Tips for starting "solids" (at 4-6 mos.)

Ethan just recently turned four months which is when his pediatrician recommended starting him on baby food and cereal. So we did! And here's some tips from my two-weeks-of-feeding experience...
Ethan and I start the feeding by putting on a bib - I use ones that I don't care about for feeding vegetables because they are MESSY and they STAIN, and I will use nicer ones for feeding fruit and formula. (He is breastfed, but at this age, you might need to do like we do and feed him formula at nighttime so he'll sleep through the night again and I also give him a bottle of formula at lunchtime so he'll settle down for a good afternoon nap.)
And we also need to have a small towel or cloth on hand to wipe up every now and then so that the hands (which will SURELY end up in the mouth between spoonfuls) don't distribute the mess elsewhere! (P.S. on that - Gerber recommends that you let your child put their fingers in their mouth between spoonfuls because it helps them learn to swallow.)
I find it best to put him in his vibrating/bouncing chair and sit on the floor in front of him. This is mostly because it's his favorite chair... I tried his swing, which has a tray on the front of it, but he never really liked that swing, so we stuck with the vibrating chair. Use whatever your baby likes.
And last, but DEFINITELY not least, have FUN! You may be getting annoyed at the mess your baby is making, but ignore it... you can't do anything about it except to wipe him up every so often... so the two of you should enjoy this time together.
Good luck! (:

Yeah, I started putting Ethan in the high chair just today! It's wonderful because his vibrating chair is fabric and the high chair is vinyl, so I don't have to worry about him staining it.

I also wanted to add to what I said earlier... I'm starting to realize that it's best to undress Ethan when he eats, particularly for the vegetables (and especially that Creamed Spinach that Gerber makes!!!)... unless, of course, you're out of the house, you wouldn't want to undress your baby then. And I would recommend dressing down yourself because I've noticed that since Ethan likes to make "raspberries," he tends to go "BLMPH" when he's eating and spits it all over the place! Wooh! What fun! LOL. And, last, I would recommend using a vinyl bib... but don't put it in the washer and dryer too often... just rinse it off after each feeding and wash it in the washer occasionally and let it air dry. His vinyl bib got a little messed up by the washer and dryer... and since the dryer is an unnecessary step, you can just skip that part.

That sounds like a GOOD idea, only starting one new food every four days. So far, I haven't had any problems with allergies, but I suppose if he seemed allergic to a food, I would start feeding him only one food at a time for a few days each until I figured out which one it was. But, also, there aren't any food allergies in our families, so I think that makes a difference.
I don't think Ethan and I could have held out even one more month... he was a BLESSING of a baby and started sleeping through the night at three weeks old, but this gradually began to change just after turning three months old, so I knew he was ready for more. Also, I had visited Gerber's website and they talk about how age isn't necessarily the indication that your child is ready for baby food, but developmental progress clues you in, as well. They say that when your baby can hold their head up (pretty well), they're ready for solids. I was "afraid" to start him without the Pediatrician's go-ahead. I did, however, begin putting a little, little bit of cereal in his bottle of formula. I am still confident that he was ready for it. I think he had been ready for at least a couple of weeks.

Good luck! And HAVE FUN feeding!

Actually, that's what I meant... I was eager to start him on solids, but when my relatives started saying, "what's one week going to hurt?," my initial response was a little shocked because I was being a "good mommy" and listening to what the Pediatrician told me to do. I became convinced to start putting cereal in his bedtime bottle.
I guess I'm lucky Ethan didn't stop breastfeeding because of the solids. I was amazed at how easily he adjusted to the change in his new feeding schedule. The only thing he didn't like was plain cereal (had to put fruit in it) and I tried the chicken this week (he's just turned 19 weeks yesterday and CUT HIS FIRST TOOTH, TOO!!! ) and I think it made him vomit (twice)! YUCK!

I never even thought about making our OWN baby food!!! What a GREAT idea! What do you do? Puree fruits and veggies in a food processor? That must REALLY help out with the grocery bill!
Ethan just started drinking juice, too... do you make your own juice, too? I'd love to know how to do it.
By the way, we also used cloth diapers during the daytime while we were home... it's so easy! (As long as you have a washer.) And we used disposables when we were out and overnight.
Talk to you later!

Thanks! Do you have to add water to the fruits and veggies to help them puree? I noticed that the baby food jars ingredients say "water as necessary to prepare" (or something like that). And what's the name of the book you're talking about? I'd like to get THAT!

THANKS! I went NUTS in the produce section today! And I've got a food processor all ready to go! Ethan's going to be tasting some new stuff now... mangos, papayas, and kiwi (those are the ones that will be new to him).
Thanks again! I hope this helps other moms, too!

OK... well, the kiwis didn't quite work out... too many seeds! And the canteloupe has too much water in it, so it made JUICE instead of baby food... so did the sweet peppers. But he LOVED the mangoes and papaya, as well as the apples, peas and green beans. The peas and green beans were a bit tricky because they were so small that the blade had a hard time "finding them," so I had to keep pushing them down with a spatula. I ended up shredding my spatula (OOPS!).
The peas came out SO GREEN they look like that green slime on Nickelodeon! (They were sweet peas - frozen... I figured frozen was best because they would be fresh AND wouldn't have any preservatives added.)
Thanks again! I bought the book... it's HUGE... and LOADED with information. It's interesting to see that they rate all the fruits and veggies for what age is best to start feeding them to your baby... I wonder how they came up with that conclusion. They don't really explain it.

Happy feeding!