He's too going on 30, but I know not all parents are that lucky introducing solid foods can be incredibly frustrating and sometimes frightening, but it can also be fun and exciting.

He is eating some banana Republic.

One thing I learned from all four of my babies, it will be messy.

What are you giving yourself a bad friend?

During infancy?

From the period of birth to about 12 months of age, feeding goes from a reflex of behavior to a voluntary behavior.

You may not know this, I mean, I sure didn't but in order to eat solid foods, your baby needs to learn to move their tongue in a whole new way younger babies swallow by tongue thrusting, they just dart their tongue in and out to swallow thicker foods and table foods, you have to kind of push your tongue up against the roof of your mouth to propel the bullets down.

You need that skill and if you're like me, you're wondering what in the world is Ebola as it's just a fancy word for a soft round chunk of food.

Now, transitioning from an all liquid diet to solids involves a lot of learning.

So when should we get this learning process going?

The typical age these days is around six months of age.

But what we really want to look at is not necessarily the age of the baby, but development milestones.

So sitting up nice and strong, the ability to hold your head, not kind of flopping around the ability to reach and grab something.

And then lastly, we love to see babies kind of tracking what the parent is eating.

Are they watching you eat?

Making sure your baby is physically ready.

And also interested in eating salads is a good place to start.

But how exactly do you get the food inside your baby's my old and into their belly?

Mhm.

I mean, I feel like I tried all the things with my babies with my first born, I was a straight up nineties mom with all the store bought fancy baby food.

We have puree ps butternut squash, sweet potatoes, we had puree everything.

Then with the twins, I was the California mom, feeding them wholesome organic fancy brunches at every meal.

These are gluten free, blueberry waffles that didn't last long because you know, twins is so much, so much food, so many, so many things to think about, and then with um are, well, he just tells us what he wants to eat, So which method is best.

So I love to encourage parents not to feel like they have to choose a certain method, but it doesn't have to be, you know, a purist approach.

You don't have to choose one or the other.

What you can do is just start putting a mix of food on the table, maybe your spoon, feeding a little bit, maybe you're letting baby grab a little bit, technically by the time they're eating solids, experts say infants can eat from any food group, but it's also good to introduce things one food at a time to keep an eye out for allergic reactions.

So if you're a mom, say back in 2000, your doctor probably would have told you to hold off on introducing allergens entirely until even age three.

Today, it's completely the opposite.

We want the early introduction of allergens so it can feel a little scary.

We want to start slowly, but it can be something as small as a little sheer of peanut butter on your finger, putting on baby's lips start there if you're terrified.

Now, luckily none of my boys have food allergies.

I mean they love to be picky and sometimes they act like they're allergic to what I cook them, but it's not a medical issue.

Allergic reactions don't always happen on the first exposure.

And sometimes not even the first few exposures, It does need to be a consistent sort of steady introduction and listen, your baby is probably going to gag when the child gags while they're learning how to eat, that's normal.

They aren't choking When babies are very young.

The gag reflex is on the tip of the tongue to protect them from choking and as they start to have experiences putting things in their mouths that gave reflex kind of naturally is desensitized to move farther back.

I know, I know seeing and hearing your babies struggle with a piece of food can be really scary, but it's important to remain calm even if you're freaking out inside infants can get upset when they gag sometimes too.

And then if the parent and the child are both frightened, then they're less and less likely to want to continue trying that food.

Now, even if your baby takes the eating salads right away, you want to keep the milk and formula flowing so you want to continue breastfeeding or bottle feeding at the same pace the same amount as you were before just because you're starting solids today does not decrease that amount of milk.

The ideal scenario is that once the baby starts ingesting more and consuming more and they are less hungry for the next bottle or breastfeed and it will sort of organically start to ship and then at 12 months of age that whole paradigm shifts and solids become the primary source of nutrition.

So by the age of about 12 months, your child should be eating about what you're eating.

You might have to alter the texture of it.

You might have to add some moisture to some of those things.

But that's kind of the rule of thumb.

I know parents, especially moms are under a lot of pressure to get everything right as a working mom of four kids, I feel this do what works best for you and your family consult your pediatrician and try to enjoy this messy milestone.

Thank you for watching seeker baby.

I'm Angel Akita more and I hope you're learning as much about babies as I am.

If there's a baby topic, you want us to cover, leave us a comment and keep coming back to seeker for more on babies.

See you next time.