Solid food help please!

Traycee1242

Seriously I have spent more time and research on solid food... it's borderline ridiculous and I drive myself crazy.

So we EBF and at 6 months we started with cereal once a day, then went to fruits and veggies, etc. At about 6.5 months we started about 2.5oz of fruit in the morning, then 2.5oz of veggies in the evening.

I've increased that to 3oz... but we are still at eating solids twice a day. I make all DS food and he loves everything...been able to experiment quite a bit and he really gets excited for solids.

The handout I got from the Pedi suggests much more solids than I'm giving him. I know it's just a guideline.. but am I way off base here? I guess I'm hesitant to add more solids (say a 3rd meal) because I really don't want him to wean early... I'd really like to make it to at least 1... if not 15 months or so. He's dropped a feeding in the last week (went from nursing 6x a day to 5) though that could be because he's getting even more ounces each time, just don't know with bf.

Any advice? What worked for you? Should I stick with what I'm doing or maybe increase the oz's of food? Or stick with the 3oz and add a 3rd meal? When??? Now, 9 months, etc? Anyone else who made their own food, how did you make meat and when did you introduce it?

Sorry for all the questions! Any insight would be appreciated!

Mrs.Cooley2bee

My pediatrician's handout recommended that DD be up to 3 solid meals a day by the time she came in for her 9 month appointment and she should be eating a good variety of foods.  I make Charlotte's food and I have never measure how much I give her.  I freeze the purees in ice cube trays and I think 1 cube equals about 1oz.  She has never eaten more than 2 cubes of food in one sitting.  Sometimes she will eat both cubes and then some finger foods like puffs.  I never made meat - I bought a few jars but mostly she got her protien from dairy products (cottage cheese, yogurt etc) until she was eating shredded meat as a finger food.

As my PP stated she basically refuses purees now and wants to eat fingers foods, so we are just sticking with offering 3 meals a day and she really hasn't decreased her formula intake.

I guess my point is, I wouldn't worry about how many ounces of solid food he is getting at each sitting.  Babies are fickle and some days they eat more than others.  I would go ahead and offer up one more meal a day and try not to worry about the exact amount.  Most of his nutrition is still from BM at this point.  GL!

adamsbabble

I did basically what you are doing when we started solids and increased them around 9 months.  I remember that Charlotte dropped a feeding right around then because I discussed it with her pedi at her well check.  She felt that despite dropping a feeding she was still nursing enough and that's all that really matters.  Five times per day is still good and I wouldn't worry that he is going to wean before 12 months.  Remember that it's normal for him to drop a feeding or two as he gets older and he is going to get what he needs.  I wouldn't worry about this at all, it sounds like you are doing great!  Charlotte is still nursing like 6-8 times per day (that includes overnight) but I would only count 4 of these times as a true feeding.  Many of them are for thirst (since she isn't doing so well with the sippy cup) and some of it (esp. overnight) is just for comfort.  I think 4 times per day (good nursing sessions) is normal and appropriate for her age.  Ava was bottle fed from 6 months on and only needed 4 bottles per day from 6-12 months if that puts it into perspective at all.

As far as meat, I started offering it when I increased her solids with that 3rd meal around 9 months.  I never made meat purees.  I just prepared it the way that I do for us and started experimenting with more table foods at this stage.  Before adding anything to it I would just reserve some chicken breast for her from a recipe.  I'll often make it in the crockpot, fork shred it and then add whatever to it and I'd just give her some of the plain shredded chicken.  We also did other forms of protein like beans, cottage cheese and yogurt.

Traycee1242

Thanks ladies for the suggestions! I feel so much better!