Eating Solids- Hjow Much?

Set up regular mealtimes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You can breastfeed/give formula before or after the meals but I'd wait an hour or so because when they are full of milk they don't want solids. I always breastfed my son about an hour before a scheduled meal. When offering solids they will tell you when they are done.

My pediatrician gave me a great chart for how much babies should be eating at certain ages. Here is what it says for 6-8 months:
If you're still breastfeeding: on demand
Formula: 6-8 ounces, 3-5 times a day
Grains: Baby cereal (iron fortified) 2-4 Tablespoons, 2 times/day
Bread/Crackers: 1/2 slice or 2 crackers, just offer for a snack or with meals
Fruit (pureed): 2-3 Tablespoons, 2 times a day
Veggies (pureed): 2-3 Tablespoonss, 2 times a day

This is just a guide, some babies will eat more/less, but this helped me. Also be careful with the juice, my pediatrician actually recommended never giving juice. But if you do water it down because juice is full of sugar and she doesn't need all that sugar. You should also be giving her just plain water, not sugar water. I really don't understand why those nurses would tell you to give her sugar water...hmmm.

As for her BM's as long as they are not little pellets (constipation) then she is probably getting enough fluids. If you're still concerned keep offering her water or watered down juice. It's really best to get her used to drinking just water. I hope that this helps. If you would like the rest of the chart above (it covers 0-24 months) I'd be happy to email it to you. Just send me your email address.

Your baby will dictate how much she wants to eat. The best advice (that I found useful) is not to force, but try your best to feed her solids at about the same time each day and hopefully it's a time that she is hungry. If you are using formula, again, alot of formula fed babies have overweight problems because Moms try to get them to finish a bottle when the baby may only want 1/2 of it. When she says she's done, then let her be done until she asks for more.

Don't worry about what people suggest is the recommended amount of food as each baby is so very different and the same baby can eat totally different from one day to the other.

My boy is still primarily breastfed as he has little to no interest in food (he's 13 months) and is a healthy 24 lbs. and pretty tall for his age. Unless you are starting to notice a failure to thrive, which at her age she'd have to lose a lot of weight since she would most likely be slimming down between 6-12 months.

As for water and juices, just keep trying and one day it will click. And if you are still breastfeeding a little, she's getting a lot of nutrition from you anyway even it's just in the mornings and the bed time snack.

I try to listen to my baby more than people who are offering statistics based on averages of lots and lots of different babies.

Hi M.,

Our child ate anywhere from 4 to 7 jars a day at that age. However, she was pretty much bottle fed except collostrum. Have you spoken to your pediatrition about how much food she needs? I'm not extremely knowledgable abt breastfeeding, and if that makes a difference in amounts. I'm suggesting a Dr. chat because I was unable to breastfeed and didn't do as much research as I should have due to no milk coming in. Surely the Dr. will have more information on the matter. One thing I can say is, though your child does not talk, they know how to let you know when hungry. Listen to the types of cries. Try not to stress as much about it as well. You know your baby, so trust yourself, as well as her.

Blessings,

K

I have a 13 month old who is still breastfed and eats solid food when she feels like it. She only started to show a lot of interest in food when she was about 10 months old. Then and even now all she wants is things she can feed herself. I don’t measure anything and never have. I offer her 3 meals a day at about the same time every day. I do not give her something to drink with her meals so she can’t get full of just liquid. I do offer her snacks between meals and she always has a cup of water. It is usually on the floor with her toys so she can get it if she wants. I serve new food and things she doesn’t like with food I know she likes. That way I know she will eat something. I never force her to eat and as soon as she is done we stop. I want her to have positive feelings about food and meal time. There are days when she will not eat anything but cheerios and other days where she eats everything I put in front of her. Her check ups are always great and she continues to gain weight. As for the poop problem if it is not hard little pellets I don’t believe it is constipation. I have never heard of giving sugar water, we always offer water alone. I do give her orange juice when she is starting to get a cold, just for the extra vitamin c. You could always try prunes. I think Gerber makes some jarred baby ones. I hope this helps and good luck!

well my son is very much the same as your daughter he was brestfeed and I still breast feed but I went back to work
your daughter may have the same hunger cry as before when you only gave her boob
I started out small at first then I mixed 1 fruit or veggie a week to make sure he wasnt going to have an allergic reaction to what I was giving him
next in the morning I would mix one bottle of formula with about 1/2 of the little Gerber fruits and fill water to about 6 oz and 3 scoops of formula next I would add about 3scoops of rice ceral to that mix or shake well that would hold him about 9:30 10ish tops I have a daily routin get up about 7 change & feed him about 7:45 and mix the food with the bottel I try to combime that with a few 6oz bottels through out the day my son still sleeps alot and @ night I give him the other half from the mornig and the ceral and after that I give him more boob when and if he has that hunger cry other wise he is good to go
and with the hard stool I give him 4 oz water with 1 #1 gerber first foods jar of the purnes mixed he really likes and and it lossins him up if he gets a little gassey I pat his tummy and give him the gas drops
dont worry about not givin your daughter enough to eat she will let you know after she eats the solids anyways good luck I hope this helps you
M.

M.,

My suggestion right now, if you are still breast feeding, is to use the solids to help if she is still hungry or substitute one session of breast feeding with the food. Make sure you still pump that skipped feeding or you could start to loose your milk. You balance her diet just like you do yours and I would use her palm size as a serving for her. She needs vegetables, fruit, and grain first, and then add protein and milk. She gets most of that from you anyway.

Call me if you have more questions. We can do an evaluation on your lifestyle and what you are currently doing.

Remember that fresh is best and just put it in a processor.

Hope this helps.

L.
Nutritionist
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Since she is only seven months old, I wouldn't really focus on food yet if she doesn't seem too interested. You can still try introducing new things, but I would breastfeed/or formula feed first (as it's still the most important source of nutrients), and then maybe an hour or so later try giving her some food.

As far as the constipation....are you giving her rice cereal? RC causes a lot of constipation in babies. You could try switching to oatmeal, or a mixed grain cereal.

On the juice, if she doesn't like it, I wouldn't make her drink it either. The only thing juice offers is a whole lot of sugar. If you still see that she is constipated after switching cereal, then I would try a little juice to loosen up her stools.