First time mother, Just started solids...!

qwertytlk

Hi,
just started my 5.5 months old on solids 6 days ago. We let him tell us when he was ready for sloids, instead of just starting him at 4 months. So in the last few weeks his bottles havent been satisfying him so...here we are lol!

Started him with baby rice, one spoon of rice mixed with ten spoons baby milk. This makes up a very small amount:approx 4-5 spoons(small flat weaning spoons obv!) so i gave that to him for 3 days. Next one i tried was fruity porridge, of which i made the same amount as the rice and gave him 4/5 spoons once a day for 3 days. Next im planning to try mashed up farley rusks with baby milk, 4-5 spoons once a day for 3 days.
So basically you get the idea of the way im doing it! Does it seem ok? He is also getting his 8oz bottles on top of this every 4-5 hours and he is not waking at night for a bottle.

I have a couple of questions ;

how long do we keep giving him one meal per day (4-5spoons)?

When i do increase to two meals per day? And how long before i increase to 3 meals per day? Basically approx how long on each stage?

When i increase to two meals per day should i also be increasing the amount of food, say from 4 spoons to 8 or something?


I have been offering him boiled water with his food,but from a bottle. Should i be buying a weaning cup for his driking water? Or it it still too early?





As im sure you can tell im a first time mum to all this so just want to make sure im gettinf it right and not overfeeding him or anything.

Thanks in advance for reading, any tips, advice or info is welcome!

cynder

Each baby is different, go with the flow, the baby will let you know what it wants, if his still hungry give him more food, if he refuses dont give him any more.

Hannibal Smith

What Grindelwald say....go with the flow. At this stage you're not feeding him to make him full, you're just feeding him to get used to eating from a spoon and swallowing, the nutrition and stuff they're getting from their milk.

I know I'm like a broken record now, but you really should try Annabel Karmel's book, or at least try her website. It was my bible.

qwertytlk

Thanks.
I did look uo her website but couldnt find answers to those specific questions im asking. Not sure if this is because im only using my phone for internet, which isnt great....

newmammy2011

I started my 2 boys off when they were about 5 months.
For the first week, I gave them 1 spoonfeed. which was babyrice or a fruit puree. This was with their 12 o clock bottle.
For the 2nd and 3rd and possible 4th week, I increased this to 2 feeds a day,one with after their 1st bottle at 7.30/8 (generally fruit mixed with baby rice) and then 2nd was with 12 bottle(generally pureed veg)
After that I went onto 3 spoonfeeds so was the same as 2nd and 3rd week and then another one at 4 with a bottle.Have been using Anabel Karmels book for recipes!
I never really counted how many spoons I was giving them...just sort of kept feeding til they seemed full!
I did get freezer containers in boots(it was sort of like a rubber ice cube tray) and each portion is 1.5oz's. At the start they would have had one of these between them, then gradually one each.....but now at 7 months they would have roughly 2-3 portions each!

LashingLady

Instead of moving on to fruity porridge and rusks after baby rice I would try him with some fruits and vegetables first. Maybe your lineup might look like this:

First 3-4 days: 1 meal, baby rice (with lunchtime bottle)

Next 3-4 days: Pureed apple or pear (with lunchtime bottle)

Next 3-4 days: Lunchtime: Pureed carrot
Teatime: Fruit, rice, or mixed fruit and rice
(still offering bottle with both meals)


Next 3-4 days: Lunchtime: Mashed potato / pureed sweet potato / turnip etc etc
Teatime: Fruit, rice, or mixed fruit and rice
(still offering bottle with both meals)

Once you're at this stage you're away and you can start adding extra tastes to meals - like chicken and beef once he's going on the veg. I think once he's happy on two meals you can add in brekkie but I wouldn't rush it to be honest. You'll know when he's starting to be getting hungry before lunch and you can start giving it to him then. It might be a good few weeks off though.

Things like fruity porridge and sunshine orange and farley's rusks are handy but they're really expensive, full of sugar and you can make better yourself. Ready Brek is just milled porridge oats, it's really cheap, and if you mix it with fruit puree it's fruity porridge!

Good luck! I remember being really stressed when weaning my first baby but really just take it slowly and enjoy it. Maybe give him half his bottle first, then some solids then offer the rest of the bottle. He will probably cut the lunchtime bottle out in a few weeks.

qwertytlk

Thanks great advice. Im happy enough with it all now
lashinglady, i know theyre expensive/sugarey etc but i dont plan to continue them forever. Over the last month or so i just picked up a few jars and rusks etc when they were on special. Basically just untill i got settled with the whole weaning thing. Then i plan to puree fruit and veg, all fresh and full of nutrients. Maybe just give him the odd rusk or liga.
Thanks all. Oh btw, about the weaning cup, should i try that now too or wait a bit longer? Thanks

LashingLady

I know I was the same with jars - my two got a good few of the pureed veg jars and lots of the pureed fruit pots. I was very bad at pureeing! Once they were happier with mashed food it was easy to just cook up a casserole and use the potato masher afterwards. I dont' have a problem with jars. I read the side of the jar and if I'm happy with the ingredients, ie they're the things i would put in a dinner myself then I think they're fine. The Organix ones in particular are very tasty!!

It's just the fruity porridge and sunshine orange types that I have a major gripe with, especially when you can easily get the same effect with plain rice or porridge mixed with fruit. It's tasty but with only three ingredients and no added sugar.

I don't see any reason not to try the cup, but the bottle of water is no problem either. With my first he wouldn't take to a cup at all until after he was one and then he was motoring. As long as they get used to drinking a little bit of water with each meal. For my second I just gave her water for a long time and only now at 14 months I'm starting to give her a little drop of fruit juice in the water. I think it's better to get them happy with plain water.

Re the sugar, I think the less sugar the better because later on you will be tortured if I child has too much of a sweet tooth. They are like addicts. I'm at the stage now where I prefer not to give my 3 year old one treat because once he gets a taste of it he will hound and hound me for more. I had rusks for the baby and I gave him one and he was back in in a few minutes for "more rusks?".

How Strange

I totally agree with LashingLady about packet foods. Watch out for foods sweetened with sugar such as risks and liga and sunshine orange. The organix range is great and I get the biscuits for my fella. Try to focus mainly on homemade food and keep the packets etc for the days when you're out and about.

qwertytlk

I agree. Thats actually what im using, i have a few jars of the hipp organix food, then i got 3 packs of 4 organix fruit purees. Will see what he likes etc then start making my own in a few weeks.
Thanks for all the advice. Think il buy a little weaning cup and try him with it, no harm:)

How Strange

Definitely introduce a sippy cup with meals. I tried loads of different ones and the tommy tippee seems to be the best as he doesn't have to suck to get some water. Also stick to water so he gets used to it because if you start giving him fruit juice etc he won't like plain water.

I was totally clueless about when to increase the amount of food but he started in crèche at 7 months and from then on he was getting breakfast, lunch/dinner and a snack. I think he'll let you know when he wants more but by 6.5 months he should be comfortable with breakfast, lunch and supper in small quantities.

annamcmahon

When I started weaning my daughter I found the Organix and and Ella's Kitchen packs great for trying out new flavours. I get one with one food she hadn't had before. Superquinn also have a range called Truely Scrumpious Organic (or something like that) which was good too. I spotted it in Aldi for the first time yesterday. They don't work out too expensive when you're getting 2 meals out of one pouch. It's when you need at least 3 a day that it's costly.

Once your little lad is 6 months you can give him Ready Brek made with formula or cow's milk or I use stewed fruit because she's a problem with cow's milk and breastfed. Ready brek has no added sugar or salt and basically the same as baby rice but in a much bigger box for less money.

Definitely try a sippy cup but if he's anything like my daughter he might just play with it for a bit before drinking from it.

I make up fruit and veg in batches and in a hour could have 3 weeks of food in the freezer. Initially did purees and then just started mashing once she was 7 months.

implausible

annamcmahon wrote: »

Ready brek has no added sugar or salt and basically the same as baby rice but in a much bigger box for less money.

On that topic - the Tesco stuff is way cheaper and is the exact same stuff!