Portion sizes for 28wk old

[fleacircus]

DD started on pureed fruit/veg at lunchtime at 25wks (yes, I know, bite me). We have gradually increased the quantity and also started giving her fruity baby porridge at breakfast. I'm now back at work and the amount of BM she takes varies hugely depending on whether I'm around to feed her. But basically she now has:

Breakfast (when we wake up): BF
2nd breakfast (about 9.30am): 1tbsp porridge mixed with EBM + 1tbsp mashed up fruit
Mid-morning milk - EBM or BF
Lunch: 2-3tbsps mashed or pureed veg, either sweet potato or potato plus one other. Plus water to drink.

BF on demand for rest of day, usually two large afternoon feeds, another one just before bed and she almost always wakes up in the night at least once for another feed.

We're about to introduce dinner, which will be normal home cooked food for her to feed herself rather than mush. For tonight we're thinking scrambled egg and toast fingers. What I'm worrying is whether we're getting the quantities right, especially as she wont accept EBM when I'm not there. I veer between thinking it's much to much and then panicking that I'm starving her.

Oh, forgot to say, she often has about 1tbsp fruit after the veg at lunchtime.

i think it depends on your baby's appetite - my DD is very hungry and generally a big baby. She is 31 weeks (i think - almost exactly 7 months) and would demolish portions like that in an instant

she is ff and has 3 7oz feeds per day plus 3 meals of solids, the portion sizes of which for the last few weeks have been around:

breakfast - 6 tablespoons of porridge, mixed with cow's milk

lunch - 1 ice cube rice, 1 ice cube sweet potato mash, half a pouch of ella's kitchen stuff mixed in, slice of bread with philly or some pasta or similar, 2 slices of fruit, yogurt if she's still hungry

dinner - as lunch but with 2 cubes each of rice and sweet potato mash

eating more in the day means she now sleeps 7.30 - 6.30 am, whereas she used to wake around 3-4 am

I guess you need to work out if your baby wants/needs more by offering more and seeing if she takes it - i arrived at DD's portion sizes by offering food until she was clearly full

This about what DD would eat at this age. It takes time to build up quantities, and I was often amazed and how much other babies ate compared, but then many babies ate this much.

Remember - Food is Fun until they are One. Dont force it if she foes not want more than you are offering, especially if she taking milk.

forgot to add - i think introducing family food is a good idea. my DD LOVES anything she can feed herself. as soon as she realised such a ting was possible, pureed things failed to impress her much

yes, agree completely with pavlov - it's so individual. my DD LOVES to eat and has taken to weaning like a fish to water - the thing i really watch is that she has enough milk

right, will stop posting now

Oh and in respond to the BLW - DD did this too and as with pinata she took to it immediately, and went off puree. She did till eat it from time to time, mainly fruit puree/yoghurt, but much prefered chunks of food.

We started with cooked sweet potato chips, cooked apple, carrots, scrambled egg, eggy bread strips, chopped up mushrooms (she loves mushrooms). As she became confident in this, we became more adventurous and gave her large pieces of boneless pork chops to chomp/suck (so big she could not swallow and choke, with no/few teeth!) we also gave her soup, and cottage pie, and porridge on a plate just to pick up and eat.

It was messy but she ate more doing this, and had a great time! She eats what we eat and has done from as early as she wanted to, minus the salt, and her appetite is great, she does not always eat loads but she only dislikes peppers.

Thank you, that's reassuring. She doesn't always finish what we're offering her at the moment so I guess it must be about the right amount. The scrambled egg and toast went well, although I ended up giving her some from a spoon as she was getting a bit frustrated. She had cauliflower cheese yesterday, it went absolutely everywhere but I think a little bit went in!

Another stupid question - I'm planning to bake a potato for her tonight, to mash up the inside with cheese and give her the skin separately, probably cut into biggish strips. Is there any problem with giving her the skin? DP is a bit worried about it but I thought it would be good for her to chew on.

i give DD things with skin on all the time - she doesn't have any teeth yet, so she tends to suck whatever it is off the skin and then spit the skin out

I do this with potato, nectarines, plums and pears. occasionally some has broken off, and she coughs it back up - it's nerve wracking the first time, but worth it, as she now rarely ever chokes on anything

i'm sure you'll be watching like a hawk in any case