How much should I expect him to be eating at first (solids)?
eyenigh
member
At our 4 month appointment, the pedi suggested that we could start rice cereal. I waited a week and tried for the first time and A was nowhere near ready. I shelved it and tried again 2 weeks later. Still not ready but no tears this time. I waited another week and tried a vegetable, to see if maybe he just really hated the cereal but he still wasn't too into it. No big deal, so I decided to try again this week since it had been almost 2 weeks again.
I knew he had no allergies with the cereal so I mixed a little banana in with it and he was as interested as I've seen him. He was actually opening his mouth for more and chomping down clumsily on the spoon. So, it looks like he's interested and ready now. After his bottle, I mixed up a tablespoon of rice cereal with about a teaspoon of banana. He's eaten about half of that portion each time for the last few days.
Does that seem like a reasonable portion size for him to be eating as he's first figuring stuff out? I assume he'll begin eating more as he gets more comfortable with eating from the spoon and I know we definitely aren't worried about him actually getting calories and nutrition from this food at this point. I call it his eating training. 
I'm not worried about it or anything but I've seen other people listing out the solids that their babies eat for the day and I'm just like "Wow! I was happy with the tiny amount of cereal and bananas he was taking!" I didn't realize babies at this age had it in them to down a whole jar of baby food as I've seen a couple of people post!
So did your babies start out slow in portion sizes and gain momentum? How soon was there a noticeable increase?
Re: How much should I expect him to be eating at first (solids)?
DD definitely started out slow and the doctor recommended to start with only a tablespoon of cereal at first, then gradually work up as she seems hungrier.
She has been on solids since 4.5 months and she still isn't eating too much. She eats about 3 tablespoons of cereal a day, and maybe 3-4 oz of veggies a day. I am thinking about adding in a third meal soon, because right now she eats twice a day.
Yeah, I'm definitely not pushing. When he's done, he's done. He's a big healthy baby so whatever he's doing already is working for him. Like I said, I know nutrition is not the goal of this now. As far as I'm concerned, solids are more of an activity at this point.