Solid food and snack questions

[sce]

So I started my DD on solids around 6 months.  She's almost 8 months now.  She was on a 4 hour EASY and it worked really well for her.

Now we're trying to switch her to the beyond 6 months schedule, but I have a couple of questions. I'm still BF.

1)  what is the ultimate value of this beyond 6 month schedule?  On the 4 hour schedule she napped for 2 hours and had full activity and slept from 11:30-8:30 without any problems or complaints.  So that has worked really well for everyone.  Should we even switch?
2) She's a small baby and so we had to switch her to the different EASY schedules later than the suggested ages.  She just wasn't able to eat enough for the 4 hours.  That's why I'm wondering if she'll be able t follow this new schedule.
3) for the "snack" time do I pull her off so that it's not a full feed?  I just think that if she takes a full feed then she won't eat solids for lunch or dinner.
4) her poops are small and very solid and she seems to be having trouble passing them.  Is that because she's not getting enough milk or is that normal?
5) her last feed right now is at 8:30pm and then she has a DF at 11pm.

[Shiv52]

Why are you wanting to change her routine?  Is it because she has stopped napping well or night sleep hAs been affected??

Milk is the most important part of your baby's diet so I wouldn't stop a feed so she'll take more solids. Are you doing milk an hour before solids?

How much milk is she having in a day?

What solids are you giving?  A change in poos is normal but constipation is not and can be a sign of not enough milk or too much solids or an intolerance. Does your LO take any water?

[sce]

We thought we "should" change her schedule based on her age.  We didn't switch her to the 4 hour EASY until she was around 6 months.  She couldn't eat enough for it because she's pretty tiny in general.    She's probably only around 12 pounds now.  We just figured there was a reason why they recommend switching to a different schedule.  Maybe we shouldn't change it.  She naps for 2 hours at a time without any problems. eats fine and sleeps through the night from 11:30-8:30.

She's eating bananas, pears, apple, sweet potato, squash, carrots and rice cereal. 

She has milk at 8:30, a tiny bit after lunch at 12:30, 4:30, 8:30 and 11pm.  She eats for 8-10 minutes at a time which we think is probably around 5.5-6 ounces.  That's on the old schedule though.

[sce]

Sorry, I missed a question. 

No, she doesn't take water and will hardly have any diluted juice either.  Maybe a sip or two, but that's it. 

So should we leave her schedule the way it was and not worry about changing it?

[Shiv52]

You don't need to change her schedule until something changes. So unless she is refusing naps or bedtime or having NWs then I'd leave it alone!!

At 8 months mine were on much more meal type solids like chicken casserole or stew. They both also would have been eating a lot of finger foods like toast or pancakes or steamed veggies or rice cakes. Is there a reason her diet is so limited?  What does the doctor say about her weight? 

It can take a while for them to take any sort of volume of water from a sippy. I think it took me trying from 6-9 months daily for both mine to get the hang of it. I wouldn't bother with juice as it can be bad for teeth but keep going with water and she will get the hang of it eventually.

[sce]

Okay, well maybe we'll just leave her schedule alone then.  We just figured that maybe she should be up for longer periods at this age.  Thanks for the advice on that.

We haven't set up a schedule for introducing different solids, but we're getting there.  It's not limited for any particular reason.

We'll keep trying water and see how that works.  We just figured she didn't like water and so we put some heavily diluted juice in there.

Thanks again!!

[Shiv52]

If you want to use juice you are better using pure juice and you dilute one part juice/10 parts water.

[sce]

Okay, thanks for the suggestion.

So is it bad that after every time she takes solids I give her milk too?  That's what she seems to want.

[Shiv52]

No not bad at all.

So you are doing milk then solids then milk then nap?  Is that right?

[sce]

This is our current schedule
8:30 Wake and feed (breast milk)
8:45-10:30 A
10:30 S
12:30 solids and breast milk
1-2:30 A
2:30 S
4:30 breast milk
4:45-6:30 A
6:30 S
7:30-8:30 A
8:30 solids and breast milk
9:15 bath time
9:30 S
11 DF breast milk

She sleeps until 8:30.

Should we do solids at 4:30 as well?  I'm just worried that she won't be getting enough milk.

[Shiv52]

At 8 months most would be on 3 meals plus 4 BFs, maybe 5 including DF.

So looking at your routine, I'd do:

Breakfast at 9.30 an hour after milk

BF on waking from nap and then lunch at 1/1.30

BF at 4.30 then dinner at 5.30

BF at bed and DF

Does that make sense? 

[sce]

Absolutely!  We'll try that.

That will help with being able to offer her more food options as well.

Thanks again.

[sce]

So I just wanted to post an update.  We ended up leaving her schedule alone because she's still eating and napping and sleeping well.

We feed her solids one hour after every wake and BF.  We haven't started her on finger foods yet though.  We'll do that soon and we also want to try yogurt.

Her poops are sometimes still quite small and hard.  She won't take juice or water still.  She might be taking a tiny bit, but we try after every solid feeding.  Is there a better time to try?

[sce]

Okay so now we've had to change up our schedule a bit because our DD started to get fussy during eating time and nap time.  Based on the recommended schedule we would be getting 2 meals with solid food and 3 snacks with BM.  We're a bit concerned cause right now we're getting 4 milk feeds and 3 meals with solids.

With the new schedule we probably wouldn't be doing the 11pm feed either.  I just don't think we'll be able to get her to eat enough if there are only 2 solid feeds and I'm worried she won't get enough milk cause she only takes around 7 ounces at a time.

Help!

[Skadiver13]

Hi sce, just curious is there a reason you are giving her juice? She doesn't "need" anything but BM or formula at this age. You can offer water in a sippy or bottle during meals or 30 min later if you want. But my own opinion is juice isn't necessary. It sounds like she is constipated? Have you tried prunes? I'm on my kindle so I can't type much or link but have you looked at the solid board routines? 4 milk and 3 solids meals is just fine. What 11 feed are you talking the DF? That's ok you are right around the time to drop the DF too so it's ok if she starts taking less at that feed, you might find she drops it naturally.