Starting 5 Mos. Baby on Solids

KidCo, Inc. has a baby feeding line www.kidco.com. I wish we had this when my daughter was that young. CP

Honestly, you don't have to worry about it! A baby is still getting their nutrition from breast or bottle. Feeding the baby is about exposing them to new foods and learning to eat. The cereals are pretty low in nutritional value so you can actually skip those and just go straight to giving the baby tastes of different foods. It's good to wait a few days between introducing foods to check for an allergic response. I started by giving some food in the morning, then gradually increase until baby is eating three meals a day with the family. I didn't reduce or schedule bottle feedings because that's where baby is getting their calories and nutrients.

I started my babay on solid when she was 5 moth. She is 8 mths now and doing great. I introduced one new food every 3 -4 days.

Started with
Single grain rice cereal
Yellow vegetable
Single grain Oatmeal Cereal
Green vegetables
Single grain barley
Various Fruits
Mixed Cereal
Mixed Vegetables
Wheat

So far so good no allergies and she loves eating. And associate high chair with feeding. As soon as she is on it she want to eat..:-))

Hi Liz,

My daughter, now 2yrs, began eating solids at 4 months. In the begining I gave her her bottle for most of her meals and just gave her tastes of solids during each meal. Once I saw she wanted more then her bottle, for breakfast, I would make her a regular bottle and use 1/2 the milk for cereal and the other half for her to drink after the cereal. For lunch I would give her 1/2 bottle with a jar fruit. If she was hungry between lunch and dinner, then I would give her another 1/4 or 1/2 bottle. For dinner I would give her a little of either pasta, soup (made with tiny pasta) or rice with vegies ( I don't remember if I started her on meats, if so, I would mix that in there). For dessert I would give her 1/4 jar of fruit (depending on how much she ate). Before bedtime I would then give her another 3/4 bottle.

Hope this helps.
Barbara

Nobody knows your baby better than you. I personally give a solid feeding at night and nurse during the day.It depends on how your baby responds. I have also given my 5m onth old carrots, cucumbers already... I mashed them up I hvae not give her the jarred baby food yet. Cereals are a great start You are going to do fine just follow your instincts and your babie cues you and you both will be happy!!

Hi Liz, I too have a 5 month old. What I do is nurse him first thing in the morning( not sure how much he gets from breast(4 to 5 oz). Around 9am I will give him 1oz of rice cereal and a jar(1 to 2 oz)of fruit. I continue to feed him a bottle later in the morning(6 to 8 oz) Them around 1pm I will give him the left over fruit from the morning feeding. Another bottle during the afternon and early evening(6-8 oz) then a jar of veggie and 1-2 oz of cereal for dinner. I will give another bottle before bed time(6-8oz). Remember your child need about 32oz of formula at this point. GOOD LUCK!!!!

Liz- I was stressed out about my 2 yr old when she entered the eating stage. She had reflux and solid foods only made things worse. My 9 month old has been much easier and I have found that not stressing about it makes a big difference. I currently nurse her about 5 times a day. Early morning, noon, afternoon, night, and one late night feeding, around 11 usually. Breakfast she get oatmeal with a serving of stage 2 fruit mixed with it. Then I throw some cheerios on her tray. Lunch- a jar of fruit with meat and a veggie. Throw some gerber stars on the tray. Dinner- Frtui with meat, veggie and we just started throwing raviollis or other squishy food on her tray. Our 9 month old ate regular food much quicker than our older daughter. Does not help that the older daughter "helps" feed the baby. I have caught the baby eating goldfish at 6 months. A cheese stick and raisins! Luckly no choking!!!!! Now a friend of mine feeds her same age baby completely differently than I do. We skipped rice cereal on both girls and went right to oatmeal. If you start a new food pick one and use it for a few days along with the other baby food you have already been giving to be sure there is no reaction. Try not to stress out. I feel like we caused a picky eater on our 2 yr old by stressing out about what she is eating. We are much more relaxed now. Offer healthy choices and let them be your guide. They will stop eating when they are full and eat what they need. So maybe greenbeans for a week and then refuse. Meat the next week and then hate it. Our doctor said they are great at regulating what their bodies need.

Okay enough rambling--sorry
K.

My son is now 13 mo. He started eating solids at 6 months. He was also drinking 6 or 7 8-oz bottles of formula a day. We started with rice cereal and he would only eat about a tablespoon a day for the first few weeks. During that time, I didn't change his formula feedings at all. When he started eating about 1/3 cup of rice cereal, I eliminated one bottle. When he started taking two meals of rice cereal, I eliminated another bottle. He would have one 8-oz bottle for breakfast (6:30AM), rice cereal for an early lunch (10AM), bottles around noon and 2PM, rice cereal around 4PM, and a bottle before bed. We used to give a bottle in the middle of the night when he woke up, but our peditrician said not to do it anymore once he reached 6mo.

Once he was used to the feedings, we would add about 1/3 of a large (4oz) jar of baby food to the 1/3cup of rice cereal at each feeding. We always mixed veggies with the rice cereal and fed that to him first. Then we'd give him some baby food fruit for desert - 2 tbls to 1/4 cup.

When he got teeth, we would give him an appetizer of Gerber fruit puffs or cherios to get him used to chewing. The fruit puffs soften and disolve in the mouth so they're a good first solid food to chew. Around 8/9mo. he would have one bottle in the morning, a meal at 10:30, bottle around 1PM, a meal around 4:30, and a bottle before dinner. We were mixing about 3oz of formula with each rice cereal feeding. We kept up that schedule until he was 12mo.

I never saw much difference between stage 1, 2, and 3 baby food veggies and fruit, so you might want to start buying big jars once you know what foods your baby prefers. We never switched from rice cereal when we fed him, so I can't offer any advice about that. Hope this helps you some. Good luck!

My daughter is now 7 months, I understand your confusion. I am still questioning when to move to the next step when to start finger food, what to give and how much to give. I used Babycenter.com for most of my questions and the Gerber website. Both were very helpful. I personally started with rice cereal as they said it was the mildest and less allergenic. I started with one tablespoon and moistened it with expressed breastmilk or formula. I gave it to her about 9:00 am, 2:00 pm, and 7:00 pm and gave her bottles in between. When she went on solids she took less in a bottle. Before solids she was drinking 6 oz 6 times a day. Now she takes 4 oz 4-5 times a day. I introduced first stage baby food, something new each week starting with yellow and orange vegetables (sweet potatoes, carrots, squash), then white fruits (bananas, apples, pears), I only gave about 1/2 a jar at each feeding until she showed wanting more. Then I gave her half vegetable and half fruit. Then I added 1/2 fruit with her cereal in the morning. Now she is up to 2 full containers at each feeding and 1/4 cup of cereal in the morning. As we progressed over the weeks I added oatmeal and barley cereal and green veggies and blue fruits. Now we are in stage two with mixed fruits and veggies. We tried introducing meat recently but she did not like it unless it was mixed with a veggie or fruit. We have mashed up cantalope and given it to her as well as avocado, both she loves. We try to introduce somthing new each week so that she gets a variety. It has been good for us, she is a very good eater and loves her fruits and veggies even the ones daddy doesn't like.

Hi Liz,
I was really worried and confused too. It sounds like you have done some reading as I did. I have a 2 year old son and was worried about food allergies. I used the American Academy of Pediatrics book "Caring for you baby and young Child Birth to age 5" for a guide. It was really helpful and I made my daily feeding schedule from that plus bought a couple kids recipe books. My pediatritian also recommended following the AAP guidelines but to keep in mind this is only a guide & only we know our babies the best! The book provides a suggested feeding routine by age, when to introduce solids & approximately how much, an approximate caloric intake/day, approximately how much should be solids vs. formula/breast milk and when their appetities may start to fluctuate. I made a chart that showed how many days we were on each solid and if my son had any allergic reaction. This was also helpful for our Dr visits. In addition to that I also used the Baby Whisperer books. She uses a term called EASY. Eat, Activity,Sleep,You--It helps with an overall schedule for baby that can start as early as 8 weeks and also provides a schedule for introducing solids. I also asked my pediatrician lots of questions as well. It all worked out great. My son even had some eczema to deal with, but with the chart, I was able to keep track of which foods triggered it and he has been without eczema for a year now. Good luck and remember call your pediatrician if you have any further worries, they should guide you through basic feeding. Good Luck! Judy

I can't remember the answers to the breast milk/formula questions, as my youngest in almost four. But, for each of my three children I did the following. After cereal we started veggies. I introduced a new one ever 4 or 5 days so that we could catch allergies. I think I started with the orange ones, then green etc. When we went through all of those, then we did fruits, again for 4 - 5 days. You continue to allow the veggies etc. that were previously fed. After fruits I introduced meats. None of my kids liked the meats much. I remember mixing food with rice cereal to thicken it so that they liked it. At first they don't even finish the little jar - just give what they want to eat. I believe that you can't save the food for long. So, you may be tossing some food. I also remember that at first the breast milk or formula are the main source of nutrition and the food is just a getting used to it thing. Also, we did solids at breakfast after they were used to cereal. At lunch & dinner time for the veg, fruit etc. It was nice for eating out. Good Luck, P.

i liked liked the sample meals for infants on the gerber website, they were pretty detailed. I didn't feed my children gerber, i made all there meals, but i followed there feeding recommedation on portions and times to feed.

I did the dame thing as Vibha's schedule, and also bought the Super Baby Food Diet. Dr. Sear's Family Nutrition is very good also. Try checking them out at the library for free first. Now my baby is 9 mos and eats everything, including prunes and tofu--which her parents hate!

Hello!

There is a great book called The Super Baby Food Diet. I got it from Barnes and Noble a few years ago. I heard that there is new edition. It tells you everything you need to know about feeding your child, schedules, appropriate foods for different ages, etc. I have 3 children and when I started them on food, I kept their formula schedule the same. I was told to start with lunch, so about an hour after their mid-morning bottle, I would feed them a few tablespoons of cereal. At five months you could also give her avacado and bananas. With my older one, I started out with rice and bananas and at 3, he prefers fruits over vegetables. With my twins, I started with vegetables and at 15 months they still love their vegetables over their fruits. So you may want to start out with veggies. Also, sometimes the rice (and bananas) cause constipation. Oatmeal is much better if this happens. I also added a little bit of steamed, pureed prunes into the mashed bananas for my 2 who had trouble with constipation.

Hope this helps. Just be sure to wait a few days to see if your little one has a negative reaction to the new food, give the food early in the day so that a reaction does not occur in the middle of the night, and introduce one new food at a time so that you know what food caused the reaction, if a reaction occurs.

Have fun during this stage! It's great see them eat food!

M.

In the beginning, solids are just supposed to help your baby get used to eating. They should not replace feedings just yet. I am a cardiologist now, but when I used to be a general pediatrician, I always recommended going to green vegetables after cereals, then yellow and orange vegetables and finally fruit. The green veges are the least sweet. If these are introduced after a sweeter food, they may not be accepted by your baby. At this point, your baby does not know the difference between sweet and not sweet and is much more likely to think green veges are good if they are introduced before the other foods. This does not guarantee that the baby will like the "greens" but does make it more likely. I used this technique for my 2 year old (when he was 5 mo old) and it worked great. He still eats just about anything. Good luck, and get ready to take some great photos!