Confused about eating/drinking at 6 months

Mmm79

So A is a few weeks past 6 months old. He is EBF and nurses or has a bottle of BM about 7 times per day. This includes 4 bottles at daycare totaling around 15 oz (each bottle is just shy of 4 oz). We started introducing Stage 1 purses (sometimes jarred, sometimes homemade) a few weeks ago. We offer it in the evenings. We are this week going to start sending 1 "solid" meal to daycare.

I am confused as to how much he should be eating at each "meal". I though we were supposed to introduce one food at a time, but Baby 411 seems to be saying he should have 2 different foods at each meal? And then there is water. We haven't started that yet. How much should we give? When? How often? I still worry A isn't getting enough BM, so I worry about water filling him up w/out providing calories or nutrition.

I don't know why this seems so challenging right now. I also have the added factor of A being a small baby and feeli g self conscious about his weight. His daycare provider keeps telling me how she thinks he is always hungry, but I follow the Kelly mom calculator for how much to send to daycare and send the max- plus it is a struggle to pump even that much.

Can you ladies offer advice? What is (or was) your 6 month old's eating schedule?

Thanks

ProfessorPedals825

I don't know if I can be much help since we're all over the board with BM, formula, and puréed foods. Here's what we're doing: 1st bottle of the day is 6oz BM, 2nd bottle is 5oz BM, then she gets 2oz of puréed food, 3rd bottle is 5oz BM, 4th bottle is 4-6oz of formula, the last bottle is 5oz BM. We haven't started water but I plan to ask the pedi this week. We're also thinking of adding a second "meal" this week depending on her 6mth checkup and what the doctor says. I hope that helps some but from what I've heard is that food really is just practice and the most of the nutrition should be from BM or formula. I just try to follow her cues. If she seems hungry, I do give her more.

4legsRbest

H is also on the small side (he is 8.5 months and barely 18 pounds) so I feel you on that. I take it personally when I feel like someone thinks I am doing it on purpose. I even had a DC provider to tell me my BM isn't "fatty enough". Anyway, I digress.

We started on pureed food at about 6 months but he wasn't really interested until more like 7 months. I never gave him just one type though (I know, rebel), now he gets a combo of 2-4 different options for food each “meal”. I mix finger foods in with purees and some noodles/soup dishes. I am more about the texture and what he can learn by eating it than what the food actually is. And you don't need to do the water yet, we literally just started that a couple of weeks ago and it is just an ounce or two. My DC feeds "breakfast, lunch and snack" so 3 snacks really and I just let them use the school menu, but he still drinks the same amount of bottles. Does your DC provide any food or do you have to bring all your own? 

And FWIW, I don't think H consumes much of any one thing except jarred food (which is why I limit it) and I would rather him have BM or finger foods so he can learn to use his chompers than just filling him full of baby food since it offers no nutritional value.

adoxyinherear

DD was still mostly exclusively nursing at 6 months. I offered food, but I didn't stress about it since a lot of the stuff on Kellymom I trusted about her not really NEEDING food until 9 months. She didn't really get into solids into 7+ months, and even then was only eating one meal a day, and just one or two things at that meal.

We also didn't start giving her water until about 2 months ago. He should still be nursing enough to be getting plenty of fluids. It sounds like you're doing fine!

erinlovesdavid

I highly recommend the book "Child of Mine: Feeding with love and good sense" by Ellyn Satter. The book goes through all the stages of feeding, beginning at infancy. It is such a wonderful resource!

Mmm79

Thanks, ladies.

We provide our own food and we sent some pureed apples to daycare and despite hearing from our daycare provider that A seems "still hungry" after his 4 oz bottles, when we went to pick him up tonight and she said he wouldn't eat any because he was "too full" after his bottle.  Argh!  Don't get me wrong, she's a sweet person and takes great care of A, but after telling me my kid's hungry, now apparently his bottles make him too full.  She was asking if I was sure he should get the food after his bottle.  

I suppose we'll keep muddling through relying on trial and error.