Weaning - baby eating too much?

[Caneparrot]

Hello, my baby is 5.5 months old and at the beginning of the week I decided to start offering him some food as he seemed ready (sitting up, good hand eye coordination etc). I think this is the 5th day, and today he had 3 full meals as I just offered him what I had made and he took it. Now I’m reading I should only be offering single foods, and that they usually will only have one meal a day for the first month?! Bit confused as to whether I should be cutting back now, but he seems to have just taken to it very quickly and is enjoying it, so maybe I just carry on? FWIW my health visitor has been awol since he was 2 weeks old (thanks covid!) hence why I am asking here.

He was exclusively breastfed up until now, and is still taking good feeds in between meals.

Today for breakfast he had some raspberry and banana mashed with breast milk, a tiny bit of steak (first time having meat and we had a little bit left over from the night before…not planning on being an everyday occurrence!), and a tiny blob of peanut butter (doing allergens one at a time as per advice). He also sucked on a couple of clementine segments.

Lunch was spinach and cheese mashed with milk and some raspberries mashed with milk (I had left over from making the breakfast).

Dinner I made a sweet corn chowder with cod recipe that I found online.

He ate probably 2-3 tablespoons of each of these and had little sips of water from an open cup.

He seems happy and has always been quite long and thin, but around 50th centile for weight, and I have no concerns about his development.

Thanks for any advice - hoping I can just carry on doing what I’m doing, but if anyone can give me good reason to stick to the single veg purée/one meal a day model I’m all ears!

Yes, you are offering too much food. If you are going down the purée route you should only be giving him 1 meal a day. Food will not have as many calories as milk and milk covers the majority of his nutritional needs.

There is no need to offer single foods unless your baby has multiple allergies and you’ve been advised otherwise. You should start offering the top allergens as early as possible and frequently.

Okay thank you, would you give breakfast and then milk rest of day? Or go for a meal in the middle of the day?

I think it’s a bit much because he should still be getting most of his calories from milk at the moment. Food has fewer calories and nutrients than food, so food will physically fill him up without necessarily meeting his calorie and nutrient needs.

It’s fine to give him tastes of different things little and often throughout the day, but just small amounts. And if you give him steak make sure it has no salt and is cooked absolutely through, no pinkness at all etc.

*fewer nutrients and calories than milk, that should say!

Food should be offered 30 to 60 mins after milk. Just pick the time of day which is most convenient for you both.

The nhs has really good info on weaning on their website.

I think you’re offering too much too soon. However it’s great that your baby loves his food! My baby was the same at 7 months he was eating practically everything. 5.5 months is a tad bit early.
Offer a little less and I’d stick to purées for now or super soft veg. Steak is very risky but you know your baby best x

There’s often not one right way to do anything. I’d do what works for you!

I think it’s fine. I did baby led weaning and I’m sure there weren’t any strict rules about how much to offer or how many meals a day. I think the only suggestion was to offer food when baby WASN’T hungry, as they were unlikely to be interested in solids when hungry for milk (the first few weeks/months they just play with food rather than get full up from it). I did one meal a day to start with but that was simply cos I found it all a faff and my baby wasn’t very interested in solid food to start with.