Weaning

[mml1992]

LB is coming up six months at Christmas and usually has between 28-35oz, normally in 6oz bottles. We've been trying him on purées of fruit and veg and he's doing really well with them, keen to try new flavours and having frozen fruit puree and BM in his weaning dummy for teething.

There's not been any real routine/schedule with this though. He gets a bottle every 3 hours but we've only been experimenting with purées now and then. My question is, how often should he be getting a "meal"? How much food, what kinds? What proper solids can I start with? And will this change the amount of milk he should be getting?

Thanks in advance!

Easiest way to go is to offer a little of what you are having either as spoon food or finger food.

baby will set the pace and won’t eat too much. Finger food will just get played with at the start.

from 6 months baby can eat pretty much anything you can except whole nuts and honey.

we never bothered with purées and just gave what we were eating. Eg mashed potato and gravy as spoon food and meat and veg as finger food.

3 meals a day from 9 months and snacks from 12 months. I was told this by 2 paedatric deititians for 2 different children.

Is he bf or ff? Either way he needs protein and iron rich foods, especially if bf as his stored will almost be all used by now.

@Jingleberryalltheway he's combi-fed but mostly formula now as my BM supply is on its way out. With him only coming up 6 months I know I should still prioritise milk, but would you say to offer snack sized meals when we're having our own for him to experiment with? Thanks for your reply!

We did baby led weaning. They would sit in their high chair with us at meals and get a bit of anything appropriate we were eating. We found 'chip' sized pieces of soft veg were good at the beginning- carrots, butternut squash, broccoli. For fruit I would slightly stew apple and pear or they would have banana. Avocado was good too. As I became more confident in their ability to bite, chew and swallow I would offer more and more things. Of course no honey before 1yrs and I avoided adding salt / sugar. I did not worry about how much they ate.

I would just offer meals if he is awake and you’re eating. If he is napping through lunch then don’t worry. Aim for 2 meals a day at the moment but don’t worry if it’s only 1 for the next month. When they’re having milk and napping lots and you want to actually get out the house it can be difficult to fit it all in.

I had children with allergies from birth so I was a little obssessed with introducing all major allergens early and regularly to reduce the risk of developing more allergies.