How many solids and when to offer water

[lindabrad]

Sorry - this might sound like a dumb question but I am so clueless about this solids thing

DS just started solid 2 weeks ago (he's 6 months and two weeks) only once a day at around 3pm. He just keeps eating and eating though and doesn't stop unless when i stop offering him (he takes about 4 ice cubes of veggies for a meal - is that too much?) but when i do, he doesn't mind. He just seems to enjoy it.

I was just wondering if I should start giving him another meal at around noon?

Also, I have been giving him water from the sippy cup just after his meal and only today I was wondering if I actually should offer him more water (before solids I never gave him any water). He still hasn't got the idea of the sippy cup though so he hardly drink any - should I just offer it to him in the bottle?
He gets cranky when he wakes up from his late afternoon catnap and we often have to feed him straight away  so maybe giving him bottle of water might help him to hang on until his bedtime bottle.

Thanks,
Linda

[Freya'sMum]

Welcome Linda,

It would be helpful if you could post your EASY schedule with rough timings, and whether you are bf or ff to answer your question as thoroughly as we can, however here are a few initial thoughts...

...babies' appetites vary enormously, some eat very little, others seem to be bottomless pits! So regarding how much is too much/enough, as long as ds is still taking his pre-solids quantity of babymilk (eg. if he took 25oz before you introduced solid foods, he should still be taking 25oz now, and until at least 9 months), then offer him solid foods until he doesn't want any more.

You'll know if he is having too much because his milk intake will drop, and if this happens you want to decrease the amount you offer him until it picks up again. Milk is the superfood, it has everything a baby needs in it, and should be the main part of his diet until at least 9 months, the solid foods are for him to practise so that by the time he does need them in his diet, he knows what they are an what to do with them, and they do also provide extra vitamins and minerals too!

I offer water with solid food meals, if ds is still taking his pre-solids quantity of milk, he shouldn't need more liquid, so again offering water in a sippy or open cup with his meal can be just for practice.

I'll wait for you to post your schedule before attempting to answer your other queries, in the meantime do check out the FAQs because they have many useful hints and tips about introducing solid foods...

Ax

[Elizabeth410]

If he's on a 4 hour EASY and normally has a bottle around 3:00 (before he started on the solids) this could explain why he's hungry and eating so much at 3:00. I think in 'The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems' Tracy recommends starting with one baby cereal at breakfast for 3 days, then moving it up to lunch and introducing a new food (pear or apple for example) at breakfast, and then move those up (the breakfast to lunch, and the lunch to supper) to introduce another food at breakfast three days later. This way if a new food doesn't agree with him, it is less likely to affect his night time sleep.

It is good to offer water with a meal, just as long as it is not offered right before a bottle (or breast) because he could fill up on water and not be hungry/thirsty for the bottle or breast.

[lindabrad]

He is on 4 hour EASY (well at least that's what we are aiming for) and he has botttle half an hour before solids.
7.00 BF
9.00ish nap usually last about an hour. His naps have been all over the place, i think he needs extra A time but at the same time he can't handle it yet so I am just playing it by ear)
10.30is FF (depends on how long his first nap is)
1.00 or 1.30 nap
2.30 BF
3.00 solids (veggies and fruits - been on this for 2 weeks now)
4.30 or 5.00 catnap
5.30 FF, play, bath
7.00 Bed

We stop DF when started solids, he still sleeps through but woke up earlier around 6 or 6.30am instead of 7-7.30 and it's a bit too early for me so will continue doing it until he gets more than 1 solid meal and when he can take his last bottle just before bed.

I've continued giving him water just during meal and he's taking it a bit better now that I am more serious in teaching him how to drink from it.

Would you recommend me to start giving him second meal (thinking of doing it as lunch) so he'll have lunch & supper?

Oh also.. he's been having 2 poos past 2-3 days with different texture, sometimes solid/sticky(which I would expect with solid meal) but sometimes it has funny texture and colours and also maybe a bit mucousy (not sure though, maybe just a bit runny), is this normal with solids?

Thanks.

[lindabrad]

Oh - he's been having swede for meal last 4 days. Just wondering if I should worry about allergy.

[Freya'sMum]

I think a solid food lunch would be ok, organising the day to fit in meals, milkfeeds and naps is quite tricky at this stage, it gets easier when they drop the catnap, so I would aim to think of milkfeeds as the Eat in the EASY routine, and solid meals as the first bit of an Activity period, this helps to ensure that milk stays the main source of nutrition, and takes the pressure off parents and los to eat loads of solid foods before they really need to! So your schedule would look a bit like this:

7am milk
7.30am (eventually) breakfast
9am nap
10.30am milk
11am lunch
1pm nap
2.30pm milk
3pm tea
4.30pm catnap
6.30pm milk
7pm bed

Once they drop the catnap and their Activity time extends everything shifts a bit so the solid meals are closer to 'normal' mealtimes and the milkfeeds are at snacktimes (altho they stay the same quantity as before), something like this:

7am milk
7.30am breakfast
10am milk
11am nap
12.30pm lunch
2pm milk
3pm nap
4.30pm tea
6.30pm milk
7pm bed

I wouldn't be overly concerned about his poos, solid foods do take a while to get used to, and poos can take on all sorts of unexpected colours, textures and smells! If you are uncertain that swede agrees with ds, cut it out of his diet and see if things improve, and then reintroduce it a few weeks down the line and see if the same symptoms occur - it may indicate an intolerance!

Is this useful? I think you're doing fine really

Ax

[lindabrad]

Hi Alison, thanks for your reply. it is exactly the reason why I am a bit reluctant to introduce second meal as it is tricky to fit it in the routine and I don't want to complicate matters before I need to - just not sure how long I can hold on to only giving him one meal per day.

And I'll keep an eye on his poo LOL. Thanks for your help!

[~*~Little Miss Sunshine~*~]

Hi!  I too was wondering when to start another meal.  DS is almost 6months and I have just started him on oatmeal cereal for breakfast (an hour after bf).  When should I start to introduce lunch?  And also when introducing new foods, do I do that at the same meal (breakfast) or should I do the new foods at a different time.  For example, I started squash this morning in addition to cereal.  I gave him the squash first, then offered the cereal (dont' really think he liked squash all that much   I am sorry to hijack your thread lindabrad   Just didn't want to start an entirely different one when there was already one that sort of fit my question

I hope this makes sense.....LOL...it seems kind of fragmented to me 

[Freya'sMum]

It's really difficult to say what you 'should' do as all babies and families are individual so you kinda do what suits you best!

If you are spoonfeeding, which it sounds like you are, how much solid food and how often is a bit hit and miss, you have to experiment... you've started with the most sensible approach of a morning solid meal, introducing one food at a time, if your lo still seems hungry 30 mins to an hour after his lunch(ish) milkfeed, there's no reason that you can't offer him some more of what he's already had, and if it doesn't affect the quantity/duration of his next milkfeed (or his overall milk intake throughout the day) then he's likely ready for it, but if his milk intake decreases, then he's probably not - milk is still what he needs most of all, his pre-solid foods intake should remain constant until around 9 months, with solid food topping up if he's still hungry, not replacing any of the milk! If his milk intake does drop, stop the second solid meal and try again in a week or so...

Sorry if this is a bit rambly... am having NW issues with #2 and am rather sleepy! Hope it makes sense?

Ax

[~*~Little Miss Sunshine~*~]

Thanks Alison!  At the moment we are spoonfeeding but I would like to try that in conjunction with BLW   There are a few members from my old BC that are doing it and they love it  

Sorry to hear about your NWs.  Hope you get some sleep soon!!!