6 month old…

[CJ98]

My daughter has been weaning for a while now - we started around 4 months and have just focused on puree food - we are aware that babies shouldn’t be weaning until 6 months old but our daughter has been showing signs of bottles not filling her and once we started on the pouches she not only was sleeping throughout the night she also seemed happier within herself. Now that she’s 6 months old I feel like I’m doing everything wrong. We’ve continued giving her milk but giving her a pouch of food throughout the day sometimes two as she’s eating the full pouch.
We struggle with the mornings more as she wakes up herself and instantly just wants a bottle. If she doesn’t drink the entire bottle I will then wait a couple of hours before giving her a pouch of food which sometimes then means she’s full and doesn’t need her next bottle for another couple of hours.
I feel like as a first time mum I’ve just been doing everything wrong. Everywhere I look it says that babies should be having a full solid meal by 6 months and I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong.

Have you read any books on weaning? How To Wean Your Baby is really helpful for first time parents.

It takes you through how to know they're ready for food (she still might not be at bang on 6 months) and how to introduce different foods as solids and purées.

You might also find your health visitor/health centre runs a weaning workshop, where you can ask questions.

On pouches try to give the yoghurt ones or the savoury ones. The fruit ones are very very high sugar so would ideally be a once in a while thing. You can get reusable pouches which you can fill with natural yoghurt or homemade purées if your little one likes pouches (my DD is obsessed!). A cheaper and often healthier than buying them.

Forgot to say, try not to worry.

Some of them get the hang of eating straight away and for others it takes months before anything seems to be going in!

Often I'd only know DD had swallowed anything because it showed up in her nappy later.

Medical reasons aside, how often do you see an adult who only eats pouches? They all get there eventually.

For now just enjoy watching baby discover food and offer them a good variety of veggies and fruits

We’ve mainly been giving her the yoghurt ones and then the veggie ones. If we give her a fruit one it’s ones that mainly mixed with veggies - Ella’s kitchen do things like sweet potato, apples and peppers so we try to mix them. It’s mainly how many times should I be giving her them, am I doing it wrong by giving her them in between bottles. Should I be replacing the bottles with the pouches. We’ve also recently started buying the jars of food which are more of a meal but again it’s when should I be giving her them. I’m worried that by giving her them between feeds she’s getting too much.

Hi OP, have you reduced the amount of oz for her morning bottle? You can always add those oz to her porridge too.

If she's just 6 months then I wouldn't worry about how much food, just what she's happy to take. She will get more of her calories from milk and that's fine.

I think it covers this in the book, but you start them off with just one meal a day and gradually build up to 3 meals over months.

I think we did the one meal around 10am between feeds.

Even at 12 months they might be having 4x 6oz bottles a day a well as food. DD and most of her nursery friends were taking 2x 6oz bottles with them to nursery and didn't stop having daytime bottles until 14-15 months.

We’ve noticed that morning and night she’s drinking all her milk but throughout the day she’s drinking less.
We struggle with mornings & weaning at the morning as it’s so stressful to get a meal in her without it being a bottle.
If anyone has any tips on how to make mornings easier please send advice as we instantly just go for a bottle as it’s easier on us.

Did you do bottle aswell as meal or did you just remove the bottle and just make it a meal. I’m worried that I’m over feeding my daughter by giving her a bottle and then a couple of hours later giving her a pouch especially when she’s eating the full pouch. We have noticed that throughout the day she doesn’t drink the entire bottle.

food at this stage is still about exposing them to tastes/textures and teaching her positive associations with food. Quantity isn’t important yet as she should still get her the majority of her calories from milk until she turns 1.

Everywhere I look it says that babies should be having a full solid meal by 6 months

Is this a typo? Given that weaning shouldn’t start until six months due to babies’ digestive systems, then they absolutely shouldn’t be having a ‘full solid meal’ at that age, don’t worry. The first six months of weaning are all about exposing them to different flavours and, eventually, textures. Milk will still be their primary source of nutrition until twelve months.

You could try making something like readybrek with some of her morning bottle and giving her that and then follow up with the rest of the bottle? I think that's what we did. I know pouches are handy but they are also quite sweet and very very smooth, so if you keep on them for too long baby can struggle to get used to textured food. From 6 months baby can eat anything and everything as long as it's cooked appropriately. You could make some pancakes and freeze them, they can be a very quick breakfast option.

I gave bottles and then gave food an hour or so later e.g. milk at 7, 11, 3, 7 and food at 8, 12 and 5.
At 6 months you want to introduce new tastes and texture not fill them up or replace milk. Reduce milk in the bottles she isn't finishing. She still needs at least 20oz at this stage.

So am I best to just continue doing what I’m doing and giving her the pouches in between feeds. Or should I be replacing one of the bottles with a pouch. ?

At 6 months old if you’re doing puree she should be havingo one meal a day, 3 meals from 12 months old. Snacks from 1 year.

Most of the first puree are just fruit and veg and now she need different food groups, finger food and make sure you regularly given the major allergens.

No i wouldn't replace a bottle with a pouch yet. I always did food in between bottles. As food increased, the milk decreased naturally, and then i would drop a bottle. My dc still had 4 bottles at 8 months, 3 at 9 months and 2 by 11 months

And i would also give finger foods alongside purees

Weve been trying to give her some readybrek on a morning but we’ve found mornings are the hardest to introduce something other than milk but we are slowly getting there. We’ve started introducing some lumpy foods - for example we tried her with some mash and gravy (mixed together) the other day which she absolutely loved. We are trying to move away from the pouches and trying to introduce more food that we as adults each rather than everything being puréed.

Have you looked into baby led weaning? The book how to feed your baby as recommended above is good also the solid starts website x

That’s kind of roughly what we are doing in once she’s had a bottle we wait around an hour or two and then give her some food. Throughout the day we have decided to start reducing the amount of milk we give in her bottles

Breakfast was the last meal we introduced as it was harder to try and fit it in

What finger food would you recommend ? I’m really scared about her choking and I just don’t know what I’m doing as she’s my first child. My daughter is also teething at the moment so we are struggling with her eating as it is and she’s really under the weather

We are the same, we’ve found dinner time/evening has been the easiest but mornings we are really struggling with especially since our daughter is a late waker & once she’s awake she instantly cries wanting feeding.

Anything can be finger foods tbh. Toast fingers, steamed veg, banana, other soft fruits (you can steam apple to make it soft), well cooked pasta, even mashed potato!

We’ve tried her with mashed potato & added it with gravy which she loved. I haven’t seen a lot about finger foods - if I have it’s been like the melty puffs (like finger crisps) and when I’ve mentioned it to people they’ve told me to wait until she’s atleast 7 months to try those. I just feel like there’s so much around weaning I don’t know what I should and shouldn’t be doing 🤦🏼‍♀️

Was it low salt gravy?
have you tried any meats or fish or eggs?

After 6 months she can have most things. Avoid high salt and sugar foods. No honey, peanuts OK if in the form of peanut butter.
What sort of things do you eat? Can you offer any of it to her?