Weaning by age or weight...?

[George's Mum]

My DS is nearly 5 months old and on the advice of his health visitor, he started weaning at 4 months - his birth weight was 10 lbs 12 oz and he is currently 22 lbs at nearly 5 months old (he is in proportion, ie. he's a long baby too and is fit and healthy - just a very big boy!).  He was starting to wake up hungry in the night and was clearly not satisfied with his formula feeds only, hence beginning introducing solids.

There's lots of advice on when to start and what foods to give, but the guidelines for amounts tend to refer to the age of the baby, not the weight. 

My dilemma is should I feed him for his weight or age?  He's loving his solid food and sometimes I think that he'd keep eating if the food kept coming (the food always runs out before he stops opening his mouth for more!), but I'm a bit confused as other babies his age do not have nearly this amount.

He has:

Morning - 2 tablespoons dried cereal mixed with 4 oz formula and half a banana plus 2/3 oz of rest of formula.

Mid morning - 6 oz formula.

Lunch - 3/4 "ice cubes" of veggies plus 2 ice cubes of fruit.  Water.

Mid afternoon - 6 oz formula.

Tea - same as lunch.

Bedtime - 8 oz formula.

Any advice would be appreciated.  Thanks. :?

[Katet]

I am also the mother of a big baby (#2 big baby actually, this one is 9kg /20lb at 4mo).
While I'm going to hold out on the solids... I tend to think in terms of an average between the size (ie my lo is 4mo, but the size of an average 6-7mo) so I tend to work on expectations of an average 5mo! So I'd look at your lo as maybe 6.5-7mo!

[tylersmommy]

As for amounts, your best bet is to track his formula intake and go from there. At his age, he should be getting about 32 oz of formula per day. Once his formula intake is around there, you can tinker with different amounts of solids to see what fits in with this. Keep in mind that formula should remain his main source of nutrition until you transition him to whole milk at 1 yr, and solids are just a supplement.

As for what foods to introduce, go by age. Food introduction guidelines are based on development of the digestive system, which isn't necessarily more mature for a bigger baby. HTH!

[George's Mum]

Thanks for the advice - as you say, as long as he's getting his main source of nutrition from milk, perhaps I shouldn't be too worried yet about how much solid food he is eating.  I'm sure he'll tell me as we go along!  He has actually started to lose a little interest in his solids after the first few spoons, so maybe the novelty has wore off and he's stopping when he's had enough.

[OrlaB]

My ds was big, and I weaned him at 4mths too.

I found that as long as he was able to sleep through the night, that he was getting enough calories during the day. Then as he got bigger, he would start to wake, and I would simply "up" the amount of food given.

You can also give him snacks like 1/2 rusk broken down with formula/ breast milk or fruit puree if your not keen on giving him too much food in one meal.

Best of luck. Look forward to finger foods, that's when the fun really starts!!