HOw much solids should my 5.5 month old get daily?

My baby has been on solids for a few months now, but i was just wondering how much my baby( or i should say a 6 month old baby) should be getting daily of solids. My DS will be 6 months old this saturday. How many jars a day of fruits and veggies should he be getting, i wasnt really sure on how much solids they should be getting a day. I breastfeed him by the way too. He needs something other then breastmilk, cause he seems like hes not satisfied with jsut breastmilk, thats why i started giving him cereal/ babyfood now. I just needed to know how much is enough or how much is too much babyfood in one single day???????

He will let you know when he is full - I think by that time jack was only half a jar at a time

Solids should only be tastes for the first year of life complimenting breastmilk and/or formula. That being said Kylie was only getting literally a few spoonfuls before a year. It was well after a year that she started taking 1/2 or a full jar of baby food.

So what your saying is that i shouldnt give my son NO BABY FOOD/OR CEREAL till hes a year old???? I cant do that!! I will nurse him and nurse him and nurse him, and he still cries wanting to eat. ( knowing for a fact that he is still hungry, cause he continuously route on me, or sucks his hands, and cires) Ive tried giving him a binki, but he does not want it. He wont take it, he chews on it and wont suck it. Every feeding he eats maybe 10-15 mins at each feeding, and then he pulls off, and im constantly latching him back on and he keeps pullin off. After he pulls off he constantly will keep routing on me, and cry at the same time. I keep latching him back on but he pulls off. Thats why i give him baby food/cereal. When i do that hes fine he doesnt route no more or cry, he seems SATISFIED THEN!! I dont know what else to do, cause he constantly is nursing and still wants to eat. I have to give him solids.... What should i do????? Is my breastmilk not satisfying him?????Im worried cause he seems sooo small for a 5.5 month old and all he does is cry wanting to eat... Help please....

According to the back of the box of rice cereal I have at 6mths your baby should be eating solids at least 3 times a day. Dont know for sure but thats what the box says.

Lisa

See its just everyone is telling me different things, i know that they are giving advice, i just wanna do what is best for my baby, but like ive said, hes not satisfied unless i feed him babyfood/cereal. What should i do bout my breastmilk, it just seems like its not satisfying him????

well, you could always ask your ped if you want some medical advice, but we are just telling you what we did at 6 months of age. Every baby is defferent.

At 6 months, my son ate maybe 1/2 jar of gerber fruit cereal mix and some cheeriosfor breakfast, 1 jar of fruit or veg at lunch, and 1 jar of a meat meal like squash-corn-chicken or carrots-beef-barley. He sometimes didn't finish the jars., but I was offering 3 meals by about 6 months and we conitued this was until about 10 months. At 10 months I agve up baby food altogther and just gave him table food.

We are just giving you some advise on what our babies do, in the end you need to listen and watch your baby. If the baby still seems hungry then feed her. For instance my son who is bf started eating cereal at 4 months and NOW at 8 months I'll give you a little peak into his food schedule. He nurses in the morning, then today he ate french toast and blueberries for breakfast, a mid morning snack of yogurt, lunch today is mac and cheese and carrots, an afternoon snack of something small like strawberries, he nurses in the afternoon SOMETIMES, dinner chicken, a veggie, and then applesauce, and then he nurses before going to bed.

SO every child is different, Tripp LOVES to eat so he eats A LOT of solid food while still nursing so I think if you want to give your child solid food and more of it GO FOR IT--every kid is VERY different

My turn....

My son is an eater. I waited until 6 months to start him on solids but he has already worked up to nursing first thing in the a.m. then a few spoonfulls of oatmeal mixed with fruit, during the early day he nurses a couple of times then at lunch he has a jar of food or some mashed up bananas or avocado, he nurses 2-3 times in the afternoon and for dinner he eats a fruit and veggie along with some finger foods like the Gerber puffs.

My daugter primarily nursed her first year--she had some fruit and veggies but she was much more satisfied with my breastmilk, Jack is not. I wish he was but he is MUCH more hungry and demanding of real food. He let me know by attacking me whenever I ate anything.

Read the cues---he will leat more some days than others--don't worry about giving him a set amount---if you are nursing, he will be getting everything he needs from you----the food is just a nice supplement.

So what your saying is that i shouldnt give my son NO BABY FOOD/OR CEREAL till hes a year old???? I cant do that!! I will nurse him and nurse him and nurse him, and he still cries wanting to eat. ( knowing for a fact that he is still hungry, cause he continuously route on me, or sucks his hands, and cires) Ive tried giving him a binki, but he does not want it. He wont take it, he chews on it and wont suck it. Every feeding he eats maybe 10-15 mins at each feeding, and then he pulls off, and im constantly latching him back on and he keeps pullin off. After he pulls off he constantly will keep routing on me, and cry at the same time. I keep latching him back on but he pulls off. Thats why i give him baby food/cereal. When i do that hes fine he doesnt route no more or cry, he seems SATISFIED THEN!! I dont know what else to do, cause he constantly is nursing and still wants to eat. I have to give him solids.... What should i do????? Is my breastmilk not satisfying him?????Im worried cause he seems sooo small for a 5.5 month old and all he does is cry wanting to eat... Help please....

No I'm not saying you shouldn't give him food til he's a year old. I'm just saying that breastmilk/formula will give him ALL the nutrients he needs for optimal brain growth and development up until a year of age. Most foods will not give him what he needs at that age.

It is extremely NORMAL for a baby to constantly root and want to nurse often. Breastmilk easily digests in 90 minutes so a baby can easily be ready to nurse within two hours of eating (and that's from time you start nursing til the next time you start nursing, not from time you finish nursing til time you nurse again). The reason why babies don't eat as often with formula is because the gut has to work harder to digest formula, it's not as easily digested, and so the body is working so hard to digest it that it's not as hungry as often.

At 5.5 months old babies are EASILY distracted, which is called the distractible stage. That means they pop off and on the breast often, getting fussy and acting like they are not getting enough to eat. ALSO, he is getting close to the 6 month growth spurt which can make one seem like the are nursing 24/7. This is normal, it's increasing your supply to his demand.

Popping off and on can also mean he's gassy and or has he taken an antibiotic lately or have you? He may have thrush in his mouth causing it to be painful to nurse.

Also teething, if he is, can cause many babies to be fussy and it seems somewhat painful for them to nurse because it takes a bit more effort to do so rather than suck on a bottle or eat a spoon of food.

All these things can cause your baby to act this way. He will obviously *appear* to be less hungry if you are feeding him foods because it's making his body work harder to digest it rather than breastmilk which digests much easier.

Believe me my first was a holy terror of a nurser! She nursed every 2 hours like clockwork from the time she was born til she was at least 18 months of age, NO JOKE. During the distractible phase and growth spurts she was latched on to me 24/7. It's very stressful, I know, but what kept me going is that I was doing what *I* felt was best for her. She could have cared less about solids too so breastmilk was her main nutritional source.

When she was going through the distractible phase I had to nurse her lying down in a dark room. Forget about nursing in public (NIP) because where was I gonna nurse lying down in dark room at? Well she did semi-ok nursing in a car during that phase but not often.

Ultimately you have to do what you feel is best for you and your son. Not what I tell you or what someone else tells you, just YOU. You asked how much solids to give at a particular age and I felt obliged to give you the correct information. All I was trying to say if solids should compliment breastmilk/formula not replace it in any way. If your baby is nursing an adequate number of times then let him have as much solids as he wants. There's nothing wrong with it. The problem is people let solids replace breastmilk/formula and it's not good for them.

Here's some links on particular subjects mentioned above you may like to read:

Frequent Nursing Tips - How to Deal

Growth Spurts

Cluster Feedings/ Fussy Evenings

The Distractible Baby

Fussy baby while nursing

Starting Solids - All about solids

HTH!

This post has been edited by boogabearzmom on Aug 9 2005, 06:45 AM

Yes he will let you know when he is full... I think at that age Jacob at like 1/2 -1 jar of fruit and veggie like 3 x day sometimes 4. I gave Jacob food before 1 and he was fine and did fine and the ped also said this was perfectly fine. IMO though.

This is my advice.......

YOU are the expert on your child.........every parent does and believes different things on what is best for your child - so YOU know what he needs and YOU know what you should do. Someone told me that when I had Jack and I have never forgotten it..........

I can tell you what Jack ate at 6 months and that was 3 meals a day and about 4 bottles a day.......he was a HUGE boy and milk didn't seem enough for him.

I dont have a ped, my doc is just a regular doc. and half the time he dont know what hes talkign bout, im in the process of looking for a ped for my kids. and a new doc. i know ur just giving me advice and knowledge of what u did with ur kids, and i appreciate that very much See the thing with my baby is he will eat two four ounce jars at a time, plus i nurse him after wards, isnt that a little too much???? but hes satisfied though. See i feed my baby cereal of a morning ( just started recently pumping of a morning and freezing it) mixed with a jar of fruit babyfood. Then for lunch he eats a fruit and veggie (4oz each) plus i nurse him, and same for dinner, then at bedtime i give him cereal and nurse him
Is that too much babyfood in one day is what im asking??? Or is that ok???? Hes on stage two by the way too. Yeah with my other two kids they were eating table food at ten months also

I think that sounds fine!!!!!

Alot like Jack was then

The only thing I would suggest is nursing him 1st then feed him the solids, that way the solids are sure not to replace milk. You may find he eats less solids & more milk if you nurse him first.

I agree with nursing him first---maybe wait about 15 minutes then try food if he seems hungry. Giving him cereal mixed with breastmilk is good--you can always nurse, feed a jar of food and nurse again if you want to cut down on the jars of food.

I dont have a ped, my doc is just a regular doc. and half the time he dont know what hes talkign bout, im in the process of looking for a ped for my kids. and a new doc. i know ur just giving me advice and knowledge of what u did with ur kids, and i appreciate that very much See the thing with my baby is he will eat two four ounce jars at a time, plus i nurse him after wards, isnt that a little too much???? but hes satisfied though. See i feed my baby cereal of a morning ( just started recently pumping of a morning and freezing it) mixed with a jar of fruit babyfood. Then for lunch he eats a fruit and veggie (4oz each) plus i nurse him, and same for dinner, then at bedtime i give him cereal and nurse him
Is that too much babyfood in one day is what im asking??? Or is that ok???? Hes on stage two by the way too. Yeah with my other two kids they were eating table food at ten months also

I think it sounds perfect

My almost 6 month old has been eating cereal since he was 4 months old, but he's a big baby. He's consistantly a month ahead of other kids his age, but we think he was born late. We basically go of his achievements rather than his age, that way it's a little bit easier to tell when to give him what. Here's another good site to check out:

http://www.naturesgoodness.com/nutrition_s...#nutr_stage2_a2

They have for the other stages too. My son actually eats around 5-6 servings of cereal a day(about 2-4 tbsp. each), at least 3 jars of baby food, and around 36 oz. of formula. Like I said, big baby. He isn't even fat. He weighed 15 lb. 6 oz. at his 4 month checkup, probably close to 20 lbs. now.

This post has been edited by Warbride on Aug 11 2005, 10:42 AM