solid feeding mommies please come to rescue!!!

diana563

tried to feed LO a little bit of oatmeal cereal and it went absolute disaster, he was trying to suck the spoon (obviously hungry) getting progressively frustrated, with mush flowing out of his mouth and losing most of it, sobbing turned into screaming... he is showing all of the physical signs of readiness, more than triples his body weight since birth, does prone on elbows and on hands, stares at me eating things and tries to grab them, etc he is only eating my breast milk so far

my questions are:

1. what was your 1st solid food? 

2. did it go smoothly? did he get a hang of a spoon feeding gradually?

3. when did u go from one meal of solids per day to 2 meals of solids?

4. what do you feed 1st: solid food or milk in the same meal?  

mjune3881

1. Sweet Potato, apples, pears, squash, peas, avacado, banana (in that order)

2. Yes.  DD LOVES solids.

3. I think we ate 1 meal for a month or so.  2 meals for the second month.  We are just now starting to do 2 meals and 1 snack a day.  Meals consist of purees.  Snack is a couple of slices of frozen pears in a mesh feeder or a small piece of a banana and a handful of puffs broken up into 1/4 pieces. 

4.  I give her milk first wait 45 min or so and then she eats solids.

backinpgh

You shouldn't feed them solids when they are obviously hungry. They will get too frustrated and, as you can see, it's not a good experience for them. Give formula/BM first, or give solids between regular feedings.

1) We fed rice cereal first

2) It went well, she liked it a lot and gobbled it up.

3) We went to two meals when she was around 6 months. Although honestly we aren't consistent in doing 2 meals a day yet, sometimes we still do one.

4) I feed her before solids if she's hungry. If she's not hungry yet, I give the solids first then nurse, particularly at night when I generally nurse her to sleep.

MrsNole

1. what was your 1st solid food? 
I did 2 tbsp of rice cereal (at 4 months) for one meal a day for a couple of weeks, then went to two meals a day, breakfast and dinner. At 5 months we added a veggie to dinner.  Peas, sweet potatoes, carrots were her favorites at first.

2. did it go smoothly? did he get a hang of a spoon feeding gradually?
Yes, DD loved eating and still does.  She got the hang of it so fast.

3. when did u go from one meal of solids per day to 2 meals of solids?
Close to 5 months.

4. what do you feed 1st: solid food or milk in the same meal?  
I feed bottle first always.  It's more important, so if she doesn't feel like eating her solids I don't force it.

VeilSdeGTO

diana563:

my questions are:

1. what was your 1st solid food? Pureed peas. We skipped cereal altogether and went straight to veggies at 5.5 months. We started with green veggies and then orange veggies. No fruits yet.

2. did it go smoothly? did he get a hang of a spoon feeding gradually? It went surprisingly well. She made a few WTF faces, but turns out she was just not a fan of peas.

3. when did u go from one meal of solids per day to 2 meals of solids? Just in the past week. DD will get a 2.5oz container in the morning at daycare and another 2.5 oz at home for dinner.

4. what do you feed 1st: solid food or milk in the same meal?  DD is bf'd at 7am, solids at 8:30, bm at 10am. She gets bm every three hours, with solids in between.

CurbsideProphet

We are doing BLW so we waited until DD was able to sit on her own. So she was almost six months before we started. Our first solid was zucchini. She played around with it and was interested in it. I doubt she actually ate any of it but she did get it in her mouth. We have only recently introduced a spoon and we let her hold it. 

We do not have a strict solid schedule. She typically gets solids twice a day at daycare. Some days she gets solids three times a day, some days it turns out to be only once.

  We try to give solids after a milk feeding.  You don't want LO to be to hungry or to fill up on solids. Their main nutrition should still be from milk at this point. 

WeeGee619

diana563:

tried to feed LO a little bit of oatmeal cereal and it went absolute disaster, he was trying to suck the spoon (obviously hungry) getting progressively frustrated, with mush flowing out of his mouth and losing most of it, sobbing turned into screaming... he is showing all of the physical signs of readiness, more than triples his body weight since birth, does prone on elbows and on hands, stares at me eating things and tries to grab them, etc he is only eating my breast milk so far

my questions are:

1. what was your 1st solid food? oatmeal

2. did it go smoothly? did he get a hang of a spoon feeding gradually?

DD sucked off the spoon at first (normal according to gerber!)  remember thats the only way they know how to eat at this point.  I would say it took about 10 days for her to get the hang of it

3. when did u go from one meal of solids per day to 2 meals of solids?

At 6 mos we went to 2 meals a day.

4. what do you feed 1st: solid food or milk in the same meal?  

bottle then an hour or 1.5 hrs later she gets her solids.

ns1

diana563:

tried to feed LO a little bit of oatmeal cereal and it went absolute disaster, he was trying to suck the spoon (obviously hungry) getting progressively frustrated, with mush flowing out of his mouth and losing most of it, sobbing turned into screaming... he is showing all of the physical signs of readiness, more than triples his body weight since birth, does prone on elbows and on hands, stares at me eating things and tries to grab them, etc he is only eating my breast milk so far

my questions are:

1. what was your 1st solid food? 

rice cereal (homemade) 

2. did it go smoothly? did he get a hang of a spoon feeding gradually?

It went horribly.  DD also showed what I thought were all the "ready" signs...but she sucked on the spoon for a while, then she made awful faces, turned her head away, and started crying and screaming!  We started her at about 5.5 months, and she has just now (like yesterday!) gotten the hang of it.  It's just like something clicked all of a sudden and she's cool with it!  She ate sweet potatoes the other day and has been eating bananas for breakfast!   

3. when did u go from one meal of solids per day to 2 meals of solids?

Just recently as well.  I was bummed she wasn't eating, so I tried dinner instead of breakfast and she ate more than normal, so I'm sticking with breakfast and dinner! 

4. what do you feed 1st: solid food or milk in the same meal?  

I started trying to do milk first, then solid.  That didn't work.  My pedi said I could switch it up and it really wouldn't matter.  He said whatever works for us is fine.  So, I've started doing solid then milk.  She still nurses for a while afterward, so I'm not concerned about her not getting enough milk! 

willbehis91710

1. what was your 1st solid food? Cereal, DD wasn't a fan. Waited till she was 5 months and went to oatmeal, she LOVED it!

2. did it go smoothly? did he get a hang of a spoon feeding gradually? It went pretty smooth, DD sucked the spoon like you mentioned at first I think because she was so used to a bottle. (It reminded me of bottle sucking)

3. when did u go from one meal of solids per day to 2 meals of solids? She actually started with two a day. Once in the morning, once at night. Once we started introducing fruits and veggies we added a third meal in between. (Lunch)

4. what do you feed 1st: solid food or milk in the same meal? In the begining we would give a bottle first to avoid the frustration of her being hungry. She would get a bottle first and then a half hour later oatmeal. Now she will eat solids first but we usually start with a morning bottle.

karinothing

CurbsideProphet:

We are doing BLW so we waited until DD was able to sit on her own. So she was almost six months before we started. Our first solid was zucchini. She played around with it and was interested in it. I doubt she actually ate any of it but she did get it in her mouth. We have only recently introduced a spoon and we let her hold it. 

We do not have a strict solid schedule. She typically gets solids twice a day at daycare. Some days she gets solids three times a day, some days it turns out to be only once.

  We try to give solids after a milk feeding.  You don't want LO to be to hungry or to fill up on solids. Their main nutrition should still be from milk at this point. 

We are doing BLW too. You will want to look for real signs of readiness for any solid feeding IMO

- losing the tongue reflex,  ability to sit unassisted, an ability/willingness to chew, and some say a pincer grasp but this doesn't develop until 10 months for some kids.

Anyhoo, we just started yesterday. I fed him about 30 minutes after I nursed him and then just laied some strips of mango down.  I am not sure he really understood what to do, but I handed him a piece and he sucked on it for a bit. I am not really concerned if he gets any solids in him as under one they are just for fun!

Anyhoo, I would probably just wait another week or so if he doesn't seem to be enjoying it yet. 

aliciaroset

bananas was our first food. 

we don't do spoon feeding. We've given her mashed food and a spoon, but generally don't put it in her mouth for her. We're doing baby led weaning (100%, started with a few mashes)

we haven't moved from 1 meal, dinner

I always offer breast milk first. 

BettyBookworm

1. what was your 1st solid food?
a.) Sweet Potatoes
b.) Peaches
We are going to move on to some green veggies and maybe chicken next!

2. did it go smoothly? There was some faces (so cute) in the beginning & she made a mess of it at first. 

Did he get a hang of a spoon feeding gradually?
She has yet to be able to maneuver the spoon herself, but she tries. She didn't like it at first, but now opens her little mouth and gets upset if you don't shovel fast enough lol. 

3. when did u go from one meal of solids per day to 2 meals of solids? We are still at one, lunch-time feeding

4. what do you feed 1st: solid food or milk in the same meal? 
We do solids first because after her bottle she won't want anything to do with it. We are sparing with the solids, and when she loses interest we move on to the bottle.

Fgsp

I believe sugar is the devil and wanted to stay well away from it. If you do some research you'll probably agree with me  So only introduced fruit at 8 months.  Started at 4/5 mo with small amount of oatmeal mixed with breast milk of formula. Keeping it runny. Then increase thickness.  Then avocado with cereal and milk. Then carrots, peas, yellow squash, green beans, broccoli, pasta, chicken,cod, salmon, ground chicken, pork. Now for dessert and sometimes breakfast, bananas, blueberries, sweet frozen treat has green melon, apple. And yes tried sweet potato also. 

Fgsp

Oh and he might have half the bottle and the rest of it after eating 3 meals a day, just gradually increased size and didn't mind if one was v small early on. But now 3 big ones a day!

AMcLaws

She eats 3 solids meals a day. Oatmeal for breakfast, fruit for lunch, veggies for dinner. Lunch & dinner are purees. Our doc has said no/minimal table foods right now (she loves mashed potatoes, but that's all we've tried) & absolutely no meats until 9 months

Butts31

1 & 2) we started with cereal first and it was a mess. Most of it was all over her bib and face I think it just takes time for them to learn to eat from a spoon. We started that at around 4 months and now we are seven months and she opens her mouth and grunts for more...he will learn, just takes time

3) Our pedi at our 6 month check up gave us this chart of how much fruit/veggie/grain she should be eating so we just go by that. We have 4tbls of cereal in am, fruit/veg for lunch, fruit and veg for dinner

4) I feed solids fright after she wakes up and then give bottle later whenever she starts to get hungry again. 

ronnizoom

Ditch the spoon and use your finger.  We are doing BLW and it is awesome, my LO is 8 months and had no purees yet just finger foods.  When I have tried with the spoon he hates it too, but I have done really well using my finger.  

Junebug060609

1. what was your 1st solid food?  Peas. 

2. did it go smoothly? did he get a hang of a spoon feeding gradually? It went pretty smoothly.  Took him a few days to really get the 'open mouth, let me put in spoon' thing...but he caught onto it tasting pretty ok right away. 

3. when did u go from one meal of solids per day to 2 meals of solids?  We're just making that transition now, about a month in.  We could've done it sooner, but I've been lazy (bf is so much easier and less messy).

4. what do you feed 1st: solid food or milk in the same meal? I make sure he's not going into a meal of solids famished.  The solids are kind of staggered in between to nursing sessions.

beautiflaw

1. We tried rice and oatmeal first. DD hated both after trying them a few times, so we went to carrots and then peas. LOVED those. So then we started mixing the cereal with her veggies and fruits and that was a huge hit. Eventually we got to where she will eat the cereal by itself. She just needed to get used to the taste. But she like oatmeal way better than rice. I highly suggest that for the first few times you take the high chair out on the porch or patio. Then put a little bit of food on his tray and let him play in it a little bit and get messy. He'll probably put his hands in his mouth and then taste the food, and eventually realize what it is. This way he can experience different tastes in his own way and it will be more fun for him.

2. No. She spit it out a bunch of times, grabbed the spoon and threw it, cried, it was terrible. But the next few times got easier and easier, and now she loves 'big girl food'. It helps if you make funny noises or faces when you do it. Babies love to mimic their parents, so when you want him to open his mouth, open your own mouth and say 'ahh'. When you want him to close his mouth, close your mouth and say, 'mmmm' like you are enjoying the food. I do that and now DD says 'ah' and 'mm' too and it took her no time at all to figure out when to open and close. He will get it, it just takes practice. Try to relax and stay calm because he will sense if you are tense, and then get tense too.

3. Almost immediately. Once she got used to the spoon I asked her pedi if it was okay to stop feeding on demand and begin a feeding schedule for her. She said it was fine and that's what we've been doing ever since. She was 6 months old at this time and we started solids at 4 months. We started giving her lunch and dinner solids, and mum mums or puffs as a snack. She is now getting 4 solid meals a day. Here is her feeding schedule:

Breakfast - Rice or Oatmeal cereal, fruit puree, 8 oz bottle.

Lunch - Veggie puree & 8 oz bottle.

Snack - Fruit puree, mum mum or puffs, 8 oz bottle.

Dinner - Veggie and meat puree 8 oz bottle. 

 4. Solid food first always. If I give her the bottle first it makes her too full to eat all her solid food, plus it makes her sleepy. So I give her the solids first when she's good and hungry. Once she's done eating I take her to her room for the bottle because she takes a nap right after each meal, and her bottle helps her go to sleep. 

Karen1998

We tried rice cereal first.  I initially tried it super runny, like they suggest that you do, and very quickly discovered that it was too runny for my kid.  I thickened it to the thickness of veggie purees and he ate it like crazy.  I actually fed him the thickened stuff at his first "meal."  I always mix cereals with BM, so they're actually a bit sweet thanks to the milk.  DS doesn't really care for rice cereal (can't say that I blame him), but loves oatmeal. 

I typically tried to feed him solids about an hour after his last milk feeding.  I also give him a bottle after any solids.  This is both to keep him hydrated and to help clear any remaining food from his mouth and esophagus.  We didn't go to two meals a day until a few weeks ago (so around 8m).  I tried going up earlier, but each time I did, he'd cut back on him BM consumption.  So, I waited until he stopped reducing his BM consumption and then added the second meal in permanently. 

mabst196

The first couple times I tried solids with DS he didn't get it.  I waited a few weeks.He just got it this past week.