6.5 month old eating schedule

[flashy09]

I have no idea how much or often to feed my 6.5 month old. Do I feed her a breakfast, lunch and dinner? I am using Earth's Best stage 1 jars and their oatmeal. For the most part she gets a lunch of one jar of a fruit or vegetable and at night gets a jar mixed with oatmeal. Does two stage 1 jars and a few tablespoons of oatmeal sound right? I don't do breakfast because she is sleeping 7pm - 7 am lately and her morning nursing session is huge while my body adjusts! She spits up for an hour afterwards and her belly is huge so I don't feel she would really want or need breakfast.

Should I be sticking with just fruits and vegetables or adding the meat jars (they are so gross to me however…)?

I would love, love , love to do baby led weaning and let her dictate the amount. However, I can't deal with the gagging and choking. I know it's a reflex, I know she's ok, but I am literally a sweating mess the whole time she eats and my DD1 gets involved screaming that she is coughing and needs a Dr (she is still traumatized from DD2's RSV!). So I am doing purees for awhile longer. I can't remember when DD1 starting eating for real, but she was old enough she didn't make those sounds.

If anyone has a sample eating schedule I would love to see it!

[HannaAddict]

Baby food at that age is really just for practice, she should still be nursing or having formula first and then offer foods at times you are eating (b, l, d). But it shouldn't be making upper of her calories.

[Katigre]

At that age I'd offer food once a day but no more. By 9 months I'd offer twice a day and by twelve months three times a day.

[specialp]

At that age I fed once a day at dinner and only did vegetables. I normally did 2 vegetables types, but I think it would have been about the amount of a single jar. I added meat at 10-12 months, but used shredded crockpot chicken - chopped finely at first and added in with vegetable puree. We skipped cereal.

[DualvansMommy]

DS2 is almost 8 months now and I'm only just adding vegetables to his dinner component. He gets puréed fruits for lunch as he's getting main calories from formula at this point.

When he's around 9 months, I'll start feeding him 2 big meals. I'm skipping cereal this time with him, as it wasn't much of a hit with DS1.

[Philly Mom]

So DD2 was a bit different because by that age she was on augmentin so were giving her twice daily plain Greek yogurt. DH also puréed veg and fruit for her and she would have some at two meals. I also would put Cheerios down for practice. DD2 loves Greek yogurt so she still eats it once a day. By 8 months she was eating three meals though some were bigger than others. I really spent the time between 6 and 8 months letting her practice with food with just some puréed fruit and veg so she could be introduced to different tastes.

Eta: I would not give that puréed meat. It is mostly filler anyway. Full fat yogurt has protein, hummus, sausage, ground meat are all better.


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[BunnyBee]

Is she gagging because she's not ready? Mine rarely choked except for DD1 who wanted to put all of the food in her mouth at once with both hands. We are still dealing with that 10+ years later. ;) DS wasn't interested in solids at all until a little over 9 mos.

I agree with Katigre. It's just practice. Once a day after nursing or a bottle.

[flashy09]

Thanks everyone. I don't know why she is gagging as she has all the other signs of being ready. She loves the purees, but any kind of thicker consistency (I tried some mashed up beans and the same thing) she gags. I will just stick to once a day for now.

[georgiegirl]

If she's gagging and choking, then I'd say she wasn't ready. My first wasn't interested in solids until well after a year (crazy), but my two boys really started getting into solids at 8 months. I've done baby lead solids with all three to some degree, but especially with the third. I do spoon feed him yogurt and guacamole, but he's never had a purée...ever. I actually started him at 7 months with crackers. (He didn't like food that could stick to his hands.). By 8-9 months, we just gave him little bits of whatever we were eating.

I'm guessing she will be better with thicker textures as in another month or two. From what I've heard, baby led weaning teaches babies how to chew first...instead of offering purees where baby just learns to blindly swallow whatever is spoon fed into their mouths. Ds2 was eating crackers at 7 months...most of the time he just chewed them up and spit them out, but it was good practice.

Try not to worry. Right now breastmilk (or formula) is all she really needs.

[mikala]

I agree with the others to just take it slowly. I did casual baby led table foods with my second and really liked the way it turned out. It was really easy and he was exposed to a large variety of flavors. He sat with us at the table whenever he was awake for family meals and I put a variety of food on his tray. I made a lot of soups and served him the cooked veggies and meat from them. If the pieces were too hard I sometimes microwaved them for a bit longer to soften. He picked at it and ate whatever made it to his mouth. He also loved pear, avocado or banana spears dipped in cheerio crumbs or baby cereal to help him hold on. Scrambled eggs were also great. I rarely spoon fed him anything beyond yogurt, mostly just to give him tastes if he was really frustrated because he couldn't get something to his mouth. His chewing ability seemed to increase at the same rate as his hand eye coordination so we had minimal gagging.

[flashy09]

I put a bunch of finger type foods on her high chair and she didn't do much hand to mouth eating. So I assume that's why she gags on any texture, she isn't ready. But that does that mean she is not ready for purees or oatmeal even though she swallows it fine? Like her gut isn't closed (I don't really know what I am talking about!) or something if she doesn't have that instinct yet? She has eaten mum mums on her own and puts all her toys in her mouth.

Maybe she just wasn't hungry as she threw up everywhere just before bed. Now I don't know if that's from a new food (I was trying to be more adventurous and gave her some mashed up black beans from my burrito, from Amy's and no spices/additives) or from her 6 month old shots yesterday or what.

[HannaAddict]

She's only six months, if it was me I would slow way down on the foods and stick with cereal or mashed
Avacados or banana or other bland foods and not beans. Really take it slow, she will get there and she really just needs breast milk for nutrition. I wasn't in a rush and have three great eaters who all love/prefer veggies and fruits and are adventurous eaters. She's still very little for all the choices and sounds like just isn't ready.

[sste]

I agree about no need if it is not working for you. Just to give you another perspective with middle DD I did exclusively BF for fifteen months! As in no solids! My MIL was convinced she would wither but DD was a very chubby, robust toddler. I did it to keep my supply up, my weight down and I find it a huge PITA to feed solids. Huge! I am going to do the same with baby DD.

I have to confess I don't totally get "baby led" weaning/feeding. The parent makes the decisions, no? Most babies will over time gravitate to what they are exposed to as would anyone, I don't see that as leading but just an exposure effect. Maybe I don't understand the baby led philosophy fully . . .