How much food to offer 7 month old?

[wish4baby]

My LO has been ebf until 6 months (she's now almost 7 months). We are trying to do mostly blw, but I have been known to help feed her now & then (if she is hungry and getting frustrated w picking small bits up).

Anyway, she (and I) prefer breastfeeding. It's faster, easier, and not nearly as messy lol!
How much real food should I be offering, and how much should she be actually eating? When should I begin giving her more than 1 meal a day? Honestly, right now it is more like I give her food so I can set her down for a minute (her her highchair) just to be able to eat in peace.

Right now, our schedule is pretty much like this:
7am - nurse
9am - nurse
12:00 - "meal"- something like: a bit of breastmilk, 4 spinach noodles, 8 pinto beans, a softened baby carrot or 2, offered a little at a time, most ends up smashed all over but she does attempt to actually eat. I keep giving her some until she is no longer interested, but those numbers are about how much holds her attention.
2pm - nurse
5:30 - nurse or sometimes a "snack" - like a spear of cucumber, avocado or sweet potato, etc., and I offer her bits until she stops eating, & a sippy with water, too. Sometimes she isn't interested in sitting in her highchair or eating food.
7:30 nurse to sleep
(We co sleep and she nurses through the night, off and one, roughly around midnight, 3 and 5)

What do you think? Should I be starting to nurse less & offer more foods during the day? Today, all she had was a (pretty large) slice of mango around noon and her breastmilk...

 

[MindUtopia]

I'd say that sounds perfectly fine. You can really offer as much in one meal as she's happy to eat or play with until she seems disinterested, and you can add in 2nd and 3rd meals as you feel ready to prepare them. We started with one meal a day (lunch) at 6 months. That was really all I could manage at first to put together for her because I was still getting my head around BLW and what foods to offer her. It gets easier as they get older because you really can offer them anything you eat, but in the first couple months, it still felt to me like I had to offer her something just for her because what we were eating then still wasn't quite appropriate for a baby. It took awhile to figure out how to make our foods more suitable for her but still edible to us and she really couldn't pick up much that wasn't a ball (plum) or stick (cucumber stick) shape at first. But we added in a 2nd meal at 7 months and then were doing 3 meals a day most days by about 7.5 months. I offered her as much as she wanted, particularly of things she seemed to like the most, and like you, used that time to eat a meal myself. How nice that was!! It really just happens organically that they eventually start to eat more and take more interest. I wouldn't try to cut out milk feeds just yet, just keep feeding on demand first before you offer solids (1-2 hours before), and add in more meals as you're ready. She'll eventually drop milk feeds as she starts taking more solids, but you really want to see the solids increase first before you think about reducing milk. It will just happen on it's own. For us, it really wasn't until about 9 months (with 3 meals a day from 7.5 months). But otherwise, everything you're doing sounds perfect.

 

[wish4baby]

Thanks! I feel better
And I agree, it seems like what we eat isn't quite appropriate yet. We like our food with a lot of spice, and salt & I haven't given her meat, dairy or wheat/bread products, so her menu is kinda limited lol

 

[adrie]

Yeah, we naturally started doing 3 meals a day at about 9 months.

My mom always just kinda said to feed until she stops eating or seems disinterested. Best rule of thumb for those early days when they aren't fully established on solids.