How Much Solids?

[Kim B Lynn]

(Sorry if this isn't the right place. I've heard of baby's starting solids on their own referred to as "baby-led weaning," but it seems like all the other posts are on the complete weaning side of things. Where does this need to be posted?)

How much solid food should I be giving my 8.5 month old baby? I'm really not very consistent and I'd say 98% of his food comes from me, 1% comes from the occasional piece of broccoli I let him much on and the other 1% comes from the blades of grass and other leaves and things that I occasionally find in his diaper.

I'm not really interested in doing the spoon feeding mush thing and was hoping just to go to finger foods. He's getting to where he can pick things up between his thumb and index finger. He already sits and crawls and has been for a few months. Or in other words, I think he's more than developmentally ready.

What's been holding me back is that he won't sit in his high chair for more than a few minutes. Also, I don't really want to give him what we're eating because it's usually not a single food and has dairy or wheat or some allergen in it, so I don't really just want to give him a taste yet.

When I do offer, he doesn't eat much. He just plays with it and makes messes. Which is fine. I understand he's learning about texture and things and it's just a part of the process, but it'd be nice to see him take more of an interest in actually consuming it.

Should I be worried about not really feeding him right now? Do I need to start getting him to eat ASAP? Cause that's what people act like and I think I might just be being way lazy.....

[tinybutterfly]

I'm going to move this to Life With a Babe. That might be a better forum for your question.



tinybutterfly

[Bokonon]

Sounds like you are doing great! Some babies just don't get into actually eating until after their first birthdays. My baby just recently started picking up, gumming, and swallowing food within the last month, and she's 13 months. She has never really allowed me to spoon-feed her.

I give her steamed baby carrots, cut up chicken, toast, and she even mostly fed herself a piece of pizza the other day, which surprised me, because she actually took bites from it and didn't gag! Last night she ate some of my ham and cheese omelet. She's really come a long way in just a few weeks.

It's true there are some babies who just shovel in the food at 6 months and never look back, but that doesn't mean that the ones who are slow to take to solids are unusual in any way! And regarding the term "baby-led weaning" - that refers to letting babies have table food instead of purees, and letting them choose which foods (with safety in mind of course) they want to eat. It's also called "baby-led solids". You may be thinking of "child-led weaning", which has to do with nursing.

HTH!

[sunnygir1]

I was actually going to post a similar question. My ds is also 8 months. He is not yet sitting unassisted or crawling, but he is interested in food -- or maybe I should say he's interested in a couple bites of food and/or playing with whatever we're eating (totally normal, I know).

I do the same as you...rarely offer him food, and have been wondering if I should be offering him more food because he seems hungry. He nurses a lot and is having trouble sleeping. I wonder if he would be more content in general and sleep better if he had more food.

He has plenty of wet and poopy diapers, and is growing well, so I'm sure he is getting enough breast milk -- so, to answer my own question, I know he doesn't really need more than breast milk at this age.

So what I'm thinking of doing is making up some food-cubes for him to keep in the freezer, so I can heat up a little bit of a pre-cooked, single food for him when our meal isn't appropriate for him. Then I can just let him go at it while we eat. I mostly let dd self-feed, and I would keep steamed fruit and vegetables in the refrigerator for her so I would always have something to give her.

In more direct response to your post, I don't think you HAVE to give your lo more solids, but if he's interested, I think you should consider starting in the next few months to offer him things more regularly to explore and enjoy.

You said he wouldn't sit in the high chair, even with food and spoons and other fun things to entertain him? Will he eat/play with food if he is sitting on someone's lap? I know that makes it hard for you to eat, but I do that with ds sometimes.

Looking forward to reading other responses.

[cristeen]

Sounds perfect, what you're doing. That's how we started out, and we're slowly advancing to eating more and more each day. But that's because he wants it. The other day we were at g'mas and he ate a whole dish full of fruit slices (peach, apple, avocado).

Yesterday I didn't give him any solids, and he fussed and fussed all day long. When I gave daddy his dinner, he just STARED until daddy shared, and the fussing miraculously stopped.

And then this morning I cut up some melon for breakfast and gave him a bite... next thing I know the dish is empty and he wants more and I didn't get a single piece.

Up until last week, he was happy with a piece of broccoli or an asparagus spear a day - which he mostly just played with.

I just have to make sure that when we sit down to eat, I've prepared him something too, whether that means pulling some veg out of the pot before I add ingredients we haven't cleared yet, or whether it means pulling out a piece of fruit and cutting it up because nothing in our meal is safe. I don't sit down to eat without having something for him too, and he'll let me know whether or not he wants it.

[seafox]

we've done the same type of thing w/ DS - he didn't seem into purees at all, wouldn't let us feed him, so we skipped right to finger foods - he walked early (9 mos) and had a good pincer grip so around then we started letting him play w/ food and eat some.

I do still worry though, since now (almost a year old) he still is in this mode - I'd say now maybe 90%? at least comes from me and maybe 10% solids - though its hard to tell - his poo did finally change and looked more solid the last month so I do think he's getting more, but meals are tough. He doesn't like sitting in the high chair for long, he nibbles and is picky and doesn't eat much most days. He doesn't seem to like fruit - or anything too sweet, he is good w/ carrots and cheerios and sometimes shrimp and bread occasionally. He'll only eat though for 5-10min and then want OUT.