BabyWhispererForums.com
EAT => Feeding Solid Food => Topic started by: lyssabz on April 15, 2013, 15:32:47 pm
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So I have a serious dilemma! My recently turned 5 mo old son is about 21 lbs. He's huge, 98% in weight, height etc. So we have already started him on solids last month since he needed more food. And for the month, it seemed to have been fine. But now, he seems hungry all the time. He's waking up in the morning earlier acting starving! Do I need to up his solid intake? Right now, he's eating stage 1 foods 3 x's a day. Should I go up to stage 2 foods? Would love some help!!
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What is his milk intake like at the moment? If you can that needs to be increased, often if they are hungry at this age it's because their milk needs to be increased not the early relatively low calorie/fat solids.
Laura
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He nurses 5 times a day right now., like every 4 hours.
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I would definitely increase milk intake as like Laura says that has higher calories and fat. He may actually be filling up on solids which don't have all the nutrients he needs and not taking enough nutrient-dense milk.
Do you already offer both sides at each feed? Is he having any dream feed and/or night feed. Many breast fed babies would be having 5 day feeds plus one or two NFs at this age.
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He has a dream feed. Just not sure where to give him the extra feed since he's on the 4 hr. easy schedule.
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Some babies still feed 3hrly to fit in the extra feed but I appreciate you probably feel that would be going backwards if you are already on the 4hrly feeds.
It doesn't have to be an extra feed. There are a couple ways to encourage hum to take more at each sitting. Having a break between sides, for a nappy change for example can help. Do you offer milk before solids? BW recommends doing solids an hour after milk so baby is hungry enough for the milk feeds. You could also try cutting back on the solids you offer and then he would take more milk if hungry
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Yes I nurse him first and then wait an hour or so for solids. I was just worried since his nursing started going longer and he seems STARVING during his dream feed and in the morning. But at his age, milk should still be #1 feeding source. But it's hard when they are so big and need lots of food!
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He is big but his digestive system is still the same as a smaller 5mo's and so he can get his nutrients much more easily from breast milk. He still needs time to get used to solid foods and having 3 meals a day. I don't know where you are but here in the UK the official (NHS) advice is to a third meal a day at 8mo so he is really very young to be on such quantities.
If he is hungry then he will drink more breast milk and your body in turn will make more so don't worry about that :) if he was hungry after the DF then he wouldn't be sleeping through until morning he would be waking at night for a feed.
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That's a good point! I will stick with what i'm doing + offer him more milk when needed. Seems like I can't complain really. Plus, I forgot to mention, he's teething pretty bad so that might be part of it too, poor boy!
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Ah poor boy. Maybe he would like some very cold finger food like a frozen banana to suck on. I hope the teeth stop troubling him soon.