what are you feeding at 6 mos.?

[phirey]

I'm going to sound like a complete idiot, but what should dd be eating at 6 months, and how often? She's been through the cereals and many of the veggies; I've only given bananas and prunes for fruits. So far, I've been only feeing solids at the evening meal. When do I start two or three meals a day? And how many servings of these veggies do I give at each "meal." When do I start combining?

And once you've started three meals at day, when do you bf? I'd love to see a timeline of your typical day...

FWIW, I'm having huge troubles with low milk supply. (Pumping maybe 3 oz. at a time.) Reglan and Fenugreek aren't helping much. between that and the solids, I'm just all in a tizzy about feeding dd. :-(
Thanks for your help.

Peggy
Mommy to Margot
11.15.02

[lisams]

I know EXACTLY how you feel since we just started solids on my 6 month old. I highly suggest the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron as was suggested to me from a few ladies on this board. It gives appropriate foods, suggested serving sizes and sample feeding schedules for solid food for each month.

Since we just started I really don't have experience to give you but this book is really helping me out.

Good Luck!
Lisa

[brubeck]

Wow! When my daughter was 6 months she had only had rice cereal and we were just starting the jarred stuff. My son will be 5 months on Tuesday and to celebrate I'm breaking out the cereal again. You are WAY ahead of the game!

Perhaps you could BF after each meal? It won't be a long feed (since her tummy should already be full) but frequent feeds might help keep your supply up (especially if you also BF between meals).

[FloridaMomtoBe]

We started introducing solids at around 5 months, but didn't really know what to do in terms of quantity either. We began with once a day, one thing per day, at first cereal, then various veggies and fruits, but typically about one 4 oz jar. Then, the day before we went for our 6 month pediatrician visit, I read an article that mentioned someone feeding around 12 oz per day at not much more than 6 months. Yikes, it seemed like so much!

So we asked our ped. the next day. He said not to worry because Josh was clearly healthy and growing fine. But, he did feel that we could increase his solid intake - he said if we offered it, Josh would take it. Lo and behold, he sure did. So, over the course of the following week, we built up to feeding him solids 2-3 times per day - still the same things...but perhaps cereal the first time, veggies the second, and fruit the third.

At around 7 months, we started letting him try other things too...at first mainly cheerios, but more recently cheese, plain yogurt (sometimes mixed with fruit), mixed veggies, raisins (slightly mushed), cantelope. His milk intake has definitely decreased but he's still getting quite a bit (I would guess now at 8 mos it's about 24 oz.)

As of now (8 months), he nurses in the morning and at bedtime, gets two EBM bottles during the day, and eats 2 meals of solids. The first is around lunchtime and is usually cereal (rice/oatmeal/barley) plus 1-2 other things with more consistency (mixed veggies or small pieces of fruit or cheerios/rice cake), then at dinner time, usually a jar of veggies or fruit or meat/veggie mix, plus a couple of other things which definitely varies (tonight it was yogurt with applesauce, a piece of cheese, and some cheerios). I find that at dinnertime he is really unhappy if there is not something he can feed himself. If we are out for dinner, I generally try to let him have tastes of what I can as well.

Hope that helps...Oh and by the way, when I've gone through spurts of lower milk supply, I ate a lot of oatmeal which seemed to help after 2-3 days of it.

[Momof3Labs]

Peggy,

At 6 months we hadn't even started solids! Now at 7.5 months, Colin has had rice cereal (didn't go over well), oatmeal (his favorite), sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, bananas, apples, pears and prunes. He has at most one solid meal a day, usually a few ounces of a jarred fruit or veggie, mixed with enough oatmeal to make a pretty thick paste.

Keep in mind that 90%+ of Margot's caloric intake in her first year should be from breastmilk and/or formula, so you don't have to worry too much about drastically increasing her solid intake.

Also keep in mind that pumping is no indication of supply. As long as she is nursing often enough and is satisfied and gaining weight, then your supply is probably fine!

Another good book to look into is Ellyn Satter's Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense. It isn't a recipe book or menu planner, but is more of a way to approach feeding your baby (from infancy through preschool age).

Really - it sounds like you are doing just fine!!

[mam615]

Hi Peggy,
Dorothy just turned 7 months and has been eating solids for about 6 weeks. I still BF her a lot, in fact I wasn't sure the amount of BF had gone down at all until I got my period last week -- what a surprise!

At 5 1/2 months, we started on just rice mixed with breastmilk in the morning. I tried bananas and applesauce, but she didn't like either of those. Finally, she was happy with pears. So now she has 1-2 tablespoons of rice, mixed with a little water, and about 1 oz of pears every morning.

At about 6 months, I introduced dinner. She loved sweet potatoes and carrots, hated peas. A couple weeks ago, we started lunch. Since she seemed hungry and willing to eat at all 3 meals, I figured I should keep it up. We've now added avocado and mashed potatoes to her menu. All her food is pureed and strained. I really like the Ruth Yaron book too, and I make everything myself except the pears and rice. We add 2 new foods per week. Next week it's fresh pears and green beans.

Here's a "typical" day for my 7-month-old (if there is such a thing):

7AM -- wake up, nurse
8AM -- breakfast: 1-2 tablespoons rice & water, 1 oz pears (1/2 small jar), 1 ml tri-vitamin drops w/ fluoride
9:30AM -- nurse before morning nap
12:30PM -- nurse
1PM -- lunch: 1-2 tablespoons avocado, 1-2 tablespoons sweet potato
2:30PM -- nurse before afternoon nap
5:30PM -- nurse
6:30PM -- dinner: 2-3 tablespoons carrots & mashed potatoes
7:30PM -- nurse before bed
11:30PM -- nurse
4AM or so -- nurse

Not much time left for anything else!