Confused about portion size for 6 month old

[cardamomginger]

Morning all,
Hoping for a bit of advice about portion size. DD is just over 6 months and we started weaning her at 5 months. Although she hasn't been weighed for a few weeks, she's always been on the 50th centile, so I reckon she is almost 7.5 kilos. She has a good appetite and we're lucky in that from day 1 she has liked her food and has got the hang of it. We're doing puree weaning, not BLW, and we haven't started on finger foods yet. She's on 3 meals - breakfast, lunch and tea. Still on fruit/veg/rice. Will be starting appropriate proteins next week once I have got my backside in gear. She is FF.

I am completely confused about portion size. I've heard stuff about feeding her as much as she wants, other stuff about making sure she fills up on milk not food as this is where she should be getting her nutrition from still, some people have said give milk first, others say to give solids first. Really don't understand the thinking behind feeding to appetite - at some point in her childhood surely I will need to exercise portion control to make sure she doesn't become a porker?? So why not have portion control now? What are reasonable volumes of food to give her? Thank you!!

I think the idea is that if you allow a child to regulate their own appetite from the beginning, they will be better able to do it later too. I see no reason why a child can't decide how much they eat - as long as you choose what kinds of food they are eating.

We let our DD (now 14 months) eat as much as she wants. Tbh, I don't see the point in me deciding how much she eats, since her appetite varies. Some days she eats loads, others not much.

As for the milk, I agree it is confusing. Most babies seem to have a preference for food or milk though, so I would just go with it. My dd took to food very well and cut right back on milk, but since she was eating a really healthy varied diet I didn't really worry about it.

HTH

Thanks! Does something like 120 ml of fruit and or veg sound reasonable? Love the name BTW .

Hi there. It sounds as if you are doing really well with weaning.

I was a bit confused about portion sizes when weaning DS1, who had a gargantuan appetite, and ended up being guided by the sizes of the pots that I used to store his purees in the freezer. I got them from Mothercare, and they come in two sizes:
1oz and
3oz

Once he was eating meat at around 7 months, I would give him a 3oz portion of meat-based puree, with a 1oz portion of vegetables, followed by a 1oz portion of fruit and a yogurt. He carried on like that until he was a year old, and even now that he's 4, I still give him portions based on those sizes, as their appetite doesn't seem to increase that much as they grew, weirdly! Also at 7 months, I stopped giving him milk other than at bedtime because he was on three proper meals a day - instead I'd give him formula in his porridge at breakfast and then in between meals I'd offer snacks like baby biscuits, yogurt or fruit with water.

If your baby still seems hungry after she's had what you think is a reasonable amount of food, you can give her something more challenging to eat like a breadstick or rusk - it will take some time before she finishes it, by which point she might be full up (or bored enough of this eating malarkey to want to do something else instead!).

Hope this helps.

Thank you - that is helpful! I suppose I was also worried because I was thinking that if she's eating 120 ml now, at 6 months whne we've pretty much just started, then by the time she is 2 she'll be eating a plateful as large as I can eat!

I have no idea how many ml ds eats, I just let him have as much (or little) as he wants - I don't think they overeat at this age. At 6 months I was still doing food an hour after milk.

So long as she's getting enough milk (21oz a day iirc) that I'd let her eat what she likes.