready for the introduction of small meals. Here\u2019s what to look out for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Strong neck: <\/strong>Your baby is able to hold their head up well on their own when propped in a sitting position. If you\u2019re giving your child non-pureed foods, they must be able to sit on their own unaided.<\/li><li><strong>Tongue-thrust reflex stops:<\/strong> Your baby no longer automatically pushes solids out of her mouth with her tongue. You can test this by mixing a small amount of <strong>Squish 100% Fruit or Veggie Puree<\/strong> with a little breastmilk or formula. Place a dab on your finger or the tip of a smooth spoon. If your baby keeps pushing the food out with the tip of his tongue after a few tries, then he is not yet ready to be fed solids.<\/li><li><strong>Baby can open wide:<\/strong> If your baby can open wide to receive a spoon, and is able to move her tongue back and forth and up and down (just watch their tongue movements) this is a good sign that your little one is ready for the next step on their food journey.<\/li><li><strong>Pincer grasp:<\/strong> Your baby is starting to develop a pincer grasp and tries to pick up objects and food within their reach.<\/li><li><strong>Food grabbing:<\/strong> Your child tries to reach out and grab food or your fork when you are eating and gets excited when he is sitting with you at mealtimes.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that your baby is ready to get tasting you can gradually start introducing solids. Each <strong>Squish Fruit and Veggie Puree<\/strong> is made from 100% fruit and vegetables and is perfect as your baby\u2019s first food. <strong>Squish Purees<\/strong> offer a wide range of delicious flavours and are preservative free, finely strained, easy to digest \u2013 and delicious! They are also free from colourants and preservatives. Squish\u2019s screw-top packaging means you can just use a small amount at a time while your baby gets used to a world of new tastes, textures and flavours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starting you baby on solids is an exciting \u2013 and messy! \u2013 milestone in your parenting&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-6mnths","odd","has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/squish.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/squish.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/squish.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/squish.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/squish.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/squish.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3073,"href":"https:\/\/squish.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072\/revisions\/3073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/squish.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/squish.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/squish.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/squish.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}