what is an average meal size for six half month old baby?

[konya]

Hi! I know it must differ hugely among different babies but I was just wondering does anyone have an idea of how much food a six & half month old baby actually consumes throughout the day? Our son started on solids at around 5 months- he now has:
formula feed as soon as he wakes (7-8 oz)
then breakfast of banana, oatmeal, peaches whatever (one mashed banana, 5 tsp of oatmeal, 3 ice cubes worth of peaches)
then about 6 ice cubes worth of vegetable and 2 tsp baby rice cereal at around 11-11.30
formula feed of 6-7 oz at 2.30
then about 3 ice cubes worth of vegetables and 3 ice cubes worth of fruit with 5 tsp baby rice cereal at 5 pm
then a formula feed (7-8 oz) just before going to sleep around 6.30
He sadly doesn't sleep through the night as yet but will get up at some point for a milk feed as well!
Are we giving him too much milk? Or too much solids? Very confused particularly in the last two days as perhaps due to the heatwave he has been eating far less and waking up very frequently in the night. Anyone else with this experience? All input very very welcome and sorry this is such a long post but I have just joined mumsnet (what a wonderful resource wish I had found it earlier!) and I would be so grateful to learn what other babies of this age group are eating etc etc plus if any of you have had problems with feeding due to the soaring temperatures -- Thank you!

i expect its been so hot which is why he is waking during the night...

seems like he is getting enough milk (over a pint) AND loads of food throughout the day... so hunger shouldnt be a problem...

maybe in this hot weatehr he is thirsty at night...

perhaps when the weather cools down a bit you could just offer water at night... as he really does seem to get enough during the day...

then maybe if its only water he gets he will break the habit of waking up?
You could also give himn a dream feed at 10.30 / 11pm ish to help him sleep through the rest of the night... ioe ebfore you go to bed so you get a more full nights sleep

also maybe as he is past 6 months you could introduce some proetin.... chicken / white fish / cheese sauce etc... you could mix his fruit with full fat yogurt as well

cause these will b more filling that just vegetables... that should help as well

Goos luck

will be partly due to heat as DD has been waking up and she is 6.5mths too. We dont give her milk during the night only water but shes is that hot and bothered she is waking for the water. She wakes a lot anyway but has been really bad past 3 nights and has not eaten that much.

Milk is the most important food for babies until they are 12 months, AND the most calorific. I would make sure in this heat that you focus on fluids and worry less about foods.

He will build up and appetite eventually, dont worry if he doesnt want to eat - it makes no difference to night wakings anyway according to research.

we've started introducing meats into DD2's diet now - she's 7 months next week. she is tolerating htem well.

try adding a little boiled water to whatever you're having for tea, whizzing it down w/a hand blender, and giving him a taste.

small

Thanks so much everyone, that was very helpful. Will try just doing the water thing at night now that I feel a bit more reassured.

We did try introducing protein over the weekend -red lentils pureed with veggies but DS seems to loathe the taste of the lentils. Maybe we are cooking them wrong. Any recipe suggestions?

I found that my ds was not keen on lentils at first. try putting only a very small amount in then builing on that. they are an aquired taste!

Hi konya,

My ds is 7 months and he is eating pretty much everything. Apparently once a baby is 6 months they can have mostly anything (although you should be careful with citrus fruits and dairy)

My ds usually eats 3 meals (plus pudding) a day plus about 3/4 4Oz bottles. He was sleeping quite well at night until this heat started - he's also almost totally gone off his food. He's not a big milk drinker but I have noticed he's having much more milk (and water) than normal at the moment. Plus he has been a nightmare the last two nights.

I'd put it down to the heat!

Oh, also meant to say that I am trying the recepies in the Annabel Karmel book for ds. He likes all the ones I have tried so far.

Also, could you try wizzing up whatever you eat in the evening. Ds loves spag bol the day after we've eaten it.

Thanks everyone. Have got the Annabel K book now and DS does seem to like most everything in it. The one pot easy chicken puree went down a treat at lunch time and will try the lentil recipe out perhaps next week. He has gone from 6.30 pm to 4.30 am for two nights in a row, so not too bad - he seems very hungry as soon as he wakes up though and refuses to have the water will only drink milk (7 oz) and then goes back to sleep until 7 ish. He does seem to be eating enough during the day so not sure whether we should give him the milk at 4.30 or let him cry - we tried allowing him to cry for a bit but then gave up at 4.45 and just fed him as thought we needed some more sleep ourselves! But perhaps this is quite normal? I know all babies vary but would be so grateful to hear from others whose babies are roughly the same age (six and half months)..

That's about twice the amount of food my 11 month old eats! Milk is supposed to be the main source of food for a baby up to 12 months so if you are worried then maybe give more milk (and less solids) but you will know if he seems happy enough and if he's gaining weight OK.

My baby at 6.5 months was eating about one tablespoon of food per day but we didn't start him on solids till 6 months.

Dr Tanya on House of Tiny Tearaways explained that your stomach is the size of your clenched fist so bear that in mind when preparing meals for babies/children. I should bear it in mind when makng my own meals!!!

Message withdrawn

He's around 7.5 kg so in the 25th percentile for his age according to the little red book thingy which is why I hadn't thought that we might be overfeeding him - but given your responses I feel quite relieved that he seems to be eating too much, rather than too little for his age..I can never really get much input from the health visitor on this question.. He does wake up at 5 with a big poo, so perhaps if we cut down on the portion sizes he won't poo as much - it just struck me that perhaps that is the reason why he could be waking up earlier? Shall certainly try feeding him a bit less to see what happens. Thank you all so much!

I don't actually think you are doing anything wrong at all! It's a lot of food, but if he is eating it and happy then I would carry on. There isn't much you can do about the poo-ing, they get themselves into routines. Give it a few more weeks and he'll prob take to pooing at midday instead. Mine are currently doing it straight after breakfast, so I have to change them twice by 8.30am!
As long as he is gettign the formula I wouldn't worry and at only 6.5 months he may still need that night feed. He will drop it when he is ready. But he might be thirsty so it could be worth offering water instead.
My two are completely off their food because of the heat. I only got cereal, banana and rice pudding into them all day yesterday. I've jsut been offering extra fluids and milk instead. Today we've had storms and it is cooler so they are back to normal.

My dd is 13 months and still wakes for a night feed. She will happily take water, but that means she wakes a gain an hour or two later for milk.