Anxiety about feeding solids

charmcitygirl · September 2009

I know I'm not behind right now since we're not really feeding Jacob solids yet. We tried to give him rice cereal at 5 months and he just pushed it out or let it pool in his mouth. So, I decided to give it a couple of weeks and this past week we were on vacation. So, I'm going to try again tomorrow morning and I guess after his 6 month appt next week we'll start veggies and then fruit.

I am really having a hard time with this. He's eating his bottles better, but not great. And he's still not a great daytime sleeper. So, I guess I just feel like we're going to start adding solids and I'm going to be feeding him or trying to get him to go down for a nap all day long! He eats around 7, 10, 1, 4, and 7. I would like to get him down to 4 feedings, but the pedi GI said to keep the bottles smaller amounts more frequently.

So, do I feed him at the same time as his bottles (after the bottle)? I feel like I have to otherwise he'll be eating all. day. long. I'm going to start with 1 feeding a day, building to 2 and then 3. So, I was thinking about breakfast (7am bottle) and then breakfast and dinner (4pm bottle) and then all three (7, 1, and 4 bottle). Does that make sense?

kittylove · September 2009

We do solids after a bottle/breast because at 6 months he should still be getting just about all his nutrition from formula. As for starting late we introduced at 5m2w only to stop and reintroduce at 6m1w and go really really slow. DS however is now eating just as much as his friends his age. Try not to stress to much solids should be fun.

rockvillebride · September 2009

Your schedule sounds great! You can start off with just the breakfast feeding for quite awhile and then slowly add in more. I started off with giving DS his morning bottle around 6:30 and then he gets his "breakfast" when he gets to school and eats that around 8am. I know school gives him breakfast and lunch, but on the weekends here, we just do breakfast and dinner still. He's fine with that. Like your DS, in the evening, mine gets a bottle around 4pm, then we do his dinner at 6pm, and then we do his bedtime bottle around 7:30pm. They actually do get much faster eating the purees so after awhile that won't take you too long unless the poor guy has problems with solids, too. (As soon as DS gets more interested in finger foods, I'll make sure he gets lunch on the weekends, too.) Good luck!

LisaandBryan · September 2009

I started fruits and veggies two weeks ago after we got home from vacations too! So far, its going good and its much eaiser than bottle feeding. I might even call if fun. When my STTN , the also have 5 bottles a day and I am trying to get that down to 4 with 2 solids a day. Some days it works some days it doesnt.

I don't really have a schedule but htey have a bottle when they wake up, then about an hour after that I feed them a fruit mixed with cereal. Then they nap, have a bottle when they wake up from their nap (mid morning). Another bottle in the afternoon like 3ish. Then I do their 2nd solids around dinnertime, like 5 ish and then the bedtime bottle at like 700-730. So far it is working out pretyt good.

I don't plan on moving to 3 meals a day for a couple more months. Too much work. And fwiw my boys both have pretty bad reflux and I have noticed it getting a little better since we really started solids. And they too used to push their cereal out of their mouth but they have really gotten got at it the last couple of weeks. Good luck!

tnkrbl21 · September 2009

When the boys started their cereal they told us 2x's a day and it was just WAY too much work for us and they just didnt seem to be getting it. So we started with just 1 time a day until they started to get it. The pedi also told us to start out making the cereal thinner, but that was a big fat failure. They actually liked it a little thicker so that may be something that you want to try.

Here's our schedule -

6 am ish - bottle

9am ish cereal and fruit

11-12 ish bottle (long nap)

3-4 ish cereal and veggie

7-8 ish bottle and then bed

I know you've struggled with the feeding, but I really feel like the boys got better at the cereal bc I kept doing it everyday. Oh and also, when we started we always offered a bottle right after their cereal but soon found that they didnt want a bottle right away - but I guess that was more recently bc they were actually eating their cereal.

Good luck with everything

sweetpea18 · September 2009

When we started cereal, we fed it to her once a day. We gave it to her right before we gave her a bottle. We did that for a week or so, and then started giving her cereal 2x/day. We haven't started veggies yet and, honestly, I'm not in a big hurry to.

DD is a terrible daytime sleeper and has reflux. I noticed that she's spitting up less and she's sleeping a little better during the day. I think the cereal is calming her belly down a little, so she's sleeping better.

LIAngel · September 2009

I tried cereal around 4 months and Nicholas was just not having it. So I decided to start with veggies instead at 5 months. I will revisit the cereal at 6 months and mix it in with some fruit. At that point I hope to go up to 2 meals a day- but no rush. Anyway here is my schedule:

Bottle depending in his wake time of either 7 or 7:30 at 7, 10, 1, 4, 7 or 7:30, 10:30, 1:30. 4:30, 7:30

He gets his veggies at 6.

laura&dan05 · September 2009

You're not behind at all! I just started on Thursday with Hannah. I tried the whole rice cereal thing but it didn't go well. She didn't seem to like it and one day about an hour after giving it to her she threw up twice. After that horrible experience I stopped giving it to her all together. Hannah eats pretty often but it might be because I'm bfing. Hannah nurses 6 - 7 times a day. I don't replace a nursing session with solids but I give it to her in between. So it's been around 2:00 pm that I've had time to give her baby food. We started with 1/4 of the jar the first two days and today she ate 1/2 a jar. I'm going to continue with 1/2 a jar of food until she gives me signals that she wants more. We started with sweet potatoes and I haven't decided what to introduce next but I have a variety of fruit and veggies. I have her 6 month pedi appointment on Tuesday and so I'm going to ask the dr. what we should do next.