BF'd babies and cereal/fruit/veg...

Ok- my ped suggested we start @ 4 months...

AAP- suggests 6 months...

So I compromised and said we would start at 5 months...

Well...here we are @ 5.5 months and I have no clue what Im doing...

We have tried... rice cereal and oatmeal...
We have also tried bananas and pears...

Im not consistent at all... and my ped said he like to see him eating 2-3x's/day and Im maybe giving it 1x every other day...

I just dont know where to begin....

When I give it at night; its after a bottle- so he isnt really hungry and therefore isnt interested in the food...

How do I go about this...get a schedule???

Can anyone post theirs???

TIA

Re: BF'd babies and cereal/fruit/veg...

At 5 1/2 months, DD's schedule was:
6-6:30 am -- BF
8:30 am -- cereal w/ veggies
10:30 am -- BF
1:00 BF
3:30 BF
5:30 BF
7:00 -- Cereal w fruit
8:30 - BF

At 6 months, I added lunch of veggies and gave fruit in the am instead of veggies. Also, the 1 and 5:30 BF feedings are very short -- like 5-10 minutes and are more like snacks.

Re: BF'd babies and cereal/fruit/veg...

I started DS on rice cereal and oatmeal at 5 months..he ate it for breakfast and for dinner.

At 6 months, we started him on fruits and veggies, and began feeding him 3 times a day. So he would have cereal or oatmeal for breakfast. Fruit for lunch, and a veggie for dinner. At that point, he was having a bottle of BM every 3-4 hours (I exclusively pump).

He first tried peas, carrots, squash, pears, plums and bananas.

Around 7-8 months (don't remember exactly) we started adding sweet potatoes, applesauce, green beans, spinach, peaches, grapes.

9 months we started chicken, turkey, eggs.

LOL I realize this is more than you asked for, but I was lost too when I first started, so HTH.

Re: BF'd babies and cereal/fruit/veg...

This is great (since I'm lost too!!) - THANKS for all the ideas.

Re: BF'd babies and cereal/fruit/veg...

don't worry I had the same problem at first my ped said not to worry that eventually she would be hungry for it. I started at 4.5 months giving it once a day randomly, not everyday. Eventually she got used to the idea of eating and now at 5.5. months i am giving it to her at least once a day, sometimes twice. I plan to just go slow and if I think she is hungry for more I'll give more. I started w/ fruits and am just now starting to give her some veggies. I usually give it to her an hour or so after her morning feeding and then again and hour or so before her night feeding.

Message edited 11/15/2009 5:58:27 PM.

Re: BF'd babies and cereal/fruit/veg...

DS is 6 months and started at 4 months.

He nurses at 6 am and 8 am. THen he goes to daycare. Then at 9:30 after his short morning nap he has 3-5 tbsp of cereal and 2 "ice cubes" of fruit. Then he a bottle at noon and another one at 2:30.
THen I pick him up and he nurses at 4pm. He has 3 tbsp of cereal and two different veggies (usaually 2 cubes of something he likes and 1 cube of something more difficult. Like greens). But, we built up to that amount for dinner anyway.
Then he nurses again before bed, 7pm-8pm.

We started with less cereal but, quickly worked our way up. DS is a beast when it comes to food though.
We started with a few yellow/orange fruits. 3-4 days each. THen we added a new one. After we did a few fruits we added a yellow/orange veggie. We did that each night with cereal for a few days. Then added a new fruit. And then a veggies and back and forth. THen we moved onto Green veggies. These were a bit more difficult and to start I fed him 1 cube of veggie to 1 cube of fruit just to get him to eat the veggie. But, Now, he's cool with it all. He usually has something orange/yellow and something green.

Have fun with it. Making the food made it so much more fun for me. I would think that skipping days isn't going to help. They need to build up an appetite. So, I would just do twice a day and gradually build up the amounts. Maybe start with a a teaspoon or two of cereal and a small amount of fruit or veggies. It will take him a while to figure out what to do. It took about a month for him to open his mouth when the spoon came towards him.

Re: BF'd babies and cereal/fruit/veg...

When I first started-- I did it 1x a day... until she actually got that she was eating. I did it in the morning, about an hour after I nursed her. When she *got* it, I did it at night-- an hour after I last nursed her, but then I always nursed at bedtime-- so, I was nursing her very soon after. Now I feed her at 5, and she gets put down at like 6 20, so I am nursing around 6 05, to 6 15...

Re: BF'd babies and cereal/fruit/veg...

I started DS on solids at 6 months. He got food 30-60 minutes after nursing or a bottle b/c I wanted him to get as much BM as possible. Within a week, we went to 2 meals per day. By 7.5 months, DS was eating 3 meals per day, all after bottles/nursing.

Re: BF'd babies and cereal/fruit/veg...

We have not started solids yet but just wanted to add, because I do not think anyone mentioned... I've been reading up on making my own foods and it suggests to introduce new foods in the morning, not at night because should there be some kind of allergic reaction to a particular food, you (and DC) do not want to sleep through it. Just wanted to add that to your mix.

Re: BF'd babies and cereal/fruit/veg...

I am taking it slow with DD too. She is 7 mos and this is her schedule.

wake (around 8:30-9) - 5-6 oz bottle of bm

2nd feeding around 12 - 12:30 - 1- 2 Tbsp. cereal with 2 cubes of food or yogurt and 5-6 oz bottle of bm

3rd feeding around 3:30 - nurse

4th feeding around 6:30 - 1- 2 Tbsp. cereal with 2 cubes of food then I nurse her again

5th feeding around 8:30 - nurse

With my older DD I had already started feeding her 3x/day and was still nursing 5x/day at this age, but my younger one seems satisfied with this schedule. Iplan on introducing a 3rd meal and going down to 4 bottles/nursing around 8.5-9 mos.