Weaning advice for 5month old

[Karen99]

DS was 5 months old last weekend and is just under 19lb. He has been on solids since 4mo+1wk as breast milk was clearly not enough for him and he has always been in the 80 centiles and above. Plus he LOVES his solids

He is on the following feeding routine:
7am - bf - total feed 10min
10am - bf - total feed 8min
11am - solids - usually two large ice-cubes of fruit or veg
1:30pm - bf - total 8min
4:30pm - bf - total 8min
6pm - solids - usually three ice-cubes of fruit or veg
7:30pm - bf - total 6min

He is hungry at every point as you can set your watch by him. Just this week he has started to increase his bf's to 10-12mins. I'm using this as a sign that he's getting more hungry (he's also alot more active) and perhaps should be moved to 3 solid meals a day. He is due to start nursery mid-Jan so I was going to start increasing his solid feeds sometime in Dec anyway. However, I'm not sure whether I should increase the number of solid feeds, or increase the amount he is eating, or both. Plus should I remove one of the daytime b-feeds? How will I know if he's getting enough milk? Finally when can I introduce more than fruit & veg?

I was thinking about this schedule, which cuts out one of the milk feeds.
7am, 11am, 4:30pm, 7:30pm - bf
10am, 1:30pm, 6pm - solids

Is this correct? Any other advice? Many thanks.

Can't remember all the details but I just did what Gina Ford said!!
I'd have thought you could introduce other things now - but then my son refused all baby rice etc and helped himself to a spooonful of summer pudding from my plate at 3.5 months... Try the baby organix jars, they are lovely (yummy even for us), have only 'proper' ingredients in them, and you can always freeze the contents in an icecube tray to cut down the portion sizes.

Don't know if that's 'correct' but maybe you could try it and just see what happens?

Agree with miranda2 about the Organix jars, dd loved them and they are really tasty (I never got to freeze and as dh finished them off!!!).

Surely fruit/veg is not going to be more filling than breast milk. so while I would say definitely increase the solids I wouldn't be so sure on cutting down on the milk.

Perhaps you could mix EBM/formula, baby rice and fruit to make a creamy pudding. Also at this point I used to give DS an organix breakfast cereal. This was gluten free because I don't think gluten (wheat) is advised prior to 6 months. Might be a bit more substantial than the purees.

Thanks all for the comments. I do mix baby rice and rice based packets with the purees if they are too runny, so some meals are "beefed up" so to speak. I agree about the "nutritional" aspect, which is why I posted for advice. I'm sure he's getting more from the b-milk than the purees, but wasn't sure about adding dairy and meat at this age. Have avoided gluten and will keep doing so as long as possible. When is it ok to introduce baby yoghurt?

Tried replacing the 1:30pm milk feed today with veg and he wasn't having any of it. Had half the amount he normally has and then topped up with a b-feed in tears. Maybe we'll try that for a week and see if I can reduce the milk intake each day, solids first and then b-feed. I'll leave the mornings and evenings the same for now.

Any other comments would be appreciated. I guess we're both so used to this routine it's going to be hard to break... (and it's sad I'm losing a feed with him, giving up eventually is going to be sooooo hard )