Where do I fit in solids into EASY routine?

[careenk]

Hi all,

I have a 4.5 month old and starting to think about weaning, but have no idea when to start...as in with which feed?
I will start with morning feed r maybe the 11am feed with some baby rice to start, but when building up to 3 solid meals a day...just not sure where to fit this in?

I am on a typical 4 hour routine and we feed at 7am, 11am, 3pm and 7pm, with some variation obviously.

Would be great if someon could help a bit!
Also, when does the routine change to something else?  Or will I just feed solids at 7am, say lunch and 7pm and then milk inbetween later?

A bit confused!?!

Thanks in advance!

[anna*]

Most advice is to hold off weaning until 6 months - but to answe ryour question...

At the beginning you'll give solids an hour after the 7am feed. Then after a couple of weeks, add another meal an hour after the 11am feed. And then another little while (you guessed it) after the 3pm feed. Some time around 8-9 months you'll find baby is not taking as much at one of those feeds, so you'll probably drop either the 11am or 3pm milk feed, maybe adjust the timing a bit. By the time s/he is 12 months old you'll probably be doing just morning and bedtime milk.

It is a bit of a juggling act at the beginning, and there's definitely a time when it feels like all you are doing is feeding - either solids or milk!

[mummy2boys]

I've been wondering this too
I'm hoping to get to 6months but she's feeding every two hours at the moment

[careenk]

Thank you for your reply Anna. I have been giving my boy some baby rice and started on some fruit which he seems to like. I have however been giving him his milk and solids together, so will be changing this from tomorrow. I have more questions though!

Do the nap times stay the same then say at 9am and then at 1pm-ish? So they will have say an hour after solids before nap again?

When do you give them "dinner" as such? Will 4pm be their last solid meal then? Until what age roughly?

Sorry for all the questions, just having a hard time getting the solids thing organised!

And when did you start giving pieces of food rather than puree? If you even did purees? I am worried about choking....like i am sure everyone is!! 

Thanks in advance!!! 

[anna*]

Nap times are always moving, because as they get older they can manage longer awake times between naps. If you stick to the same nap times you'll start to get short naps from under-tiredness. So at 5.5 months most babies can manage maybe around 2.5hrs awake time, at 7 months that will be maybe 3hrs, and 9 months 3.5hrs... etc.

4pm will be the last solid meal for a while, but you could make that 5pm if it works with your bedtime routine and for your family. We eat as a family at 5.30pm so that has been 'dinner' for my daughter almost since the beginning of weaning, but it was a while before she was able to handle it without being totally overtired.

I never gave purees at all, just chunks of food right from when she was old enough to grab them and stick them in her mouth!

[careenk]

Hello,thanks again for the reply.  It may be a stupid question, but why no solids. In the evening? I have been giving some porridge actually at 7pm....hope that wasn't bad!!!! We have evening milk and bath at 7pm and usually catnap at 5 or maybe 4 or 5:30,depending on naps during the day. 

[anna*]

Because at this stage we don't want to replace any milk - solids are in addition not a replacement - so you'd want t keep a full milk feed at bedtime. Solids too close might mean less milk and also more likely to cause gas in the night.