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Cincinnati Babies
Talk to me about solid foods
Sorry this ended up long. Charlotte had her 4 month check up this morning and the pedi gave me some info on the solid food thing, but I think the more I review it the more questions I have.
So right now, she typically takes 5-6, 6 oz bottles every day. She gets kind of fussy around 8:00 and typically naps with us downstairs until we go to bed, ususally around 10:00. At that point we wake her up, take her upstairs, do the routine (pjs, bath, book, bottle) and then put her down. She'll sleep until about 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning, waking maybe once a night at about 4ish because her paci has fallen out.
The pedi wants us to A.) put her down earlier some time between 8:00 and 9:00 and B.) start introducing solid foods. (Which will supposedly help her sleep those longer durations without the 10:00 bottle). So now I have tons of questions.
1.) At what point in the day should I give her cereal if I'm supposed to do it twice a day?
2.) How much cereal will she/should she want?
3.) How does this affect her bottles? Will she want fewer? Will she no longer eat every three hours?
4.) Pedi said after a week or two we can introduce fruit as well. Where do you buy your cereal and foods? What brands do you like?
5.)If you're only feeding a couple spoonfulls at a time of fruit, does it stay okay in the jars? Do you heat it?
Wow I feel like I have a lot of dumb questions. Thank you SO much if you've gotten this far and actually respond!
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Re: Talk to me about solid foods
1.) At what point in the day should I give her cereal if I'm supposed to do it twice a day? We gave Jackson cereal in the afternoon at first, but then moved it up to morning when we added a dinner time solid meal
2.) How much cereal will she/should she want? At the beginning we followed the instructions on the Gerber box, like 1 TBSP in 2 oz of BM/Formula. It's really thin this way - we did that for like a week and slowly increased the amount, he now gets 4 TBSP in 2 oz of Formula. We mix in applesauce or mashed up banana to give it some flavor.
3.) How does this affect her bottles? Will she want fewer? Will she no longer eat every three hours? Jackson still takes 30 oz a day at 9 months. Their primary nutrition should still come from BM/Formula until a year. Jackson ate every 3 hours during the day until a few weeks ago when we dropped to 4 bottles a day (2-8 oz, 2-7oz) so now he's every 4 hours
4.) Pedi said after a week or two we can introduce fruit as well. Where do you buy your cereal and foods? What brands do you like? I make J's baby food but when we are out and about we just do the Gerber Organic. You can get it pretty much anywhere, Kroger, Target, Walmart.
5.)If you're only feeding a couple spoonfulls at a time of fruit, does it stay okay in the jars? Do you heat it? No, you need to take out what you plan to feed them and put in a separate bowl if they are not going to eat the entire container. Putting the spoon you use to feed back in the jar/tub will contaminate the food. We do not heat fruits.
Hope this helps
We did pretty much the same thing as Kristen but started at 6 months. I bought most of DD's food, but tried to buy the organic ones if I could. Krogers and Target seemed to have a good variety.
Eating solids didn't really reduce the amount of formula or help her sleep any better and we just went with the flow, started once a day with cereal and if she took it, great, if not then we tried again the next day. Like Kristen said, their main nutrition until 12 mo. is BM/formula anyway.
The pedi wants us to:
A.) put her down earlier some time between 8:00 and 9:00. FWIW, J (or W, for that matter) has never gone to bed earlier than 9pm, and he has always been an excellent sleeper. I'm not saying this to try and prove your pedi wrong (or anything like that). I guess I'm just trying to say that (IMO) there really are very few "right" and "wrong" ways to approach/consider sleep habits (training, etc.), since each child (and the schedule of each family) is so different.
B.) start introducing solid foods. (Which will supposedly help her sleep those longer durations without the 10:00 bottle). Meh. I don't think (again, just my opinion) that solids, in and of themselves, makes much difference in infant sleep habits. I just don't like it when pediatricians give such false hope (and/or make parents feel like they are doing something *wrong* if/when their LO doesn't sleep for longer stretches after introducing solids).
1.) At what point in the day should I give her cereal if I'm supposed to do it twice a day? Totally up to you. With both boys, we started with an evening *meal*, before bath/bed, mostly because the entire process is SO MESSY and it's easy to just throw them in the bath (and clothes in the wash) and then continue with the bedtime routine. At this point, W is still only gettting 1 solid meal/day. Once we add a second solid meal, we'll do morning and evening. It's just easiest on us, that way.
2.) How much cereal will she/should she want? Totally depends on the child. Neither J nor W were big fans of cereal. We usually make about a T (dry), before adding liquid, but we usually throw more than a bit away. It's mostly just for practice, anyway.
3.) How does this affect her bottles? Will she want fewer? Will she no longer eat every three hours? It shouldn't affect total BM/formula intake much (if at all). We always give solids right after nursing/bottle, never *forcing* him to take more than he wants at any given feeding.
4.) Pedi said after a week or two we can introduce fruit as well. Where do you buy your cereal and foods? What brands do you like? We prefer Earth's Best, but will really buy any organic foods available at Target, Kroger, Whole Foods. FWIW, we chose to intro veggies before fruit.
5.)If you're only feeding a couple spoonfulls at a time of fruit, does it stay okay in the jars? Do you heat it? Right now, we are getting two feedings from a stage 1 (veggie) jar. That said, we open the jar, put half in another bowl, and feed at room temperature. We put the other half (in the opened jar) in the refrigerator. At the next feeding, we usually zap the refrigerated leftovers for a few seconds, just to bring back to (around) room temp, before serving.
We actually skipped cereal. We started with avocado, then squash and sweet potatoes at 6 months. Our pediatrician said that starting with cereal was unnecessary. I made most of her food and found the wholesome baby food website and weelicious very helpful.
On another note, I have read several places and my pediatrician also stated that starting solids has little to no affect on sleep. Breast milk should be the only nutrition needed in the first year. Solids are just for practicing, not a substitute for breast milk or formula.