Author Topic: 6.5month old- how much solids?  (Read 4834 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Newbie mum

  • BW Aficionado
  • ***
  • Showing Appreciation 1
  • Posts: 179
  • Location:
6.5month old- how much solids?
« on: October 13, 2016, 19:16:05 pm »
Hello, my 6.5month is eating solids well and is having breakfast and lunch of solids. He was having tea too but we found he got wind overnight which disturbed him so we have replaced his tea with milk. Is it ok that he is not on 3 meals a day at his age?

<a href="https://lilypie.com/"><img src="https://lb4m.lilypie.com/hexsp1.png" width="200" height="80" border="0" alt="Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers" />[/url]

Offline creations

  • Feeding Solid Food & EASY
  • Moderator
  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 496
  • Posts: 21993
  • Location: UK
Re: 6.5month old- how much solids?
« Reply #1 on: October 14, 2016, 10:42:32 am »
It's totally fine.  Rough guidance is to have 1 meal at 6 months and increase to 3 at/by 8 months but yk some LOs don't even want 3 meals at 8 months as they are still not really that into the dolids more than a few tastes here and there...meanwhile others have a great appetite and enthusiasm for solids even at 6 months. This is one of those areas where you try not to compare to other LOs you know as they will all be different.
Timely introduction of solids (ie starting at 6 months, introducing a variety of healthy foods and different food groups and textures) is advised as it has lots of developmental benefits, but there is no hurry to move to 3 meals or large portions.

At 6 months it would be perfectly normal to have 1 or 2 solids meals, 4 day time milks (FF or BF) and a DF/NF too.

Hope this helps.


Offline Newbie mum

  • BW Aficionado
  • ***
  • Showing Appreciation 1
  • Posts: 179
  • Location:
Re: 6.5month old- how much solids?
« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2016, 13:16:11 pm »
Thanks *creations* that does help. My ds enjoys his solid food and has a big appetite for it. We're reigning the solids in a bit as his sleep has become disturbed since starting solids and I wonder if that is the cause (I'm going to post in the sleep board in a bit).

<a href="https://lilypie.com/"><img src="https://lb4m.lilypie.com/hexsp1.png" width="200" height="80" border="0" alt="Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers" />[/url]

Offline Newbie mum

  • BW Aficionado
  • ***
  • Showing Appreciation 1
  • Posts: 179
  • Location:
Re: 6.5month old- how much solids?
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2016, 13:51:28 pm »
I've just read another post further down re: bad sleeping when solids are introduced, that sounds like the exact situation I am in (I presume its the solids causing the problem as he has been a good sleeper and napper until now).
So reading the thread and your comments on it, it sounds like it's ok to scale things back with the solids. Looking back on yesterday my ds had had a lot less milk than he would normally have as I was trying to give solids too and he woke every 4 hours over night of a feed, more than he did as a newborn :-(
If I give him a breakfast and a morning snack will that be ok nutritionally? How long would you try that regime for? a week?
Thanks

<a href="https://lilypie.com/"><img src="https://lb4m.lilypie.com/hexsp1.png" width="200" height="80" border="0" alt="Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers" />[/url]

Offline creations

  • Feeding Solid Food & EASY
  • Moderator
  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 496
  • Posts: 21993
  • Location: UK
Re: 6.5month old- how much solids?
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2016, 19:06:12 pm »
Hi again
Most people go for the breakfast and lunch time for solids initially as it seems to keep the milk feed separated pretty well where as a snack time might come at the same time as a milk feed. I'll put some times below so you can see what I mean.  It's totally up to you of course.  You can just keep the lunch lighter perhaps rather than a large portion?

If LO is taking milk roughly every 4 hrs (it can start to extend to more like 5hrs with age, around naps and with solids between) then here are the rough times:
milk 7am
solids breakfast 8am (1hr after milk)
milk 11am (later on this can be switched for a solids snack, it's really easy then to keep the times of food the same but just change what the food is - snacks might be around 11 months, it depends on the LO though)
solids lunch 12 noon (1hr after milk)
milk 3pm (again this can later change to a snack time)
solids dinner 4pm/5pm (doesn't need to be now, in a couple of months is fine)
milk 7pm

These times keep the solids roughly an hour after milk so that LO is a little hungry but not too hungry and doesn't fill too much on solids.  It also gives a good amount of time after solids so that LO is hungry for milk to take a good milk feed.
They are only guidance times.

It might also be worth looking to see if he is more tired due to the additional stimulation of the foods, it's a lot of new stuff to take in, I remember mine was exhausted by eating even though he loved it. You might need a slightly early BT perhaps.  Just a thought.


Offline Newbie mum

  • BW Aficionado
  • ***
  • Showing Appreciation 1
  • Posts: 179
  • Location:
Re: 6.5month old- how much solids?
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2016, 19:39:56 pm »
Thanks *creations*. Today I only gave him breakfast as solids and he had milk every 4 hours. I wonder if I have cut the solids down too much, but I'll find out overnight  :-\ He didn't seem hungry. Thanks for the example timings, that's really helpful.

As well as the night wakings he has been waking early all of this week- 0540-0600. I don;t know if this is related to eating solids as for some of those morning he woke straining to open his bowels or due to us not always being able to fit in a cat nap. So today I did the above with food/milk and he didn't have a cat nap. He woke at about 3pm and I put him to bed a bit earlier than normal at 6.30pm and keeping everything crossed he sleeps well.

<a href="https://lilypie.com/"><img src="https://lb4m.lilypie.com/hexsp1.png" width="200" height="80" border="0" alt="Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers" />[/url]

Offline creations

  • Feeding Solid Food & EASY
  • Moderator
  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 496
  • Posts: 21993
  • Location: UK
Re: 6.5month old- how much solids?
« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2016, 20:15:54 pm »
Hope you all have a good night.


Offline Newbie mum

  • BW Aficionado
  • ***
  • Showing Appreciation 1
  • Posts: 179
  • Location:
Re: 6.5month old- how much solids?
« Reply #7 on: October 20, 2016, 03:21:02 am »
Hello, last night as better. He slept until 0130 and woke because he was snuffly, I've heard this can be due to teething (?) and he is certainly dribbling a lot.
This night has been awful and as you can see I'm awake in the early hours again.  Difference today is that he had a bowl of homemade rice pudding (only pudding rice cooked with full fat cows milk) and he's been unsettled since going to bed. We wondered if he was teething but then became clear its his tummy and gas pains. I put him on the breast after many wake ups to try and settle him and he did a huge fart and a poo which settled him. He's woken now and I wonde d if he was hungry but he's not that interested in the boob but again did a big fart and a small poo (plus he might be a bit cold as I had to change him out of his heavy tog bag on last nappy change)... So was it the rice or the cows milk? Or both?! Tomorrow I'll go back to just breakfast and maybe some white potato for lunch? What do you think?

<a href="https://lilypie.com/"><img src="https://lb4m.lilypie.com/hexsp1.png" width="200" height="80" border="0" alt="Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers" />[/url]

Offline creations

  • Feeding Solid Food & EASY
  • Moderator
  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 496
  • Posts: 21993
  • Location: UK
Re: 6.5month old- how much solids?
« Reply #8 on: October 20, 2016, 08:23:31 am »
Oh dear that does sound like an unsettled night.
Solids can cause gas anyway but if you notice a significant increase or pain related to gas like you did last night then I'd look at what foods he had and at what time in the day.  Eating earlier in the day can give more opportunity for the gas to come out before night sleep and they are moving a bit more too to get the gas moving.  It might not be rice or milk causing this gas but if they are both quite new foods then maybe.
Have you tried some cycling and leg exercise to help the gas through?  My DS was like bag pipes, I lay him on his back and gently lifted one leg up and held it and gas would come, then the other leg more gas would come, then both more would come. Gentle cycling of the legs then repeat the one leg at a a time and both legs...it prevented quite a lot of gas pain and was also quite amusing for me!  also tummy rubs in a circular motion in a clockwise direction can help bring the gas or poo through.

Tomorrow I'll go back to just breakfast and maybe some white potato for lunch? What do you think?
If those are foods you feel safe with then yes.
One thing I'll add is that some LOs are fine with a food so long as it is not repeated too frequently. I didn't do the 4 days trial thing with DS (mainly because it is not needed these days if there are no allergies in the family) but later I realised that had I done 4 days of certain foods he would have been quite poorly.  An example - carrots made his poo harder, a single portion he would be okay, but better if balanced with a prune, had he had carrots every day for 4 days (and not served prunes at the same time, lets say if I had not reached prunes on my trial list yet) he would have been horribly constipated.  We've never needed to avoid carrots (not more than say selecting a different veg one day) but rather I always made sure they were balanced. It was actually quite helpful to know this in the end as I could naturally firm up his poo with carrot and loosen it with prunes so other foods might have had a similar effect but we avoided any of those problems.

Keeping a food diary might help. Although I did not do food trials I did keep a diary of what foods he ate so that if there were any problems arise I could look back for clues.


Offline Newbie mum

  • BW Aficionado
  • ***
  • Showing Appreciation 1
  • Posts: 179
  • Location:
Re: 6.5month old- how much solids?
« Reply #9 on: October 25, 2016, 13:42:31 pm »
Thanks *creations* I have been delayed in getting back to you as after I wrote my last message my ds got worse and I had a feeling all was not right so I took him to the GP as I wanted someone to check his ears/throat etc and it turned out that the poor lamb has tonsillitis. He's on antibiotics now and is slowly getting better but not there just yet. I really hope my good little sleeper hasn't gone for ever...please tell me we can get back on track when he's better  :-\

<a href="https://lilypie.com/"><img src="https://lb4m.lilypie.com/hexsp1.png" width="200" height="80" border="0" alt="Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers" />[/url]

Offline creations

  • Feeding Solid Food & EASY
  • Moderator
  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 496
  • Posts: 21993
  • Location: UK
Re: 6.5month old- how much solids?
« Reply #10 on: October 25, 2016, 20:27:14 pm »
Of course you will get back on track when he is better!
I'm so sorry to hear he is poorly.


Offline creations

  • Feeding Solid Food & EASY
  • Moderator
  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 496
  • Posts: 21993
  • Location: UK
Re: 6.5month old- how much solids?
« Reply #11 on: October 29, 2016, 07:55:21 am »
Hi
How are things now?


Offline Newbie mum

  • BW Aficionado
  • ***
  • Showing Appreciation 1
  • Posts: 179
  • Location:
Re: 6.5month old- how much solids?
« Reply #12 on: October 29, 2016, 19:33:28 pm »
Hi Creations, thanks for asking, that's kind of you. He's much better now, thankfully and is back to being my happy, smily, chilled little boy. He finished his antibiotics last night so hopefully his tummy will get back to normal soon too. Last night he did well and woke once for a feed and then woke at 0600 because he did a poo!

It did dawn on me that when he was waking twice a night it was at the same time, midnight and 0400 for a feed, but last night after he had some supper (previously just been having lunch and breakfast) the first wake up was pushed back an hour to 0100 and then the second was 0600, which I guess a lot of people would consider a normal time to wake? Touch wood, he seems to be coping well with going back to a bottle of formula before bed and having a light supper. Would love to get rid of that midnight wake up as I think it would then prevent him waking again because of wind or to poo...

<a href="https://lilypie.com/"><img src="https://lb4m.lilypie.com/hexsp1.png" width="200" height="80" border="0" alt="Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers" />[/url]

Offline creations

  • Feeding Solid Food & EASY
  • Moderator
  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 496
  • Posts: 21993
  • Location: UK
Re: 6.5month old- how much solids?
« Reply #13 on: October 30, 2016, 08:15:16 am »
I think most people drop the night feed at around 8 months so it's not that far off really.

Good to hear he's better :)


Offline Newbie mum

  • BW Aficionado
  • ***
  • Showing Appreciation 1
  • Posts: 179
  • Location:
Re: 6.5month old- how much solids?
« Reply #14 on: October 30, 2016, 16:11:14 pm »
And I'm pleased to say that last night he slept from 1900 (or 1930 can't quite remember when he went to bed) to 0600 with no wake up- who-hoooo!! may not happen again for a while but at least he can still do it! :-)
Its fantastic to have your support on this page- thanks a lot :-)

<a href="https://lilypie.com/"><img src="https://lb4m.lilypie.com/hexsp1.png" width="200" height="80" border="0" alt="Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers" />[/url]