6mth old - how much food/milk?

[AnaYorks]

DD has been 'tasting' purees for a few weeks. What I can't seem to figure out is, now we are moving towards actual 'meals', how much food/milk she should be taking. She's a petite little creature; 9th centile at 3 and 4mth checks. At present her feeding schedule is (approximately):

Breakfast - 5oz milk, plus small portion of baby porridge (a few tablespoons) made up with 1-1.5oz milk
Lunch - 5-6oz milk, plus equivalent of half a jar/pouch of puree (so around 60g)
Tea - 5-6oz milk
Dinner - 5oz milk, plus 60-120g puree (sometimes thickened with a little baby rice)
She'll sometimes want a small breastfeed at about 5am (10 mins max, one side only)
She has a sippy cup of water with her meals, but probably only drinks an ounce or so.

Does this seem about right? Too much? Not enough? She seems to be putting on weight, I think - she certainly doesn't look starved :) Any advice anyone can give would be gratefully appreciated.

I'm no expert - DD (also 9th centile) is 7 months and only just approaching 3 meals - but I'd say it's not bad at 6 months. My only suggestion would be to add a pudding - a youghurt or something after lunch and dinner.

The advice I've been given is to aim towards breakfast (weetabix or similar) plus 2 'dinners' (meat, veg, potato/pasta) with pudding. Then you can start reducing milk to 2-3 times per day?

Can you do lunch before milk so she is more hungry?

I think everyone wants to know if they're feeding their baby the 'right' amount! I always worry about it but have been reassured that as long as baby is still gaining weight, healthy and happy, there is unlikely to be an issue.

My DS is just over 6 months, and on 3 'meals' per day, but without puddings. DP and I don't 'do' puddings so I don't want DS to expect something that won't be forthcoming in the future!

DS has typically eats something like:

Breakfast: porridge made with greek yoghurt and a bit of breast milk, mixed with pureed fruit

Lunch: chicken or fish pureed with lots of veg, a bit of toast. Water (if he'll have it, he often won't!)

Supper: Veg puree, perhaps with lentils or cottage cheese

We had DS 'tasting' purees for a few weeks before, hence being on three meals so soon. But DS is a MASSIVE baby - always above the 90th centile for weight and height. As your DD is more petite, I assume she'll take less food.

Thanks both for the advice. This weaning lark is really difficult and being a scientific person am finding it hard just to go with the flow and not worry!

Carrot - I've tried lunch before milk, but I'm concerned to make sure she gets the minimum 20oz milk per day I've been told she needs (which is absolutely nowhere near what it seems to suggest she should be drinking if you read the formula box, but I'm a bit dubious about that to be honest). If I give her the food first, she has a tendency to cut back on the milk, and some days it's a real struggle to get the full pint in.

Cubiks - what sort of quanitities is your DS taking? Is he also still breastfeeding pretty frequently? I'm a bit unsure at present whether to try feeding more solids, but at the risk of her reducing the milk even further and not really replacing the calories sufficiently.

AnaYorks sorry to kind of crash but I will be watching with interest as we are at a similar stage. I started DD on some rice and veg at 22 weeks on advice of paed due to reflux, but was very conscious that she still needed almost all of her milk. Now she's over 6 months, I am aware that I need to look to increase food and decrease some of the milk (i.e. the ones that are 'with', i.e. before, meals) rather than the ones that are feeds in their own right. My DD is also petite but seems to love her solids. Milk was always a struggle but purees are not! So I have the same worry about enough milk, but not too much, leaving enough room for the right amount of solids etc. Gah! It's all so confusing. It was actually easier before 6 months as I knew the milk was the focus and the solids were really just to help the milk down. I feel like there ought to be a bit more structure now.

FWIW I give milk before food ATM too, but 'worry' less about getting it in her if it's with a meal as well.

Our schedule looks a bit like this:

7am - 7oz bottle but the last half ounce used to make baby porridge, make about a tablespoon full I guess. Then chew on a bit of bread.
11am - 5oz bottle and half a jar of puree or equivalent homemade. A bit of fruit for pudding maybe.
14.00 - 7oz bottle
17.00 - 4oz bottle and roughly a similar amount of food as 11am, maybe a rice cracker to ignore nibble on
18.30/19.00 ish - 7oz bottle and then bed.

Sorry for rambling on...

D

Ana, to be honest his quantities oscillate wildly. Sometimes he will have 5 or 6 spoonfuls and then just squish bits of food in his hands for half an hour. Sometimes he will eat what equates to more than one of those little baby food jars, plus toast. DS still breastfeeds after each meal, and maybe just before bed ... so 8.30am, 1pm, 6pm and 7.30pm. But sometimes he has 'snacks' too.

I too was worried about DS filling up too much on food and not getting enough calories from milk. He has dropped centiles but I think that's because he has dropped all his night feeds, rather than not getting enough calories during the day.

Honestly, I wouldn't worry. As long as your DD is still happy, weeing/pooing as usual and full of energy, she's probably fine. Every time I panic, my MIL says, 'but look at him!' and she's right. If he looks happy and bouncy and healthy, he can't be starving.