6 months and solids

[Mumlife91]

Am I doing this right??? My baby is 6 months and 4 days. He's been on solids since 5 months and 1 week. He gets 6oz bottle at 8am and a fruit purée or baby rice, then around 12ish has 6oz bottle and veg purée or fish and veg purée etc, then around 4 he has a 6oz bottle and no food then around 6:30 wants his bedtime bottle of 6oz and off he goes to bed. Should he be on 3 meals a day now? Should I be reducing oz of milk in each bottle? Tried to ask my health visitor but she won't call me back! Thanks in advance to anyone who can help 😊

No. His main calories should be coming from milk. You should not reduce milk feeds to get him to consume more veg mush. Veg purée is low in calories. You don’t want to fill his tummy up with this. I assume they are formula fed so you don’t need to supplement iron as this will be fortified in the formula.

6-12 months is getting them used to varied textures and flavours. Offer three ‘meals’ if you will, but toast to gum on at breakfast could be a ‘meal’ even if they don’t eat much.

By 12 months (a whole 6 months away) they could be eating ‘three meals’ a day, but this is just a guideline. Many children will still be throwing their breakfast on the floor at 13 months and picking at dinner.

Thanks for your reply. I only question it as suddenly he's wakening at 4am ready to start his day, not crying or anything just wide away ready to rock and roll 🙈 so I wondered if I wasn't giving him enough food through the day

I didn't give food and milk together.
I gave milk at around 7, 11, 3, 7 and then food at 8, 12 and 5.

Is he looking for milk when he wakes? How many naps is he having?

No not looking for anything during the night, he's not long came away from his night bottle but feel he would be screaming at us for it if he wanted it lol. It's just a new thing the past few days so hoping it's just "a phase" 😂 he naps after breakfast for about 30 minutes, after lunch for about 40 minutes and then around 4:30ish for a half hour then exhausted again at 6:30 and wanting bed x

Should have added I've been following Annabel Karmel and using her weaning book as I did for my last however that was 13 years ago so I forget everything 😂😂

Follow Solid Starts on Instagram or checkout the website.

Baby needs solid foods to actually learn how to eat, chew and swallow, with main calories from milk. Not purees to just get the food in.

I was told 3 meals a day from 9 months. I would drop the baby rice and just give real food. Give food 30 to 60 mins after milk. Introduce finger food soon as well as the main allergens.

The vast majority of babies who start out with purees still manage to learn how to eat, chew and swallow so don't worry about that. Just make sure that you're introducing finger foods too.

Sounds good to me, don't reduce any of the milk though. You could try a 3rd meal but might just be a phase with him waking up and unrelated.

I was given an NHS leaflet after a 3-4 month health appt at the local children's centre that was largely based on weaning and the advice there was at 6 months one type of food once a day usually single veggies, 7-9 months gradually introducing another followed by a third meal and by 10-12 it says baby should be having 3 meals plus milk feeds.
I just did baby led/finger foods then combined things together then meals from a book that's family meals suitable for babies so I just cook one tea. My baby is almost 8 months and has breakfast (one of these things - porridge maybe with fruit/peanut butter, avocado and toast, natural or greek yogurt with fruit, boiled apple and oats, banana and oat bites, egg & banana pancakes etc), and tea (recipes from the book include lentil dahl, stir fry veg, quinoa & black beans, pasta with various veg). I've not introduced lunch yet but I will soon, she loves exploring food and eats really well thankfully, I was worried about weaning as felt I had no idea so did lots of reading up and found loads of ideas and recipes, the NHS website has some good ones too. I don't know how much milk she has as BF but she has reduced her feeds to 3-4 in the day and 1-2 at night usually but as others have said not sure milk should be reduced until after 12 months, I tend to agree with food being yo explore, play and learn etc before 1