Question about switching bottle and solids feeds around and finger foods.

[lukemom]

Hi!

This may sounds like a silly question, but why do you switch giving solids first and then bottle when your LO's are around 10 months old?  My LO will be 10 months old and about a week and I am wondering if I should be doing this.  He is still on 4 bottles and eats three meals a day.  I was wondering I should also be weaning the 4 oclock bottle or do I just let him wean himself?  AS for finger foods, I get that i can give him what ever he has already eaten, but my little guy just kinds mashes it around on his tray, doesn't really eat it.  I am assuming this is how it goes until he gets better at the pincer grasp.  Just need some reassurance.

Thanks in advance!!!

[Seona1973]

I never switched solids and bottle round as my lo's dropped their daytime feeds instead i.e. they had milk feeds at 7am, 11am, 3pm and 7pm with solids at 8am, 12pm and 5pm.  The 11am feed was gone by 9 months and replaced with a snack and drink of water and the 3pm feed was gone by 10 1/2 months and again replaced with a snack and drink.  Re finger foods - just keep offering them at meals and he should get the hang of it eventually.

[bennysmama]

With finger foods, what worked for us was this:  I'd offer the wedge of eg potato from my hands, DS took a bite and then reached for the food....and from there began picking things up from his plate.   It WILL happen. Be patient.

Also we replaced the 4pm bottle with snack (yoghurt) around 11-12 mos.

Big hugs!
xxxx

[Mimi 2]

Hi!

This may sounds like a silly question, but why do you switch giving solids first and then bottle when your LO's are around 10 months old? 

It is not a hard rule that you have to switch the order of milk & solids.  It is what most moms found to be effective for them to encourage more solids intake and less dependence on bm/formula.  By no means does this mean that bm/formula is not nutritious or not important at this age.

If your lo is doing great with solids and the current routine works for you then don't change.  You will find that as your lo gets older he may decide to do this himself.  That is he will want to eat food then have his milk or drop one of the milk feeds.  DS was like this at around 10/11 mos but I still offered 4-5 bf despite him love eating food.

With finger food it does take a LOT of practice.  So be patient.  Maybe offer something that he is already familiar with in puree form.  puree yams could then be yam fries or mashed bananas becomes bananas sticks.  Check out the Finger Food thread for some great ideas.

HTH