A few solids questions!

twojunebugs

We waited until 6 months to start and I feel like we haven't made too much progress since then. DS is only doing dinner at night (5:15) - usually finishes about a jar (maybe a little less) of stage 1 food. When do I start moving towards 2 meals a day? Is breakfast or lunch next? Do we NEED to do rice cereal? When do I start puffs? I have a 5.5 year-old, but have forgotten just about everything. Thanks in advance!!!

Oohgurl

All pedi's are different but mine says that LO has to have at least one serving of oatmeal a day for the vitamins in it. I started at 4 months but here is how we went:

We started with oatmeal and it took him about 2 weeks of nothingness to really started eating it and loving it. Getting banana flavored oatmeal was the trick, I think. After about a week of him mastering it we started the fruits and veggies and had daycare do oatmeal during the day. That was probably a month or so from the first bite to 2 meals a day. 

About 2-3 weeks after that we were able to cycle through enough fruits to give DC fruit with the oatmeal to give him. So they did oatmeal and 1 stage one of fruit mixed with it. Eventually we cycled through all the stage 1 fruits and veggies and 2.5 months in we started stage 2 foods of meat. 

Don't get hung up on stage 1 and stage 2 fruits and veggies. They are basically the same except for texture. 

If your LO really starts to like oatmeal you can mix your veggies in that at dinner feeding if your LO doesn't like that veggy.  My LO really loves oatmeal so will eat anything mixed in it. 

We haven't started puffs. I don't think my LO is ready yet. 

edit: I am inventing words I guess. 

1and1is3

No you don't NEED to do rice cereal. It does help some babies sleep through the night though. I'm not sure on puffs. I started teething biscuits a few weeks ago but I haven't started puffs yet. Once she gets the pincer grip down I will. I feed her a bottle every 4 hours and do solids an hour out two after each bottle (except for her last bottle). I find it easier to remember to feed her when I do a schedule but not everyone needs it. Some babies are very good about saying when they are hungry, sadly my Autumn has no hungry signs and could go hours without eating. All that to say, just play around with it and find what works best for you.

jayro10

My pedi said hold off on puffs till 8-9 months, but I know some other people on this board give puffs now. I think it depends on if you think your LO is ready for them or not.

flyliceandcoffee

we waited till S was close to 6 months before we started solids and our pedi said to feed her twice a day. We give her fruits/veggies (sometimes oatmeal) around 11-12 and then again around 5:30-6. She only eats about an ounce at a time right now, anything more and we usually end up in a puke fest. He told us we can pretty much feed her anything we want as long as we think she's ready for it. We haven't given her any meat yet, but we probably will once she can pick things up on her own. We haven't given her any puffs yet either but we did try to give her one or two cheerios just to see what she would do, and she still has no idea what to do with it, so we don't try it very often yet.

Blueyed228

It took about a month and a half for us to get on a consistent schedule with food. 

They kind of let us know when they were ready for more than one feeding.  We do a fruit in the morning and veggie for dinner.  We have not done meat yet.

I dont do cereal or puffs.  They hate the cereal and puffs are not even on my radar right now.

Schell2013

jayro10 said:

My pedi said hold off on puffs till 8-9 months, but I know some other people on this board give puffs now. I think it depends on if you think your LO is ready for them or not.

Mine throws them on the floor but the dog doesn't mind.

Schell2013

I usually do oatmeal cereal in the morning with a fruit, about 2-3oz. Afternoon I do a veggie of the same amount and then oatmeal before bed with fruit again. Sometimes she misses the afternoon veggies but usually she gets those three.

And yes you do need to feed a rice cereal, oatmeal or something that has extra iron. Some formulas have enough but BM isn't enough iron according to my Pedi babies run out of the iron they got from us inutero around 6 months of age and the cereals have the extra needed iron added in.

babyo52

We do cereal in the morning with toast if she is still hungry. Then we do a vegetable and fruit at night. If we are in the car or out somewhere we do puffs as well. She is able to pick them up by her self and get them to her mouth. I think it has been great for her to learn the fingers and mouth coordination.

mommatotwo2

Our pedi did say we should try to do at least 1 serving of cereal a day, but said we didn't have to majorly stress about it, but to work towards it. By 9 months he would like her on 3 meals a day, with variety of fruit, veggies, cereal (baby or cheerios for the iron), dairy (yogurt, cheese), whole grains, and meat if we wanted to. Right now, she gets fruit or veggies (1 container) mid morning and sometimes cereal and in the evening I do fruits or veggies and cereal. Other than that, she's still BF on demand at home and taking about 12 oz of expressed milk at daycare.

Karicomo

We just started puffs last weekend and he will be 8 mos tomorrow. He doesnt do very we with getting them in his mouth, but its great practice. I put them in his mouth for him usually and it works great to side track him if he 's getting cranky. I also just started the tiniest of pieces of ritz crackers.