Purees, Solids, Milk....Oh My!!!

[deedeew80]

Hi everyone!  I don't get to come on here quite often, but I had to get some advice.  First thing, which I know isn't the most common thing on here is.....I formula feed & use jar purees!  LOL  Just thought I would get that out in the open!  LOL!  Anyway.  My DD is 8 months old, will be 9 months on Oct. 19th.  I don't really follow the EASY per se, but I do have a schedule:

7-7:30 - Wake
7:30 - Breakfast
9:00 - Bath
9:30 - Nap
11:00 - Wake
12:00 - Lunch
1-1:30 - Nap
2:30-3 - Wake
4-4:30 - Dinner
5-5:30 - Nap (this isn't all the time though, if so, only 45min or 1hr)
8:00 - Bottle then bedtime!

So, for breakfast I give DD 2tbs of cereal & about 2tbs fruit (pureed).  The cereal is mixed with about 1 or 1 1/2 oz of her 4oz bottle.  So that usually leaves about 3oz of it left.  Prior to her eating her cereal, she will take a few "sips" of her bottle, then she will eat her cereal & fruit.  For lunch she gets the remaining container/jar of fruit from breakfast, so probably about 3tbs or 1 1/2oz, water in her sippy cup, and then a few Puffs.  After that she will have a bottle of either 2oz or 4oz, depending on how hungry she is, but usually just the 2oz.  For dinner she gets a whole container/jar of a veggie, so about 6tbs or 3oz, then a few Puffs.  After that she will have a 6oz bottle.  Her bottle before bedtime is a 6oz bottle.  So her total intake of milk/formula in a day is about 18oz-20oz. 

So my questions are.....should she be cutting out a bottle feeding?  How do I go about intruducing more finger foods to her and getting off the purees?  She doesn not like the stage 3 jar foods at all!  We do give her tastes of food that we are eating & she loves it!  I just feel so confused right now!  I know some LOs aren't even eating purees anymore!  I know she wants what we eat.  She cries for it everytime we are eating!  LOL!  I hope I didn't confuse anyone!  Sorry this is so long.  We don't go to pedi until the end of the month, so I will be asking him also!  TIA!

[Lolly]

Hey there! You definitly aren't the only one here formula feeding and using jars so there really is nothing to feel guilty of - there's 2 healthy kids on my avatar who had the same things .

Your LO is on about the minimum of milk needed at this age so I wouldn't drop any milk feeds yet. The BW is to offer milk feeds first and then solids but around 10 ish months it does often become solids first. It may help to consolidate to 3 bottles to get a bit more milk in, we did a bottle at wake up, one around 2.30 before a nap and a bedtime bottle.

As for foods, we swapped from puree by gradually making it thicker by mashing rather than totally pureeing it. We also gave finger foods from the start so they got textures and lumps quite quickly really. We always gave finger foods that were big enough to hold with a bit sticking out of their hands so they could control it and just soft enough to mush so steamed veg, toast fingers etc.

If she is interested in your foods then I would go for it to be honest. Just make sure there's no added salt and sugar in it so cook without as much as possible and season your portion at the table if you need to. Check what the recs are in your area but in the UK the only things we can't give are honey, whole nuts and unpasturised products before 1 year and to watch things like peanut butter if there are allergy issues in the family.

HTH!

Laura