How much do you feed a baby?

[manna]

After my thread last week about 5 mnth old off his food - guess what - he's on his food again! The tummy bug is over and his apetite has returned with a vengance. The trouble is, it's no good feeding him until he refuses food at the moment, as he doesn't! The other night he had 8oz milk, 4.5 cubes veg, 2 cubes fruit. half an hour later he threw it all back up. I'm not surprised as his little shrunken tummy couldn't handle it, but I was still operating under the 'build him up after a sickness' thing. So - my question is how much would a typical 5 mnth old baby eat who was weaned at 4mnths? I know every child is different, but a guidline would be good. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. He's on the gf routine and eats only organic gluten free stuff. I have just bought some fine oatmeal, polenta, rice porridge (gone off baby rice) with apricots, and red split lentils from the health food shop. Can I turn this into a more carbohydrate based diet than what he has been eating so far (mainly veges and fruit) as he's getting really hungry long before normal mealtimes and his weightloss is poor.

Manna,

I can't remember exactly what my dd had at 5 months but it was something like this:

8 oz bottle early morning
Breakfast (about an hour later) - Fruit, normally banana mashed, some apple etc
8 oz bottle mid morning
Lunch - pureed veg probably about 3 cubes and then half a jar of organic pureed fruit or a couple of cubes
6 oz bottle mid afternoon (think can't remember when I dropped this)
Tea time - Normally an organic banana / strawberry porridge (very high in carbs and helped her sleep through) or something similar followed by again 1/2 jar of pureed fruit or a couple of ice cubes.
8 oz bottle just before bed.

Hope this helps. Of ourse they are all different and you should be guided by his apetite. I would be inclined to definitely give him more carbs if he's hungry.

At 5 months my ds never refused food either. My health visitor suggested I added cheese, and yogurt to his repertoire. He had been a gluten free carb/fruit/veg boy before then.
He was on 3 'meals' a day and was breastfed lots (about 8 feeds a day - very sucky baby), so I added a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack at 6 months that seemed to work - did feel like all I did all day was feed, feed, feed.

My dd never refuses food - I worry that, like a goldfish, she'll just eat & eat until she pops! She is now 5 1/2 months and has a breastfeed on waking, a whizzed banana and some natural yoghurt for breakfast, 8oz formula mid morn, 6 or 7 cubes veg/chicken mixed for lunch & 4 or 5 cubes fruit (apple, pear, peach, plum), 8oz formula late afternoon & 4 or 5 cubes veg, and a breastfeed before bed. She used to have another breastfeed at 11pm-ish, managed to cut this out at about 4 1/2 months (probably due to how much she was eating in the day!) Does this sound too much?

bloody hell elwar - it does!!!! I might be wrong here, but I know that if my ds (same age) ate that much he'd throw up. He has 8oz bottle + baby ceral + 1 cube fruit 7.30, 5oz bottle + 4 cubes carby veges 11am, 8oz bottle 2.30pm & 8oz bottle + ceral / rusks / carby veg + 1 - 2 cubes fruit 6pm. I haven't even dared try dairy or meat yet - I've been waiting until 6 mnths. When did yours start on the yoghurt & chicken? did she like it?

tillysmummy - you gave her fruit up to 3 times a day? did she develop a sweet tooth? I've been trying to avoid it more than once a day. If I remember right, your dd is about 8 mnths now, so it would be interesting to know if she prefers sweeter things now, or will eat veges just s happily?

Any ideas about polenta, anyone?

why can't I spell cereal?

My daughter (5 1/2 months) has roughly the same quantities as manna mentions.

manna - dd has only started having chicken with her veg for last week or 2, she started on solids at 15 1/2 weeks (bad mother - you MUST wait until 16 weeks!! ) so had tried loads of different veg/fruit. I read that after 4 or 5 weeks of trying different veg you can try lean chicken breast. Also mixed advice on yoghurt - 4 months, 6 months, 1 year I read somewhere else (maybe I should read less?) Petit Filous (which I don't use, expensive & packed with sugar) say suitable from 4 months. So if yoghurt was a real no-no would they risk putting it on their packs? I don't know, it seems to me to be a real minefield. I think other threads have discussed this - are we a bit over cautious with when we introduce foods these days? DD has also had cheese sauce which I made (with full-fat cow's milk & cornflour-I do heed the gluten thing). Do you think I should feed her less? She had a real problem with not putting on weight in first 8 weeks, so I'm probably worried still about that. Surely if she's full she'll refuse food?

I think it all depends upon the child - elwar my ds ate a not dissimilar amount to your dd particularly around the time after he was recovering from gastroenteritis - he was making up his lost weight I think (hence your little one's appetite manna??) and also waking for two bottles in the night - the minute he was back on his centile he dropped the night feeds overnight and reduced his daily intake a little.

It might be that your dd, elwar, is in a growth spurt or simply has a bigger appetite than others' - it all sounds good stuff to me, not junk food or anything

I have given my son fruit and veg twice daily for a while and he likes both equally - and proteins and carbs, and indeed anything I have ever offered him - except chocolate interestingly enough, oh and bananas. So I don't know yet if he has a sweet tooth or not!

elwar - I didn't mean to sound as though there may be a problem. I was just full of admiration for her appetite, that's all! I would say, if she doesn't throw it up, doesn't cry / complain 1/2 hr - 2hrs after like shes got a tummy ache and is not so melon like that she can't role over, she's fine. Also, like Zoe says, she'll regulate her intak when she wants to.

Just noticed what has been said about Petit Filous, my 5 month ds is in love with it as soon as he sees the pot! So he only has one a day, health visitor said 2 a day was too much, and he has gone off his veg since he started to have it.

So my question is this, what can I give him which is like petit filous, but better?

Any help or advice gratefully received.

thanks zoe & manna - I was a bit worried after what you said manna, but spoke to HV this morning & she reassured me that she won't overfeed, and like you say zoe it may be a growth spurt. (she's on the 25th percentile for weight, by the way).

Fairy - Re: Petit Filous, it's difficult to find an alternative if your ds is really into it, as it's really lovely & smooth & creamy (making myself hungry now!!!) whereas the natural plain yoghurt (Onken bio) I give dd seperates naturally. I couldn't find any full fat, no sugar fruit yogurts so decided to use the plain stuff & add my own fruit - whizzed banana, whizzed tinned peaches/apricots (in juice not syrup) or sieved strawberries (also nice for mum - yum ). That would hopefully be substitute enough for the sweetness of petit filous, but I can't think how you can get round the lack of smoothness. Why did your HV say 2 pots was too much? Is it just those tiny pots?

2 pots = sweet tooth according to HV, and so it was putting him off his veg. But we are trying, but he stills want those little pots!!

I'd never thought of tinned fruit in the juice, good idea, I presume you can freeze it as well?

I haven't tried freezing tinned fruit, usually I use half a tin or so a day, so the other half stays un-whizzed in the fridge till the next day. I use my hand-held blender (a godsend - would recommend one to anyone). I can't see any reason why you couldn't freeze it, might see if there's an answer somewhere on the Internet (there usually is!!) The tinned fruit is really handy for when freezer stocks are low and I barely have time to think, let alone peel, slice, boil & puree 2lbs of apples!!!

Thanks for the info, I'll look for those yoghurts when I next go shopping.

Another related question, when should you introduce meat and fish, is it 5 months? And if so any ideas on how to present, i.e. in milk or veg, etc etc?

I introduced chicken at 5 months, other people wait longer. I just used either roast chicken or poached chicken breasts in water, and used the water to thin it while whizzing with hand blender, then into ice cube trays. Then I just added one or 2 cubes in with cubes of carrot, potato, etc to make a meal. I'm not sure about fish, I'm one of these people who are REALLY funny about bones, and even sieved I'd still be worrying.

Thank you! Its great being able to use this, it is so much easier and friendly.

my son is 15 1/2 wks old ive just started giving him babyrice. I give him 1 tspoon for lunch with his 8oz bottle, is this enough? He has abottle for breakfast. a bottle and rice at lunch then bottles at teatime +bedtime he usually sleeps right through from 9-8 but has started waking earlier again should i be giving him more?

Offer and see, let him take the lead. Ds went from a taster meal to three meals a day in about a week. If they are ready then they will respond and you can start to try different tastes and textures which your son might find very interesting.

I'm feeding ds (just 6 months) - 5 x 5oz bottles, plus 6 cubes of food a day (in three meals) is this enough? Plus the meals are pureed annabel karmel style food, I haven't started anything exciting yet. is this enough? he's not waking in the night or early but he's very big for his age so tillysmummy/elwar - gasp! His last feed is at 10.30 which we'd like to drop - should I increase his solids by a lot? I'm a bit wary of his weight gain, one month he put on 4lb!

Dont forget lots of people dont even start weaning until 6 months so I wouldnt stress about how much your baby eats at this age too much.