At what age/stage do you offer solids before milk?

[springerspaniel]

I have been weaning for about 5 weeks. George is 6 months old. Quite happily taking solids but still has the equivalent of four 9oz bottles a day (well three, plus one bf.) I give him the bottle, hiding the solids under a muslin (otherwise he is not interested in bottle.) HV today advised me to start trying solids before bottle. Am more than happy to gently introduce this but wondered if anyone else had any opinions? As far as I know they are meant to have a pint of milk a day for a while (ignorance - is that about two 8oz bottles?)

6 months is the recommended starting point for solids now, so I would still offer milk before solids at this stage as it has far more calories & nutrition & so is needed for growth etc until nearer 1 year. Not quite sure why your HV would recommend offering solids first at this early stage - did she give a particular reason for her advise?

I personally kept solids & milk completely separate (as far as possible) for my ds letting him bf on demand & then offering solids when we ate our meals.

I also had seperate meals and bottles. A pint is 20 oz. But as he eats more solids his milk intake will gradually drop off and he should still be having 20oz until 12 months so he sounds fine for now. Sounds like you are going OK as you are.

I would def keep up the 4 feeds a day and offer the solids after the milk for now. Think this is what I did. When ds was a little older, around 7-8 months I started to offer solids first, because by then milk will have to be cut down anyway.

Ds is now almost 12 months and I am trying to put milk into a cup with food, going well so far!

Ive always offered food inbetween milk feeds, otherwise they fill up onmilk and arent so interested. I would start feedign beforehand. I dunno why, but I always thought 20oz day was the correct amount, so about 2 bottles is plenty.

I always did solids first - she would never have eaten a thing if I'd done it the other way round. The HV tried to get me to do them "midway" through a feed, but she'd obviously never attempted taking milk away from DD

She always still finished a full amount of milk....

I think a lot depends on the child and its preferences re milk v. solids as to what works best.

Thanks guys. I might just swap one of his feeds then and see how it goes. He'll soon tell me if he is horrified at the thought of solids rather than yummy milk! Grated cheese, leek and potato went down rather well following his milk feed this afternoon so I'm not particularly concerned.