is a jar of food classed as a meal??

[GILLI79]

ds is 5 1/2 months and we have started weaning, he currently has about 8-10 spoonfuls of puree at dinner time along with 7oz of milk after and 8-10 spoonfuls at tea time with juice. how much food do i give him that it is classed as a meal is it half a jar. a full jar, 2 jars?? sorry if this is obvious but i dont have a clue and dont want to under/over feed him.
also when they are classed as having a full meal is that when you start dropping one of there milk feeds?.
thanks x

he's a bit young to be talking about meals I think... at this stage it's really just about getting used to solids and getting their gut used to digesting solids. I think you need to aim for 3 meals a day by 8 months.... I never used jars, but a meal for me was a small weaning bowl full. Each child is different but I guess a jar is one meal (plus a pudding, a small fromage frais was about the size I started on)

Why areyou giving juice at this age?
Surely its supposed to be cooled boiled water and milk.
Anyway just a mouthful of food at that age is fine, something like baby rice is good to start with

Take your cue from him. Its not about amounts at this age, but letting your baby tell you when they have had enough. When he turns his head away and refuses another spoon he's finished. Never force it.

Oh and keep up the milk for a good while yet, they're good at letting you know when they dont want a particular feed so let him dictate the speed.

I didn't spot the juice thing, definitely not a good idea, he will fill up his tummy with sugary juice when he needs to start being introduced to solids. Not sugary liquids.

My LO is almost 6m and he has:

6-7am about 6oz milk
8.30am - porridge (or weetabix - 1 biscuit) with 3oz milk and some fruit puree followed by toast with real butter (one slice cut into triangles)
12pm - lunch is usually a jar of food followed by a fromage frais (sometimes two) and then some finger food (rice cake or bits of veg)
3pm 6-8oz milk
5.30pm jar for dinner followed by a jar of pud plus some finger food again (cheese or fruit)
8.30pm 6-8oz milk

Finger food wise he has tried toast, rice cakes, rusks, brocolli, carrot batons, cheese, green peppers, hummous on rice cakes, kiwi. He doesnt really eat much of the finger food to be honest!!

We offer water with meals and also inbetween. He does have diluted pear juice sometimes (which was recommended by the HV to help with constipation). He has the jars with bits in now and is doing fab at them. He is a big fella (20lbs - over the 91st centile - born on the 80-85th) and loves his food!!! Evidently!! He is totally off the scale for height so the his weight actually isn't really surprising. HVs are absolutely overjoyed with his progress - has been able to sit unaided for quite a while now and has a very accurate grip/pincer grip which really helps with the finger foods.

I dread to think how much he will be eating in 3/4m time!!!

Don't forget that all babies are different. Let them eat until they don't want anymore eg. hold food in mouth, spit food out, turn head away, clamp mouth shut etc! What you are doing sounds fine. He will fill up on milk if still hungry. If he drains bottles then add an oz just to make sure he is getting enough :)

BooBear - wow your little one sounds like he's absolutely having a ball of a time eating. :)

When did you start weaning?

Hi northlondon - :) Yep, he loves his nosh!

We started weaning at 4 months.

We had a pretty dreadful time trying to get him to drink milk. He had reflux (fine now on food) and it would take up to 2 hours to finish a bottle, sometimes longer. By the time he had finished it was almost time for the next one so we were just feeding CONSTANTLY and he would fuss like mad. Nightmare.

As soon as we offered him some food we knew immediately it was the right thing. I'm not kidding, he LUNGED for the spoon. Took to it immediately :)

Hi, like BooBear DD had reflux, but she has always been little (20 - 25% centile). NEVER liked her milk, both BF and FF!

I started introducing food at about 4 months on HV advice and life is so much easier now, she is such a happier baby. One month down the line and she has three 'meals' a day, but for us half a jar is a 'meal' so not a huge amount. I let her tell me when she's had enough and it's usually half a jar.

I just think all babies are different and try not to get caught up in how much you 'should' be feeding, just take cues off your LO. You know your baby best! Good luck x