Help me feed my kid

[Bernadine]

I don't know why I'm having so much trouble with this, and I feel like I'm finding a ton of conflicting resources.

Dd is 7 months old.  Between nursing and bottles (pumped milk), she's getting BM about 6 times a day now.  She also gets two pouches of pureed food.  The first is split between morning and mid-day, then a full pouch around dinner time.  She LOVES food.  She would eat more if we fed it to her.

So, I guess I have two questions.

1- is this amount of solid food good?  Should I give her more if she'll eat it?  Maybe add some cereal for breakfast?

2- how do I do solid foods?  I've given her bites here and there, but would like to give her more.  I'm struggling with what size pieces she should be getting.  And is there anything besides honey that she shouldn't be eating now?

ETA- thought of another.  How will I know when I should be increasing the amount of solids, and decreasing milk?

[liverandonions]

Milk will be her priority until she's 1, so as long as she keeps up a similar milk intake you can keep or increase the solids as you see fit. As she starts crawling/walking she'll start needing more.

We never did true baby food (we do pouches as convenience and just extra stuff) but did solids from the get go. You can try some cheese, scrambled eggs, toast with avocado, ground turkey (we did spaghetti and meatballs etc.)

Also, you should try introducing small amounts of peanut butter if there is no history of peanut allergies in your families. That is the new recommendation-To start pb earlier as a way of avoiding pb allergies. Honey is the only one I know of that's an issue before 1 besides cow's milk (although she can have whole milk yogurt)

ETA: we kept everything about pea sized

[liverandonions]

Thought of another one-beans are good. We would smash them down and if the skin would come off great because it just made it easier.

[liverandonions]

Another thing (LOL) R didn't get teeth until 10months and he had no issue eating. We kept it softer stuff, and he did fine. Rotisserie chicken was his favorite.

[Bernadine]

Jan 26, 2017 10:53:12 GMT -5 liverandonions said:

Milk will be her priority until she's 1, so as long as she keeps up a similar milk intake you can keep or increase the solids as you see fit. As she starts crawling/walking she'll start needing more.

We never did true baby food (we do pouches as convenience and just extra stuff) but did solids from the get go. You can try some cheese, scrambled eggs, toast with avocado, ground turkey (we did spaghetti and meatballs etc.)

Also, you should try introducing small amounts of peanut butter if there is no history of peanut allergies in your families. That is the new recommendation-To start pb earlier as a way of avoiding pb allergies. Honey is the only one I know of that's an issue before 1 besides cow's milk (although she can have whole milk yogurt)

ETA: we kept everything about pea sized

It seems like she's cutting out a mid-day nursing session/bottle. So should I cut back on the food?

[Bernadine]

Jan 26, 2017 10:57:38 GMT -5 liverandonions said:

Another thing (LOL) R didn't get teeth until 10months and he had no issue eating. We kept it softer stuff, and he did fine. Rotisserie chicken was his favorite.

My h is FREAKING OUT over giving her solids.  She has two teeth, but he wants to give her purees until she's like 5. Lol.

[ssmjlm]

1. That sounds about right. E was doing a pouch at lunch at daycare and then BLW for dinner.
2. If her pincher grasp isn't strong yet, I would do larger chunks she can hold and eat. Like a hunk of cheese or apple slice. We also would give 1/2 a bagel for her to gnaw on. Smaller pieces like pea sized for cut up things. Frozen peas were good for her teething.
The only thing the pedi said no to was honey before one. We did try any new foods at home with us just in case.
3. Around 10m is when solids went up and milk finally started decreasing (seriously she was an every 2 hour eater during the day FOREVER). That's also when we went to 3 meals a day for her plus BM.

[usm]

My kid's liked to feed themselves and did not like babyfood. I gave bigger things they had to bite off. I'd give a half a piece of toast with something on it, so they could hold it and bite off. They ate what I ate or modified versions. Soft pasta was easy and a favorite.

[usm]

Jan 26, 2017 10:58:38 GMT -5 Bernadine said:

Jan 26, 2017 10:57:38 GMT -5 liverandonions said:

Another thing (LOL) R didn't get teeth until 10months and he had no issue eating. We kept it softer stuff, and he did fine. Rotisserie chicken was his favorite.

My h is FREAKING OUT over giving her solids.  She has two teeth, but he wants to give her purees until she's like 5. Lol.

My oldest had 4 teeth on his first birthday and I can't think of a food he didn't eat, including thinly cut steak.

[Bernadine]

Jan 26, 2017 11:00:27 GMT -5 usm said:

My kid's liked to feed themselves and did not like babyfood. I gave bigger things they had to bite off. I'd give a half a piece of toast with something on it, so they could hold it and bite off. They ate what I ate or modified versions. Soft pasta was easy and a favorite.

And they didn't just shove the whole piece of toast in their mouth?

[macmars45]

I still struggle with my almost 9 month old DS and solids/formula mix. Starting at 8 months I started giving DS a breakfast an hour after his first bottle. It's usually egg/fruit/yogurt (some combo of those). And then at 5/5:30pm I give him fruit/veggie/protein (some combo of those). And a sippy of water each time. He also eats 28oz of formula a day. H and I were discussing dropping the formula to 26oz tomorrow (when he turns 9 months).

We just saw his pedi for his 9 month appt and she mentioned that around 12 months he should be going towards 16oz of WCM/day. That seems like a huge transition from all the formula he's currently getting and it seems really daunting.

[smock]

She can definitely eat more if she wants! If you're worried about her milk intake, just offer milk before solids.

One of my favorite early solids is Cheerios. My 9 mo old loves them, and they're good practice for pincher grip. As for safety, pea sized, or no thicker than your pinky, should be fine. And yes, I've held my pinky up to pieces of food before.

My 9 mo old doesn't have teeth, but she's switched almost entirely from purees to finger food. I steam sweet potato spears, broccoli, frozen peas, green beans, carrots, etc., and just give her cheese, eggs, Cheerios, tofu, beans, strips of tortilla, avocado, cucumber spears, and lots more. She really likes a banana mum mum with a little smear of peanut butter. Honey is really the only one to avoid before 1. And I just let my kid eat until she stops!

[usm]

Jan 26, 2017 11:02:05 GMT -5 Bernadine said:

Jan 26, 2017 11:00:27 GMT -5 usm said:

My kid's liked to feed themselves and did not like babyfood. I gave bigger things they had to bite off. I'd give a half a piece of toast with something on it, so they could hold it and bite off. They ate what I ate or modified versions. Soft pasta was easy and a favorite.

And they didn't just shove the whole piece of toast in their mouth?

No, I made it big enough that it wouldn't fit. When I put a few small pieces on their tray they would gather them and store them in their cheeks (or throat).

DS2 was worse and I'd have to take away the food after a bite until he swallowed but he was in feeding therapy for other issues related to swallowing.

[macmars45]

Jan 26, 2017 10:58:38 GMT -5 Bernadine said:

Jan 26, 2017 10:57:38 GMT -5 liverandonions said:

Another thing (LOL) R didn't get teeth until 10months and he had no issue eating. We kept it softer stuff, and he did fine. Rotisserie chicken was his favorite.

My h is FREAKING OUT over giving her solids.  She has two teeth, but he wants to give her purees until she's like 5. Lol.

My H freaks about solids too. I'm like hey, I feed him solids 2x/day M-F. Sometimes you do it on the weekends, but usually I do. Who do you think knows more about how much/the size of food DS can eat? And DS has two teeth. We kind of went at it last weekend and H agreed to take over weekend solid food feedings.

[isabel]

1- is this amount of solid food good? Should I give her more if she'll eat it? Maybe add some cereal for breakfast? We always breastfed first and then offered food. He would still eat a fair amount of food, even after a solid breastfeeding. I'd let her eat as much as she likes after being breastfed. You can add cereal if you want, but I don't think it's at all necessary.


2- how do I do solid foods? I've given her bites here and there, but would like to give her more. I'm struggling with what size pieces she should be getting. And is there anything besides honey that she shouldn't be eating now? If you want to focus on giving her more solid foods, I would try thinks like bananas sliced into sticks that she can hold, avocado slices, Larger pieces of chicken that she can hold, fish, mashed beans, hummus, soft scrambled eggs, soft fruits, like small pieces of berries, cheerios, baby crackers, toast, etc. The recommendation I've heard most recently is to give peanut butter as early as possible and somewhat often, so you might want to think about that. I'd ask your pedi first, obviously. Basically, anything that she can mash with her gums is probably fine. Avoid anything cut into coins or circles and aim for pieces the size of your pinky nail if you're cutting into pieces instead of giving pieces large enough for her to hold.


ETA- thought of another. How will I know when I should be increasing the amount of solids, and decreasing milk? Milk should be her primary source of nutrition until she is a year. At a year, your pedi will likely tell you that you can switch to whole cow's milk. That's personal preference and depends on whether or not you are still breastfeeding. DS was exclusively on formula at that point, so we just started adding milk to his formula and slowly increased the ratio until he was only drinking cow's milk. During that same time, we started really focusing on giving him full meals with a protein source, veggie, and fruit. Right around a year, everything sort of fell into place and he made a lot of big transitions in how he was eating.

Bottom line, try not to stress too much about this. Make sure she's getting plenty of breastmilk or formula. Remember that food is just for fun before one. And when she turns one, you can really focus on transitioning her sources of nutrition to whole foods instead of breastmilk/formula.

[isabel]

Jan 26, 2017 10:58:38 GMT -5 Bernadine said:

Jan 26, 2017 10:57:38 GMT -5 liverandonions said:

Another thing (LOL) R didn't get teeth until 10months and he had no issue eating. We kept it softer stuff, and he did fine. Rotisserie chicken was his favorite.

My h is FREAKING OUT over giving her solids.  She has two teeth, but he wants to give her purees until she's like 5. Lol.

Watch a couple YouTube videos on doing the finger sweep. DS has never choked (::knocks on wood:, but he did gag somewhat often when introducing solids. Usually he figured it out on his own, but sometimes I'd jump in and scoop whatever it was out of his mouth. Just keep a close eye on her when she's eating. I know it's stressful, but she'll figure it out pretty quickly.

[liverandonions]

Jan 26, 2017 11:02:05 GMT -5 Bernadine said:

Jan 26, 2017 11:00:27 GMT -5 usm said:

My kid's liked to feed themselves and did not like babyfood. I gave bigger things they had to bite off. I'd give a half a piece of toast with something on it, so they could hold it and bite off. They ate what I ate or modified versions. Soft pasta was easy and a favorite.

And they didn't just shove the whole piece of toast in their mouth?

Mine did, but he's a pig. My daughter didn't. She was about 7-8 months in these pics-waffles and grilled cheese (no butter, just toasted in the toaster oven with bread and cheese

[smock]

She's adorable, liverandonions ! My 2.5 yr old still makes me cut up her waffles. 

[liverandonions]

Jan 26, 2017 11:16:08 GMT -5 smock said:

She's adorable, liverandonions ! My 2.5 yr old still makes me cut up her waffles. 

Thanks! My Son eats a waffle everyday and we get the cinnamon toast ones which are like 4 pieces of "toast" on one waffle-We used to break them up and then one day he was PISSED that we did it and now he wants the full waffle. Kids are bizarre LOL.

[thebreakfastclub]

My son was not in the "food before one is fun" camp - by 12m, he was 95% table food & 1 4oz bottle at breakfast.

Some easy early things that he liked were cheese shreds out of the bag, a ritz cracker with cream cheese on it, blueberries, deli ham, cottage cheese, pancakes, whole milk yogurt with applesauce mixed in.  

He is almost 4 and still hates eggs, but that would have been a nice option too.   

I'll never forget when my son was 10 months old, and we were still slicing bananas up, only to learn he could pick up a whole one and eat bites of it at daycare.  They can do so much more than you think they will.

[emoflamingo]

Two of my 3 kids did not like eating mushy food, so we did a more BLW approach. We tore up chicken, ground beef/turkey/pork, small tiny pieces of steak, veggies cut up into small pieces. Once their pincher grasp is good, they can do the small pieces. Also, they're kind of crap, but we practiced with the puffs from the baby aisle to get the grasp together. It's no coincidence that the two who didn't like eating mushy food are also super independent and want to do it themselves all the time which is endearing and annoying at the same time, but letting them eat on their own was what they needed.

[statgirl]

My first quickly switched to solids at 6-7 months at daycare. Boy didn't want a bottle--he wanted solids. He still nursed at home until 2. He did lose some weight when he did his big switch because breast milk is more calories than peas, so we just made sure to feed him more "dense" foods in addition to veggies (which we called baby diet food). He took 3 jars/pouches of food at lunch by 8 months and similar quantities for other meals. We went on vacation when he was 10 months and I had to go shopping mid-way through because he ate twice as much food as I predicted (over 10 jars a day between all his meals).

My second was a slower eater--he loved his food but he had to feed himself. He switched to "adult" food and pouches quickly--there was no spoon feeding allowed. I sent two pouches a day until around 10 months when he took it upon himself to corner a daycare worker who was eating in the baby room (it was her break), climb up in their lap, and fed himself her lunch. At that point, I just sent leftovers from dinner each day. He is 20 months now and is still an enigma with food--he is also still nursing but isn't as in to it as his older brother was.

Both of them are 95%+ for height and 50-75% for weight (The ped looked at me when I saw the little one's percentiles at the last visit--99%+ for height, 75% for weight with a HUGE belly and said "I know his weight looks low but he really is healthy." I wasn't worried about it--I was just in awe that he should weigh more since he has a belly that rivaled mine when I was pregnant with him).

So, I guess what I am saying is, if you think she wants more, feed her more. If she drops a bottle, it will be okay. Even my second dropped a bottle early, but we bumped up the others in size to compensate. He was just more interested in playing and not stopping.

[sparkythelawyer]

Nurse before solids, but then by all means give her the solids :-) At around that age, we would nurse, then do oat or rice cereal with a fruit puree of some type and some bottled bm mixed in for breakfast, soft foods like avocado (she LOVED avocado at that age), scrambled eggs, cheese, yogurt, mashed up banana, or half(ish) a jar of the pureed baby foods (I steamed/pureed my own for like three seconds. Then stopped that crazyness). We really liked the beech-nut jars, as they had lots of neat veggie combinations, and I would try them first and they actually tasted pretty good! We never did the "baby led weaning" thing, as I was really afraid of choking. As she got more teeth, we gave her some firmer substances.

BM is the key, nutrition wise, until 1, but their eating habits will change as they get closer to 1 anyway, so I'm not surprised she is not as interested in that mid morning session.

OH!  And do not, under any circumstances, buy jar food with meat in it.  That stuff smells like thrown up cat food and my kid was all "Oh hell no, Mommy" the one time I tried to offer it. 

[FastHands]

Jan 26, 2017 11:02:05 GMT -5 Bernadine said:

Jan 26, 2017 11:00:27 GMT -5 usm said:

My kid's liked to feed themselves and did not like babyfood. I gave bigger things they had to bite off. I'd give a half a piece of toast with something on it, so they could hold it and bite off. They ate what I ate or modified versions. Soft pasta was easy and a favorite.

And they didn't just shove the whole piece of toast in their mouth?

It depends on the kid. I got this advice too, but it did not work for ds. He has no self control, so he'd take bites that were way too big, gag, panic, and spit it out. Lol. He wasn't in danger, but it wasted a lot of food. So I cut his stuff up until he got older and could understand/learn appropriate bites. He's 2.5 and will still occasionally does the gaint bite/gag/spit out routine. Lol

[redheadk]

We did baby led weaning bc we are lazy. Generally, I stuck to things I could mash with my finger (so ripe pears were a go, apples were a no bc they are a choking hazard). I cut bigger things into pinky finger sized pieces. I did a lot of steaming in the microwave. Broccoli (florets), peas, most fruits were all big hits. For bananas, cut in half then push your finger down the center. It will split into three sections. Roll anything she can't get a grip on in crushed plain cheerios or puffs. Avocado was a hit but messy. Rotisserie chicken and steak were big hits. They don't typically eat the steak af that age, they just gnaw on it and suck it dry (so gross, lol).

For pb, we did a very light schmear on toast bc it's a choking hazard if it's too thick.

If he's really nervous, let her practice with puffs. Those things just disintegrate so very safe.

[cleo29]

Jan 26, 2017 10:58:38 GMT -5 Bernadine said:

Jan 26, 2017 10:57:38 GMT -5 liverandonions said:

Another thing (LOL) R didn't get teeth until 10months and he had no issue eating. We kept it softer stuff, and he did fine. Rotisserie chicken was his favorite.

My h is FREAKING OUT over giving her solids.  She has two teeth, but he wants to give her purees until she's like 5. Lol.

Their gums are incredibly strong and can mash up tons of food. Just make it small. Black beans are great, deli meat, avocado, potato, cooked carrots, etc. I would just offer her things and see what she wants to do. YOu can let her sit and nibble on things while you guys eat your dinner.

[miso]

Don't decrease your milk offering. That's still the primary food source. Eating is sort of just for fun until age one.

That being said, give her whatever you're eating as long as it's small and soft enough. Variety is great. We tried very hard to offer everything we could, and I think we are lucky that she is still very open to eating many things today.

[cabbagecabbage]

My almost 7 month old is getting solids once a day, maybe twice and nurses on demand. He already wants to do it himself do I either give him a chunky mash and a spoon or a soft food in a stick (well steamed veggie spear).

Just this week I've offered him tastes of our food like soft veggies from soup, refried beans, cream of wheat with a little butter in it. He gags but doesn't choke. It makes my H so nervous but I know it's part of the process. I also know so many big kids who live off only pouches and crackers that I'm anti purée for our house. I can't control if I'll get a picky kid but I want to start strong. We just started Cheerios, the gateway snack. I plan to be fully giving our table food within the next few weeks like I did with my first by 8/9 months.

[gizmo]

I highly recommend Baby Led Weaning (BLW). My kids were eating small pieces of meat with zero teeth from 6 months on. I understand it isn't for everyone, but it's made our life much easier.

[ellipsis]

The thought of choking really freaked me out, but as pp said, they can chew more than you'd think without any teeth. If I notice any gagging I'd just give her smaller pieces until she was more comfortable. Slowly work your way up.

And my H still feeds DD sometimes ridiculously small pieces.