Six-Month Checkup
February 9, 2009 by Angela White, J.D., breastfeeding counselor
Filed under breastfeeding, nutrition
I thought I would update how Nicole is doing at six months of age.
Solid Foods
Nicole continues to enjoy trying new solid foods. As you can see, mashed ripe avocado is one of her favorites! Just as with breastfeeding, I believe in baby-led solid food feeding. She feeds herself with her fingers or with a spoon that I have pre-loaded for her with food. She controls how much she gets, and I make sure to take her out of the high chair before she ever gets upset. I want that feeding chair to be a happy place! It must be working because she certainly is an enthusiastic eater so far!
Measurements
At six and a half months I took her in for her six-month well baby visit with the pediatrician. I would have taken her in earlier, but we both had rotavirus and I completely forgot about the appointment! So, at 6.5 months she weighed 17 pounds, 11.5 ounces, and was 27 inches in length. That puts her in the 75th and 90th percentiles on the CDC growth charts. I have yet to translate it to the WHO charts because that requires me to convert from pounds to kilograms and inches to centimeters, and that’s just too much math at the moment, even with on-line conversion calculators. I just look at Nicole and know that she’s doing fine — that’s all I need to know!
Sleep
When Nicole was getting her two bottom teeth in she woke up more often at night, every hour or two. Now that they are in and she’s not yet working on her top teeth, she is thankfully back to sleeping in four hour stretches or more.
She’s started crawling, and that could have contributed to the extra night-waking too. She wants to practice her abilities to roll around, push up on all fours, and crawl right off the mattress (which is on the floor for that very reason).
Reflux
For the record, and for all those mothers out there wondering when the spit-up will stop, please oh please make it stop, at six months Nicole only spits up occasionally rather than after every feeding. There was significant improvement some time after she turned five months old, both in the frequency and volume of spit up. She never had a problem to the point that I was concerned, especially in light of the fact that she was certainly growing well, not projectile vomiting, and not showing any worrying signs of food allergies. Still, I am not sorry to see the spit-up lessen!
And you?
Anyone else out there just starting to introduce solid foods? How is it going?
My son is a few days shy of 6 months. A couple of weeks ago I let him have some banana that he was reaching for. He was really interested in playing with it, and even enjoyed mouthing it, but very diligently spit every piece out. So I guess that in spite of his apparent interest, he’s not ready to actually consume solids yet. Like you I believe in baby-led feeding, so I will just take things at his pace.
you should never give a six month old a banana to bit on if u want to introduce him to bananas get on in the baby food. He could choke on bananas as they are very slippery and dangerous for children that are too young.
If you are worried about a baby choking on a whole banana, an alternative to jarred food is to mash the banana, and thin it with breast milk if desired. Bananas, including organic ones, are inexpensive and easy to prepare.