Solids before, after, or during milk?

[summersusu]

My LO has been eating breakfast for about 3 weeks now.  5 months old and doing a great job of swallowing and opening mouth to eat!
I feed him an 8 oz bottle when he wakes, and then wait about 45 min to an hour and then feed breakfast.  I read somewhere that you should feed solids and give milk at the same time.  The reason being is that if you wait another hour after giving milk to feed solids then you are introducing another feeding, in essence having your LO eat 5 times a day instead of 4 for example.
So, do you give milk before and wait like I have been doing, do you feed solids and wait and feed milk, or do you do feed solids and milk in the same feeding?  I don't know that my LO would be able to drink 8oz and eat breakfast too in the same sitting.  If I feed milk and solids at the same time should I reduce the amount of milk, I don't want him to spit up all over the place.
I see that a lot of people are feeding solids up to an hour after milk, making their LO's schedule go from 4 EASY to about 2 EASY as far as eating goes.  MAKE SENSE   I am confused
Thanks

[tylersmommy]

Once you start solids, EASY isn't always a true "EASY," KWIM? It's common to split up bottle and solids for several reasons:
- Formula and/or breastmilk need to be a baby's main source of nutrition for several more months. Offering bottle and solids separately ensures that they don't fill up on solids and lose their appetite for the good stuff.
- Most babies have tiny tummies. Some babies do great with bottle and solids together, but it doesn't work for everyone. Even most toddlers eat 5 times a day for that reason...breakfast, mid morning snack, lunch, mid afternoon snack, and dinner.

What it comes down to is what works best for you and your LO. There's really no right or wrong way to things, as long as your LO is still getting a good amount of breastmilk or formula. Good luck!

[tiki_mama]

when i started weaning my dd 3 weeks ago i gave 1 boob, then the solids, then the other boob. i found it really messed up the 'flow' of the feeding and made it all a bit stressful , so now i feed her milk and then half and hour to 1 hour later we do her solids.

she seems to enjoy having them seperately and i certainly find it much less stressful 

also, more importantly to me it means she has a full milk feed and the solids don't interfere with it 

[Karima]

when i first started giving sam solids, i would express some breast milk and then give it to him in-between spoons of solids, but i gave that up as all that expressing was such a pain.  so then, i would give him one boob (i.e. half a feed) and then solids, about 40 minutes later, and then the other boob just before his nap, but i stopped doing that when sam started refusing his breakfast!  now, i give him solids first thing after i change him and then wait a while (about 30 mins) and give him one boob and then give him another just before his nap, which seems to work for us.  so, i guess you just have to try different combinations for a while and see which suits you both and be prepared to change as they change?

[Mum-of-Two]

I am one of the Moms who gave solids with the bottle feed.  Although, I do admit it took quite a bit of tweeking.  One constipated, no sleep week I realized LO was cutting back on her formula.  I did a quick mental check of how much she was drinking and realized that might be the cause of the constipation more than the new foods.  So... I drastically cut back on the solids I was giving and luckily around the same time she FINALLY switched to a 4 hour EASY (she had done 3 hour EASY into her 5th month).  We also had a few spit up moments, but not many once we got back on track.

Her new routine is:
6 oz bottle when she wakes
4 hours later I make another 6 oz bottle, use some of it to mix 2 tablespoons oatmeal.  She eats that with just a taste of fruits and finishes the bottle.
4 hours later I make another 6 oz bottle, use some of it to mix 2 tablespoons oatmeal.  She eats that with 2 oz of veggie and finishes the bottle.
4 hours later she eats another 6 oz bottle.  Once in awhile she'll want 2 oz more.

I don't know how long this will last.  As a previous poster said, I think it is very common for kids to have 3 meals a day with 2 snacks in between.  Eventually that is my goal.  But until snacks and finger foods are introduced, this routine works for us.

Good luck!
Jill

[Lana]

Here is what we do:

7:30 bottle

8:30 fruit

11:30 bottle

12:30 veggies

3:30 bottle

5:00 cereal

7:30 bottle

This way his formula consumption is not affected by his solids. 

[Gippie]

Have to add our situation.   DD is 7m1w and (with the DF of 5 oz) takes in 40 ounces of formula per day  .  I have been doing milk then solids but I see lately that she is not hungry for the solids and then when milk comes she is really hungry - so we got on a viscious cycle of all milk.    Our Ped said 24-32 ounces from 6-10 months - if we cut the DF - we will be close - but I am going to tweak the solids and see if I can do something like

630 wake and bottle 
830 breakfast solids
9-10:30 nap
11 lunch solids
12 bottle
1:30-3 nap
3:00 bottle
5:30 solids
7 bottle
1030 df


like you all said, tweak tweak...so we will.   It's not that I want her to stop the milk, but she does not seem to be interested in food the way she was when we were still BF...maybe she "needed" it mre then and she is taking in too much formula....who knows.   She is near;y 22# at her age and no small fry - so we will see how she does.

Stacey