sample day for 6 month olds??

[ethan's mommy]

hi there,

we started our son on solids just after he turned 5 months old (he was showing EVERY sign!). we started slowly with rice cereal, then oat, then barley, then veggies and now fruit.

here's a sample day for feeding (he'll be 6 months old on friday):

7am - bf and 2tbsp cereal
11am - bf and 2-3tbsp veggies (maybe a little bit of fruit as well)
3pm - bf only
7pm - bf and 4tbsp cereal (then he sleeps right till 7am!)

i have no idea when i should be upping the amount of solids or if i'm even giving him the right amount. i know he should mostly be getting just breast milk but i'm not sure when to make the switch over to solids first and then bf. and when i do that, how much do i offer him for solids?

my son is the type of baby who would probably just keep eating and eating. he doesn't seem to ever turn his head away from a spoon! he tends to slow down or not seem as zealous so i take that as a sign to stop.

any help would be greatly appreciated. i know all babies are different but would love to know what other bf'ing moms are doing with their 6 month olds.

thanks,
jenny

[TJ & Stephy's Mommy]

When we first started on solids (around 5.5 months), we just started 2 tbsp cereal and then added the veggies, fruit and now meats.  Looking at your routine, I think you are fine at what you are giving.  If you notice that your LO is still hungry then offer more.  I would definitely take the slowness and uninterest as signs of being full.

I think my LO is curently eating about 3 tbsp veggies, 3 tbsp fruit and 3 tbsp cereal and 2 tbsp meat.  We make our own babyfood, so I'm estimating the portions in tablespoons.

In terms of how much to offer, just follow your Lo's cues.  Some days he will be very hungry and some days not at all.

HTH

[JaimeC]

Hi Jenny,
Think I replied to a post from you the other day    Benjamin is nearly 6 months. We started him on solids 3 weeks ago. I tried just rice cereal with ebm for a week, but he never swallowed it. I switched to a mixed vege puree (pumkin, carrots, peas, potato) and added 2 teaspoons of cereal to that. He gobbled it all up. He now eats about 1/4 cup vege/cereal mix 3 times a day. It seems like a LOT of food to me, but I feed him after his breastfeed, and he eats it all, so I figure it is ok. He is doing HUGE poos though! He is on the same routine as Ethan, bf's at 7/11/3/7 but I still give him a dreamfeed at 9.30pm - too scared to try and drop it yet!!   I have no idea when you make to switch to solids first, milk second. Even though I have found BF difficult, thinking about starting the transition away from sole reliance on breastmilk makes me a bit sad! how crazy. My little bubby is growing up 
~ Jaime

[ethan's mommy]

thanks so much, jaime. i keep wondering when my manual for ethan is going to show up. the hospital must have forgotten to deliver it!!!!!!

[JaimeC]

Hey Jenny,
I dropped the dreamfeed last night! I figured our routines looked the same so I might as well give it a go, and he slept through fine!! woo hooo 
~Jaime

[ethan's mommy]

way to go, jaime!! ethan's been having a growth spurt this week but i still haven't done the dreamfeed. i just feed him when he wakes and each morning it's getting later. this morning it was 5am so hopefully tomorrow it'll be closer to 7 again.

how are your baby's naps? ethan is GREAT with his morning nap but HORRID with his afternoon and evening. i know most 6mos+ are on 2 naps/day but he's still doing 3. the last 2 are usually only 30-40 minutes though. the morning one is anywhere from 1hr - 2.5 hours. he wakes happy from the morning one but not from the afternoon ones.

[JaimeC]

Benjamin still has 3 naps, he would sleep for two hours every time, but I keep reading everywhere about the third nap just being a 'catnap' so I have been experimenting with waking him after 1 hour for the 3rd nap, but then I don't know what to do with him....cause he is used to being bf straight after a sleep.  All the stuff about naps I have read say that if your baby wakes up crying, its because they haven't slept enough, so try to get them back to sleep. Unfortunately (or fortunately) benjamin rarely wakes up before 2 hours, so when he ever does, i am hopeless at putting him back to sleep, I just give up and play with him    If they only have 2 naps/day does that mean that they are awake from the 3pm feed right through till bedtime??
~ Jaime

[ethan's mommy]

i'm not sure. that's what i was trying to figure out as well. it seems odd that a 6-month old can stay awake from 3pm-7pm?! 4 hours is a long time for these wee ones!!

[Isabella's Mummy (Lilab4)]

Ethan's mommy - Sounds like you are doing great with solids, we are just starting out with that too. I am glad to see that others give solids before bed. We do it at 6 and then LO goes for a bath at 7. My HV told me I shouldn't be doing it so late, but I didn't want to stop it as it works for us.

JaimeC - That's excellent. Does your LO sleep like that if you are out too?? I can't see my LO being able to stay awake from 3 until bedtime for a long long time!!

I am really confused with nap times too. My LO is 23 weeks. She has a nap of around 1.5 hours at about 8.45, which takes us to about 10.15, she is the ready to go back to sleep again at 12.15. This nap is between 40 mins and 1.5 hours (mainly 40 mins!), if she does have 1.5 hours, she wakes at 1.45 and then will want to go to sleep again at 3.45. She'll have 40 minutes and wake for her bottle, but will then be really tired by tea time and it's too early for bed. (I like to bath her at 7.00 and get her in bed by 7.30). How do I fix this??? I try keeping her awake until closer to 5 and then going for a walk, but it's a nightmare and I feel cruel as she is so tired. Any tips??

[.:alexsmom:.]

Hi,

I just started Alex on solids two weeks ago when he turned six months old.

My day is as follows

5:30 BF (no dreamfeed, hoping that increasing the solids will cut this out soon)
7:30 BF + 3 tbsp cereal
11:30 BF
3:30 BF
6:30 BF + 3 tbsp cereal.

I tried adding homemade carrots yesterday to lunch but he hated them.  He screamed/cried when I used the blender so I think that I am just going to buy food until I can introduce mashed foods.

My local health unit (canadian) puts out a publication.  It talks about giving BM/formula first until they are 9 months old.

On naps, I read that a lot of babies are on a 2-3-4 hour schedule at this time.  Meaning, the first nap is two hours after getting up, the second nap is 3 hours after gatting up and four hours later it's bedtime.  We have been on 4 naps for a while now (three 45 minute, one hour and a half) but this has all been shaken up because I took his pacifier away from him last weekend.  Since the first day, he has slept from 7 pm to 5:30/6:30 in the morning where before he was getting up at all hours.  Since then his naps have been even worse but I am working on keeping him up 2 hours before I put him down for a nap.  Today it seems to be working.

The sample menu that the Health unit puts out has a sample menu from 6 to 9 months old

early morning - BF/formula (6-8 oz) if needed until about 7 months
breakfast - BF/formula (6-8 oz)  + 3 to 4 tbsp cereal
lunch - BF/formula (6-8 oz)  + 1-3 tbsp veggies + 2-3 tbsp fruit .  Then at 7 to 9 months 1-3 tbsp meat
late afternoon - BF/formula (6-8 oz)
supper - BF/formula (6-8 oz) + 3 to 4 tbsp cereal + 2-3 tbsp veggies + 2-3 tbsp fruit
evening - BF/formula (6-8 oz) 

[Mom2one]

My LO is just over 6 months, but we started solids at 4 months on the advice of my Dr.  Mind you, we only started with rice cereal, and then gradually introduced veggies first and then fruits.  Here is what her schedule looks like right now,

7-7:30am-wakeup, 6-7oz followed by 1 tbsp of cereal, 1 tbsp of fruit
9am-nap (usually only 45mins-1hr)
11am-6-7oz followed by 1 tbsp veggies, 2 tbsp fruit
12:30-1pm-Nap (usually 1.5 to 2 hrs)
3pm-6-7oz
5pm-2oz followed by 1-2 tbsp cereal, 1-2 tbsp veggies
7-7:15pm-8oz

She used to take a 45 min catnap in the late afternoon, around 4-4:30pm, but she fights me on this nap, so we've dropped it.  But, 4 hours is a long time for her to be awake for, as she's pretty cranky by the time 7pm rolls around.  She does however, sleep for approx 12 hours at night. 

[Jenifer]

We just started rice cereal a week ago - I'm giving her 2.5tbs twice a day.  I breastfeed every 4 hours + dreamfeed.  Tomorrow we are introducing carrots.

Regarding the naps - I'm in limbo too.  She will nap 1.5 hours in the morning but then do her 45 minute nap thing in the afternoon.  She can stay awake for 2.5 - 3 hours so this puts the last nap too late (otherwise not tired for bed) - so I've been just holding her for a 20 minute nap for the catnap.  Today I put her down at 3:00, she woke at 3:45, I fed her and was just sitting in the chair with her and she fell back asleep until 5:00!  She seemed to be just sleeping lightly so I didn't move her to her crib - but why can't she just sleep that long on her own!??!

I cannot wait until we can get to 2 solid naps a day.  I thought we saw the last of the 45 minute naps a few weeks ago, but they're back this week .. 

[ethan's mommy]

yeah, i have no idea how babies this young are napping 2x/day. ethan naps 1-2.5 hours in the morning and then takes 2 30-45 naps during the afternoon. he wakes crying from them so i know he's still tired but even the times i've managed to get him back to sleep, he wakes up 5-10 minutes later crying again.

does anyone out there have advice on how to get 6mos+ babies to nap longer in the afternoon? it seems we're all having good luck with morning naps but the afternoon nap and catnap are NOT FUN!

[beaus mom]

I started my lo on solids at 5 months which was 3 weeks ago and he has now had pears, bananas, rice cereal, and sweet potatoes.  He loves everything...lucky me so far.  Our schedule has been 7am-bf....8:00breakfast....11ambf.....12:30lunch.....3:00bf.....5:30supper.....7pmbf and the 10:30 dreamfeed still. 
I'm confused because I noticed many people are breastfeeding at the same time that solids are given.  Do I need to do this or if he is okay with our schedule, just leave it as is?

[Jenifer]

Beaus mom - I'm no expert in this, but my schedule looks like yours (minus the dreamfeed).  I feed my DD solids about 30 - 60 minutes after the BF. 

Last week I tried solids first and she was not really interested in the BF after .. so for now I'm going to do BF first.

I'd say if he's doing well with your schedule, then go with it.  He'll let you know when it no longer works for him ..