Solids and milk feeds?

[Eva's Mummy]

Not sure if this should be on this board on bottle feeding but the question is, we have started weaning and she is having 3 small meals a day an hour after her bottle. I give her a couple of tbsp for each meal she would happily eat more and since 4.5 months has been screaming at me any time I eat in front of her and tries to grab my toast or whatever I am eating.

She has never really taken much milk just 3-5oz feeds, now with solids its 2-4oz (with a lot of persuading, but she has always needed persuading to take her milk). She will still take a 6oz DF my question is should I just giver her more solids as she cries for more after it is finished or should I try to move the times of the milk around or cut a bottle out to get her to take more when she does have it.

Also I wanted to try BLW along with puree's as she grabs for my toast and loves sucking on it but she gets upset and cries when it goes all mushy and sticks to the roof of her mouth. Do you think I should wait a bit longer to try it again?

Our day currently looks like this.

WU 8
E    8:10 4oz
E    9:20 porridge
A
S  10:00 - 12:00
E  12:10 2/3oz
E  13:00 solids
A
S 14:00 - 15:30
E  15:40 3oz
E 16:30 solids
A
S 17:30 - 18:00
A
E  19:20 4oz
BT 19:40

[creations]

Sounds like my DS, he never took much milk either, a constant worry even though he always gained weight ok. He also screamed the house down from 4.5 months old if he saw food. I stopped eating in front of him until 5.5 months just trying to hold off on the solids intro a little longer.
I wouldn't cut any milk feeds out yet, but you could increase the solids if she is crying for more. In general the advice is to ensure the milk intake doesn't drop whilst also allowing LO to self regulate the solids. If the milk drops too much then you could try cutting back on the solids to give milk the priority although this never helped my DS, he was a BIG solids eater but would never increase his milk regardless of the solids and just screamed at me if he couldn't eat the solids until he was full.

I didn't give any purees, BLW all the way here. I would follow her lead, if she wants some finger food go for it, if she finds certain foods too frustrating to eat then skip those for a little while and try something else instead. I avoided toast for a little while as I felt bread/toast would be spongy and stick to the roof of his mouth as you said, I was a bit worried about him choking on it actually, but after a short while I found he was very happy to eat the crust which was perfect finger food size. Then we moved on to toast fingers.
Steamed vegetables were always a great finger food here as were fruits (melon in wedges with the skin left on for grip, lightly steamed apple wedges).

[binxyboo]

And you can also add milk to the solids if you want to try to get some in that way!

[creations]

Yes true! And often advised and works...I'd suggest recording how much milk and how much dairy solids for a few days if you increase the milk/dairy in solids because I discovered with DS that the more milk I put in his solids the less he drank from his bottle (so his formula intake dropped).  If I cut out anything milk from his solids he increased what he took from the bottle (back to his original amount). I felt the formula was better for him than milk added to solids as the formula is a complete food.

[Eva's Mummy]

She really is awful with her milk always has been. Every feed she tries to sit up, turns her head this way and that, turns her body away from me its hard work trying to get her to take it. Even before solids if we were out and she was late for her bottle (maybe 5hrs)she would still not take much.

I tried her with roast sweet potato fingers but I guess I cooked them too long as she mushed them into her hands before she even got them to her mouth which just made her mad. I guess there is a fine line between soft enough for them and too soft.

I think I'm having a problem with the timing too as she is HSN so we are only doing a 2 hour A time. So if she is not due her milk (4hrs) until she has been awake for 40mins or so into her A time then her solids would be due just 20mins before her nap which by the time she is finished I feel can not be enough time before lying her down without digesting it properly.

[creations]

I found mine ate right up to nap time too, he is not HSN but even so it's really hard to fit all those milk feeds, naps and solids meals into the day. it will settle down eventually. how about starting the solids meal 30 min earlier? She may not be all that hungry for it but it doesn't really matter at this point if she doesn't eat too much.  Mine also got very angry if the food didn't get to his mouth quickly! They sound so similar!
You could try steaming sweet pot instead. it's much 'wetter' on the outside so can feel a bit slippery but it doesn't take as long as roasting. Watch them though they steam pretty quickly.
Also if she gets mad at food mushing up how about scraping it up off the table with a spoon for her and hand her the spoon, this is still self feeding.

[Domestic Engineer]

I'm all for letting a baby eat as much solids as she wants at mealtime. She knows what her tummy needs. If you give her the portion in her bowl and she wants more, give her more! After a few days if you find she's not taking in as much milk as she needs, then consider decreasing the portions of solids or giving solids immediately after the bottle.

My baby didn't do well with finger foods until he was a little older, 8-9 months, and had better hand control and mouth control. If she likes spoon foods but doesn't like finger foods, there's nothing wrong with sticking with spoon foods for now. And keep trying different finger foods - maybe there will be something she does like. I would also sometimes finger-feed him myself. I think his first successful finger foods were cheerios.

[creations]

Thanks for adding your suggestions Domestic Engineer - and welcome to BW

Just wanted to remind OP cheerios are different across various countries. In the UK they wouldn’t be considered an ideal food for a LO.  There are various baby cereals and snacks available which would be a more suitable option.