Hi there
I'm not sure where you did your research so can't really comment on that, but generally the milk intake shouldn't be effected by introducing solids. The solids will add to your babies calorie intake rather than replace milk. You may see a small drop in milk intake around 10-12 months but I'd expect LO to still be having 3 or 4 milk feeds at 10 months and 2 to 3 at 12 months. You may be unnecessarily worrying where you needn't. Towards 12 months the solids do start to be more important but this is a natural progression, rather than an over night switch on their first birthday when their primary source of food changes from milk to solids (she'll still be taking 1-2 good milk feeds after she turns 1yo). The chances are you will comfortable with the natural progression and that baby will guide you well in this.
When you begin solids at 6 months there is not the same need to trial foods with a new one every 3 days, most people tend not to do this any more unless there are known allergies in the family. I know with my LO there were certain foods (eg carrots) if I had given 3 days running he would have become constipated where as having a variety of foods across the week his BMs stayed regular. Just something to think about.
On the whole your baby will guide the quantities well without the milk intake dropping. If you do see a drop in interest I suggest dealing with it at the time (post for support) rather than worrying about it in advance. Babies really can listen to their bodies well and self regulate.
Dinner time (when you introduce dinner), I'd suggest quite early. If you have a 7, 11, 3, 6.30 milk routine that last solids meal could come around 4pm - 4.30pm - however milk times may well change between now and then as naps move/lengthen and solids are introduce the milk feeds may be more like 5 hrs apart rather than 4hr (and then closer together in the evening for BT).
With regards to protein. We generally only eat chicken, turkey, fish, beans, eggs. It is rare for us to eat other meats, occasionally duck, pork, lamb. My LO was not interested in much protein and I had concerns a few times about his protein intake (more so after 1yo really), a different situation from yours but perhaps my experience can help. I focused on beans, lentils, (things like falafel, bean burgers/patties, humus, kidney bean dip), eggs, fish, pate (I made a lentil pate and a chicken liver pate, you could also make fish pate/paste).
Fish - I am not sure where your research is from. As far as I am aware there are:
- only a few named fish which are considered risky (such as shark, swordfish and marlin, raw shell fish)
- some which should be limited (oily fish for girls and women no more than 2 portions per week)
You would need to ensure there were no bones in the fish. Otherwise I am unaware of any risk related to introducing fish to a child over the age of 6 months. In the UK fish is considered a good part of a healthy diet (following the guides above).
There's a list here of iron rich foods which you might find helpful:
http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/food-sources-of-iron.phpIt depends which foods you would usually eat as a family, which you might consider making for baby, etc.
You'll see squash and pumpkin seeds listed, these wouldn't be safe if given as the seed (due to choke hazard) but can be ground and used in cooking, same with nuts (smooth nut butter for instance or ground nuts used in cooking). The list shows you the iron levels in various beans and pulses as well as the levels in dark leafy greens and tofu.
I believe it's also been shown that the iron in your breast milk is well absorbed so despite LOs iron store being depleted somewhere around 6 months she will continue to get iron in her milk.
Hope this helps some