How often do I feed baby?

I'm a new mom and this is my first baby. I'm confused about
feedings...heard mixed things. My baby is now 6 months old. I started
on rice cereal at 5 months and then vegies. I did the orange veggies
and now we are starting the greens. We started on once per day and now
are at twice per day for the past few weeks. When do I feed him three
times a day? What do I feed him each feeding?

My baby is six months old now too. He is eating a cereal mixed with a
fruit, and sometimes just plain, in the mornings, enough cereal/fruit
to fill a stage 2 jar of baby food. In the evenings, he is eating
either a whole stage 2 jar or two stage 1 jars of a fruit and veggie.
We also start with the orange and move into the green here and then we
introduce the fruits. (some say this is a myth, but mom told me to do
it this way back with my first and since it never failed us, I still do
it - lol) Anyway, all the pros say that the nutrition really needs to
come from the breastmilk or formula for the first year. It is suggested
you make sure the solids are fed after nursing. I feed the "solids" in
between sessions so it doesn't affect his milk intake. The solids for
the first year are really to enable baby to become accustomed to new
tastes and textures is all. Some folks don't feed their babies solids
until even after a year. Anyway, I'm following baby's cues. If he seems
to be hungry and not satisfied in the middle of the day, I will add a
small introductory meal then, but for now, he seems quite content with
the feeding in the morning because he sleeps all night (if he just
nursed until he was overstuffed on milk, he spits up a lot) and is
extra hungry. We feed him the evening meal the same time we eat because
it is obvious he wants to join in. He really seems to enjoy it. lol.
Also, the stage 2 foods are really just a slightly different texture
but offer a bigger variety, so that is why I've started those. I would
like to make my own homemade baby food, but my blender broke and I keep
forgetting to buy a new one. lol.

"Sandy" wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm a new mom and this is my first baby. I'm confused about
feedings...heard mixed things. My baby is now 6 months old. I started
on rice cereal at 5 months and then vegies. I did the orange veggies
and now we are starting the greens. We started on once per day and now
are at twice per day for the past few weeks. When do I feed him three
times a day? What do I feed him each feeding?


Sounds like you're doing fine so far. I'd recommend looking at the
guidelines on the Ask Dr. Sears website:
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/T030500.asp It has good suggestions as to
when to introduce new foods.

As far as when to feed babies: before 12 months, I honestly just fed my
babies when I felt like it. I kept up a fairly regular schedule (started
with one meal around lunchtime, eventually added a meal at suppertime,
etc.), but if we were busy or if we were having a bad day, I'd sometimes
skip a meal. Before 12 months, it really is best to just look at solids as a
fun experimental time--an opportunity for your baby to try new things, and
play with the whole idea. Don't get stressed about it, and try to have fun.

Do whatever works for your family. As my babies reached 9 months or so, I
tended to like for them to sit with us at the table and play with food while
we ate, so I'd make a little something for them to eat while the rest of us
ate (or gave them appropriate bits from our plates). The amounts just
increased as baby grew and got more serious about eating.


--
Jodi
SAHM to Oliver (5 years),
Arwen (3 years),
and "bubbles" (edd May 5, 2006)

"Sandy" wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm a new mom and this is my first baby. I'm confused about
feedings...heard mixed things. My baby is now 6 months old. I started
on rice cereal at 5 months and then vegies. I did the orange veggies
and now we are starting the greens. We started on once per day and now
are at twice per day for the past few weeks. When do I feed him three
times a day? What do I feed him each feeding?

My first self-delayed solids for a long time (till he was 10mos). I just
offered him solid food at each meal time, the same time we ate. As he got
older (around 16mos or so) I also included snack times.

My second really went for solids. He started at 6 months. I added meals as
he demanded. He demanded by hollering his head off while we ate :-). IIRC
he was eating one solids meal a day for 3 weeks or so. That was lunch with
the sitter. Then we added a breakfast. By 8 months we had added supper.
By 10 months he was actually eating 4 meals a day because he wanted
breakfast at home with his brother and again at daycare, plus lunch and
dinner. I added snacks sometime around 18 mos. I fed jarred fruits and
veggies for the first month. After that I fed jarred foods at daycare and
table foods at home. By 9 months he was getting jarred fruit for daycare
breakfast and the rest was all table foods. My kids didn't gag very easily
though so textures were not a problem. They also don't have food allergies
so while I tried to follow the guidelines I didn't totally. It worked for
us but I wouldn't necessarily recommend that ;-)

Oh, at each meal I just let them eat the amount they wanted. One ate a lot,
one ate very small portions. Oddly, the biggest ate the least! I also
nursed them on demand and nursed before solids (except when they were at
daycare) until they were 12 months old. They nursed a lot. I also had a
cup of water for them at their solids meals. Not a sippy, just a regular
cup.


--
Nikki, mama to
Hunter 4/99
Luke 4/01
Brock 4/06
Ben 4/06

Hi Sandy,
First off, great job and congratulations on having a healthy eater! You
hear conflicting advice on feeding because there really is no step by
step scientifically proven method to what and when to feed or how many
times/day. Breastmilk or formula in the first year will give your baby
most the nutrition he needs. You are correct to start offering solids
around 6 months. Babies need extra iron at that age and also
developmentally, most start to want to try solids. As far as number of
times a day, just watch your baby for signs of when he wants to eat. If
he seems to want solids at dinner time too, offer some to him and ta
da...you are now at 3 times a day!
As far as what to feed, that can be a little more complicated because
in the first year there are certain foods to avoid in order to protect
against the development of food allergies. You are fine with rice
cereal, fruit (no citrus or berries) and veggies (corn can be difficult
to digest). You can start to offer proteins like meats, poultry,
yogurts, soy (avoid if family history of allergy), and egg yolk at
around 7-8 months.

Have fun and don't stress. Every baby is different in their own
beautiful and amazing way. Happy Feeding!
If you want more information, check out my website at
www.babybistrobrands.com where you can sign up for my free newsletter.

Christina E. Schmidt, M.S. Nutrition
Baby Bistro Brands

thanks for the post. In terms of nursing after he eats...he's stuffed
at that point. Basically I had to drop some nursings because he eats
twice per day and gets full. He used to eat every 2 hours exactly. He
loves to eat. He was watchign our plates and tried to grab the food
himself! At that point we decided to start.

SO back to what you were saying, your baby eats then nurses? Immedialy
after? How often does your baby eat? This is our schedule: From 9:am to
12m he eats about 6-7 times in the day. 3-4 are breastfeedings, 2 are
actual meals, and 1-2 are formula. The portions are quite big. I make
all of his food but I guess its comparable to 1 1/2 the size of a small
baby food jar.

I was concerned about adding another solid for two reason: is that too
much for his digestive system, and it will take away another milk
feeding so I wasn't sure that was a good thing.

"Sandy" wrote in message

I was concerned about adding another solid for two reason: is that too
much for his digestive system, and it will take away another milk
feeding so I wasn't sure that was a good thing.

How about nurse him before you offer him the solids? That is what I did and
we didn't displace any nursing sessions with that method. I flipped that
around at 12 months.


--
Nikki, mama to
Hunter 4/99
Luke 4/01
Brock 4/06
Ben 4/06

In article ,
"Nikki" wrote:

How about nurse him before you offer him the solids? That is what I did and
we didn't displace any nursing sessions with that method. I flipped that
around at 12 months.

LOL, some of us have babies that conk out after every breastfeed! At least, I
did with DS1, so I just offer DS2 foods from our plates at mealtimes.

The first child gets home-made baby food. The second just goes straight to
bits from our plates!

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Parenthood is like the modern stone washing process for denim jeans. You may
start out crisp, neat and tough, but you end up pale, limp and wrinkled."
Kerry Cue