Foods for 6 month old

[jennc123]

Hi,
I feel kinda clueless but at 6 months what can they eat and what can't they eat.  right now she has jarred organic baby food, or gerber, veges, fruits but mostly breastmilk, and she loves eating her solids..ogh also rice cereal every morning.  My mom mentioned to me that at this age they can have infant juice with water in it?  i didn't know this so yes i feel sorta clueless :oops: ...any advice appreciated!  thanks

[mattandcindy]

My ped said at this point they should be doing cereal 2x a day and alternate fruits and veggies each feeding with the cereal.
I have a sheet from her office that says at 6 months you can give them 1/2 fruit juice, 1/2 water in a sippy cup. My ped said that I should just start with water and see if she will take it, giving her the sippy cup is just mostly for practice right now anyway. She said they don't NEED juice right now and to definitely not put it in a bottle for them.
I have decided just to not give juice until it gets closer to a year, if she is happy with water than so am I!
HTH

[jennc123]

i have been giving her cereal with fruit for breakfast and dinner solid feeding and lunch its usually some vege with fruit or fruit.  the cereal is good for the calories and seems to keep her full longer.  I let her have a sippy cup this morning with a little breastmilk in it for fun, she didn't know what to make of it, she can hold it fine but the sucking part may take longer.  thanks for your input

[Tammy: Ethan & Kaden's Mom]

Cindy - can you tell me what you feed your dd at each solids feeding?

Right now, I'm doing

Breakfast - bottle & cereal
Lunch - bottle & fruit
"Snack" (for lack of a better term) - bottle only
Dinner - bottle & veggie

I was giving bottle & veggie & cereal at dinner, but it was too much for him.  And my ped didn't really say that they needed a certain amount of cereal each day, just to give some, as much as he wanted to eat.

Also, how much baby food does your dd eat at one time?  Right now, Ethan is taking about 1/2 a 2.5 oz jar, so 1.25 ounces, plus a 6 oz. bottle.  Just curious to know how much baby food others are eating.

Thanks!

[Leah's Mom]

Tammy - You should check out our chat in the EASY forum labeled Jan/Feb 05 chat. There are a bunch of us chatting about out LO's that were born in January or February. You are more than welcome to join us. We ask and answer questions back and forth! Ethan is doing exactly what Leah is doing. I only give cereal once a day too. She is eating 2.5 ounces at each feed, sometimes she will eat 3.5 ounces (2nd food jar - plastic ones). Check out our chat, you will find all of our schedules etc. 

[mattandcindy]

Tammy.
Again Ethan is SO cute!

We do the following for solids:
Breakfast-bottle and fruits and cereal
Lunch-bottle and veggies and cereal
Afternoon-snack bottle only
Dinner-bottle and fruits and veggies

I do this because if I give Abigail to much cereal it really constipates her. Also, I have to give her prunes everyday so she will stay regular, so I am a little heavy on the fruits. Also, I mix it up some, depends on what I have but basically I try cereal twice a day, veggies twice a day and fruit twice a day.

From your schedule, it looks like you are doing a great job.

[Deb_in_oz]

just wanted to chime in about the juice.  i would hold off on it as long as possible.  unless you fnd over time that your lo 1) won't eat much fruit or 2) won't drink from a cup i would avoid it.  it is a great strategy for either of those cases though.

i would offer just water or EBM / formula in the cup and persist that way so they don't look for juice in it...  water is the best thing for  them as they get older. 

the reason why a lot of grandparents think kids shoudl be on juice is because formula in the early days did not have vitamin C in it and peds told them to give us jice to get the vitamin.  now formula covers that base and obviously breastmilk has all nutrients too.  it is better for them to get it from fruit once they are on solids so try that first and offer juice if necessary to encourage drinking or if lo is not taking much
fruit.

Alex is now 26 months old and has never had juice - drinks tons of water .  she eats a wide variety of fresh fruit as her "dessert" for each meal or as many of her snacks. 
just 2 cents worth from  me

[jennc123]

thanks, my sisters both had children before me and they do things different i guess, and things have changed in 33 years since my mom had me