How much does your baby eat?

[Newmama29]

How much do you think your 6+ month old is actually eating of solids? I’m currently doing a mixture of baby-led & purée & I can obviously tell how much they’re eating when I’m spoon feeding, but I feel when he feeds himself I’m cleaning up so much food I doubt he’s even taking much 🤦🏼‍♀️

What is everyone else’s experiences with baby-led weaning?

Took DS a good few months to go from just smushing food into himself and his highchair to properly start eating enough to reduce his milk feeds. We didn’t do purees and I just let him fend for himself with the food. He had vitamins and milk so I wasn’t very bothered.

My daughter was an unpredictable eater until about 12m. She's 17m now and still goes through phases. We did BLW so she's always just had what she wanted. Trust him, if he doesn't eat much then he obviously isn't that hungry. Keep up with his milk and just offer by routine. We did 3 meals a day from 6m and usually did it at the same time each day, though I didn't stress if she napped through a meal. Have fun with it!

You'll soon realise he is in fact getting some solids down him when his nappies change!!

Thank you both for your replies! I was going with a very laid back approach & tonight I made him a cream cheese pasta to let him just pick up the big tubes & really don’t think he was eating the pasta & just sucking the cream cheese off 🤦🏼‍♀️ It got me thinking that he really might not be taking much in with his meals & worried if that was a problem 😂 I still offer him a bottle every 4 hours or earlier if he shows signs of hunger. His nappies are definitely changing so he’s getting something. I think I’ll just let him continue having his fun with food, although the BLW is really messy 😬😂😂

It’s gradually ramped up but my 9 month old usually eats what I think is a decent amount now. We do blw so just give her a bit of whatever we happen to have and don’t stress if she’s not interested.

I used to think she was eating nothing but some of it was definitely getting in as her nappies were proof! Not she eats more purposefully though.

I try to think of it as enforced messy play and not get too worked up over how much she actually eats as long as she’s happy!

Yeah I think the best thing is to just not fret. They’re having to learn about a million things when food is introduced, not only that all of a sudden there’s all these different tastes, smells, textures but that they’re supposed to fix their hunger as well. The learning curve they go through is huge. Plus sometimes they might just not right fancy pasta! As long as they’re exploring the food, taking tastes, drinking milk and gradually building up their food intake I wouldn’t worry. But take lots of photos!

Thanks everyone! I feel so much better now I didn’t want him to starve 😂 so far he’s not keen on textures & hates when food breaks into smaller parts & he has to swallow what’s in his mouth, he starts gagging but he’s getting there 😂