Confused About Weaning, Meals, and Timing: Help Please!

[Nela]

Hey guys!

I am having suuuuch a time with figuring out this whole feeding thing. Nathaniel is 6 months old and is very mobile. He's bouncing, crawling, starting to pull himself up and cruising... He's been more than ready for food but I waited til 6 months because his tummy just wasn't quite there yet. He's been doing brilliantly now though but we are still in the intro phase. I have given him only veggies really (jar) so he's had carrots, green beans, peas, spinach and potato, and carrots and potato. He's done really well with them all with only a little bit of gas from the spinach. I've been giving him these veggies for lunch and he gets half a jar at a time, about 1.5hrs after his bottle. I've also occasionally given him a snack of a piece of banana or baby cookie.

Now, the thing is, he's waking up earlier and earlier. It seems he is really really hungry when he wakes and this is what is making him wake earlier. Right now, he's still formula fed on demand so he's still getting a good 5 bottles a day.

Should I move his solid food to dinnertime in addition to his formula? Should I move him onto meat to have a proper meal since he seems so hungry? I was thinking maybe protein at dinnertime would help as it would take longer to digest? I don't want to do the weaning too abruptly and am trying to be cautious to catch any intolerances or sensitivities but he seems to be very eager to eat and is really loving this new food. I also don't want him to go too quickly and end up on more solid than milk but I am struggling with juggling it and knowing how to pace this.

So, any thoughts?

- Too early for a meal?
- Best to stick to lunch or best to shift to dinnertime?
- If it's okay for a meal, is it okay to give a small snack of fruit in the daytime? Or should I just trust my gut that says he's hungry and ready and just dive into giving him a full meal a day, which includes a veggie, a meat, and a fruit?
- How do you know when to increase the frequency of meals and drop bottles?

I am so lost. I'm overthinking this aren't I? This is the one area I feel completely overwhelmed by!

 

[Rachel_C]

It all sounds so complicated! We did BLW so the kids were offered proper meals from 6 months. We offered breakfast, lunch and dinner. All milk feeds stayed exactly as they were at first. For the first few months, milk was offered first and then solids. By about 9 months or so, milk was still the first feed of the day but then I was offering solids before milk (but only as long as the milk intake didn't decrease - milk is better than solids under a year old). From about 9 months, the kids were offered a snack if the family was having one.

As long as LO's milk intake is still good, I wouldn't over think it. Even without doing BLW, you can be 'baby led' about food, as you are with milk. If LO seems hungry, offer him milk and then offer him food and let him decide what he wants - he's the one who knows if he feels hungry, after all.

You don't drop bottles, LO does. So when milk is frequently being left, make less next time until LO doesn't want it at all. It's the opposite of feeding a newborn on demand really - as a newborn, you make them more when they finish bottles, when weaning you make them less when they're leaving it

 

[Lou1234]

Once they turn 6 months they can start having carbs and meat. Before 6 months you would normally try one thing for a few days then try something new to check for any issues but you don't need to move as slowly now.

We started with lunch with my daughter then introduced dinner then breakfast. For us she only really started having snacks morning and afternoon at about 10 months when she started at nursery. At first she still had a bottle mid-morning and one in the afternoon. She quickly dropped the mid-morning bottle and has only just started dropping the afternoon one.

If you are giving him jars you can buy the ones with meat in them. You can puree your meals if suitable or go down the BLW route. We went down the puree route but I made sure my daughter had a finger food at least once a day to get used to it. Steamed carrot or broccoli, or some rice cake. She now has either spoon fed meals with fruit she feeds herself after or she has what we are having and feeds herself.

They say food before 1 is just for fun so don't stress about how much he is eating or think about reducing his milk.

Our timings tend to be:

Bottle when Beth wakes
8ish breakfast (maybe porridge or weetabix or toast)
At home she goes through until lunch but at nursery they have a mid-morning snack at about 9.30.
11.30ish lunch.
2-3ish bottle (this is the one she has started to drop so I am now going to replace this with a snack. Maybe a yogurt and fruit or rice cakes.)
5.30 Dinner
7/7.30ish bottle before bed.

 

[noon_child]

Our attitude to weaning was that it was more about learning about food and how to eat than about filling up. She had milk first and then was offered food about an hour later.

If you start introducing finger food after morning milk and evening milk he can start learning co-ordination, chewing, swallowing etc. plus IF he's hungry he can eat it if he wants, but if he isn't he'll just be tasting and experimenting. If you notice he is hungry at these times you can add purees too if you want.

Unless you have a family history with severe food allergies in it I wouldn't bother about taking it slowly.

At your LO's age my LO was still having between 6 and 9 breastfeeds per day and 1 to 3 feeds at night. She quickly (within 2weeks) got used to eating a banana or nectarine for breakfast at about 9am and by 7.5 months was eating that, porridge and something like a bit of veggie stew for lunch, so I introduced dinner at abut 8months. She didn't drop any day feeds till about 9-10 months though, I just gave her milk whenever she wanted and offered food whenever I was eating!

 

[the why bird]

Definitely not too soon for a meal. I would tend to just offer him the food and let him feed himself with his fingers. That way if he's not ready, or he's not hungry that day, you're not pushing him to take more than he wants.

At that age my daughter had buttered toast, cooked veggie sticks, small pieces of not-too-chewy meat, potatoes, soft fruit, cheese sticks, yogurt and pretty much whatever the grown ups were eating, minus anything very hard/chewy or spicy.

You could move his lunch to dinner time but it probably won't stop him being hungry at night. Those veggie baby food pots are very low in calories compared to his milk (think about it - it's the same stuff we eat if we go on a diet!) so you might find it fills his tummy enough to make him take less milk, but he'll want even more milk later to make up the calories. Proteins and fats are higher calorie and digest more slowly so will fill him up longer, but realistically he will be taking such small amounts that he will still need just as much milk for a while yet.

 

[MindUtopia]

From 6 months they can have anything (except honey and whole nuts), so feed him whatever you like. My daughter was having meat from that time, in addition to lots of veg, fruit, carbs (potatoes, weetabix, porridge balls), and dairy/eggs. There really is no rush to add in extra meals though as most of his calories will come from milk still, so don't feel like you *have* to do it because he's hungry. Milk is probably the best thing to give him to satiate hunger even now. At 6 months, we just were doing one meal (lunch), added another at 7 months (breakfast) and then dinner by probably 7.5 months. That was about as fast as I could add them in terms of adjusting to cooking extra meals for her or adjusting ours to fit her needs (we did BLW so she ate mostly the same food as us from the beginning).

If he wakes up, will he take some milk and go back to sleep again? That would be the first thing I'd try before worrying about adding in extra meals unless you feel ready to. Milk definitely has more calories than the small amount of meat or veg he'll eat. At 6 months, my daughter was having 1-2 bottles during the night still, in addition to probably 4 or so during the day. But actually, my guess is it has a lot to do with the change in the seasons. My daughter was sleeping til 8:30am most mornings back in December. Now she wakes around 6:15-6:30am. It just has to do with how early it's getting light out now. You might try blackout curtains if you really want to encourage later sleeping and see if it helps.

 

[Nela]

Thanks guys!

I had the same attitude towards the weaning. It's all the fun of tasting etc. He likes to feed himself and I don't push. But he seems hungrier at night and that's what throws me off. He went from sleeping through to needing to feed so I am trying t tweak things so that he isn't so hungry at night.

He's not actually having a meal regularly yet and I figured the meal could be at dinnertime in addition to his milk. I would give him the meal a little bit earlier, and give him his milk at the regular time (right now he has just his milk and often wants a little more so I end up giving him a little water so he an sleep) so he'd be getting both, not replacing the evening milk feed. He has cmpi and a sensitive digestive system so that's also why I was taking it so slow and being so cautious as I worry about other intolerances popping up. I don't feel I can do the finger foods with him yet because he is scoffing them! I mean, he is seriously trying to shove the whole thing in his mouth or biting off huge chunks and it freaks me out. Like I said, he's pretty darn eager I did buy him a munchkin feeder and he never turns it down. He never turns any food down really.

Good point about the light though. He's up at about 5:00-5:30 am nowadays. Does make sense that his pattern might have changed with the season. I didn't think of that. He used to wake quietly though, now it's full on Feed-me-now-crying so that is a bit different as well. I just hate the thought of him being so hungry. I guess it's possible he is waking because of the light and then realizing he is hungry.

I think I will try that evening meal (and be less systematic about it) and see that it doesn't interfere with his milk and see how that goes. If I can't get him to take the same amount of milk or if it just doesn't change anything I'll just have to deal with the earlier wake ups then!

Thanks so much for your help, ladies! Good to know I don't have to 'introduce' food for months still (I was introducing one puree at a time and giving each puree 2-3 days to see if he did well with it) I'll take it slowly and use the veggies we know as a base and switch one puree of his meal at a time, that way I can still know if one causes issues while offering him a little more variety.

 

[noon_child]

he seems hungrier at night and that's what throws me off. He went from sleeping through to needing to feed so I am trying t tweak things so that he isn't so hungry at night.

If this had happened when he was younger you'd just have assumed "growth spurt" and fed him more milk. Just because it is happening at 6months doesn't mean you need to do anything with "food" as he may just need night time/early morning milk for a few weeks.

The great news is he's enthusiastic about food so he'll learn really quickly!

 

[Nela]

he seems hungrier at night and that's what throws me off. He went from sleeping through to needing to feed so I am trying t tweak things so that he isn't so hungry at night.

If this had happened when he was younger you'd just have assumed "growth spurt" and fed him more milk. Just because it is happening at 6months doesn't mean you need to do anything with "food" as he may just need night time/early morning milk for a few weeks.

The great news is he's enthusiastic about food so he'll learn really quickly!

Ahhhhhhhh of course. You are right. He just outgrew a diaper size and has been more tired the past 2 days, which always seems to be the case with a spurt. I didn't even think of it, I was so convinced I was doing his weaning wrong Thank you!