I’ve been feeding Monkey solids since he turned 6 months old. I started off with Stage 1 foods once a day & Monkey seemed that he couldn’t get enough. After doing that for about two weeks, I started to feed him twice a day.
My pediatrician never really said specifics when it came to feeding him, so I wasn’t sure if there was a correct order (formula vs. solids) to do it. I would feed Monkey his jar of baby food first & then give him a bottle.
We went to the pediatrician’s office last week to get his rotavirus vaccine & I asked the nurse if I was feeding Monkey too much solids & not enough formula. She gave me a sheet of paper & told me that I should feed Monkey his formula first since that’s where the majority of his nutrition & vitamins comes from. Didn’t know that…
Well, I think deep down I did know that, but it didn’t exactly dawn on me that I might be feeding him too much baby food & not enough formula.
Anyways, we started to switch from that point on.
Now I feed him his bottle first & give him a jar of Stage 2 (my little man loves food!) after. I usually give him a jar of fruit around lunchtime & then a jar of veggies around dinnertime. I find that I’m not too regimented on sticking to a schedule. Most days he gets two jars of food, but there have been a couple of days when he only got one jar of solids.
He gets at least 6 bottles of formula a day, so I know I’m doing that part right.
What about your baby? Are you doing the same thing as I am or are you doing something different? I’d love to hear about your solids schedule.
You might also want to read:
- Question about solids for babies, more specifically rice cereal & oatmeal
- Our Baby Feeding Schedule: A day in the life of Tarzan, Jane, and Monkey. Welcome to no sleepville.
- Two Month Old Schedule: Three days in the life of little Monkey
- Monkey’s nighttime schedule: 3.5 months old
- Monkey’s 4 month doctor appointment & first attempt at rice cereal
= a post from Mommy Jane 
= a post from Daddy Tarzan
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh & I do know that I need to wait 3-5 days after feeding Monkey a new food. The pediatrician didn’t leave that part out.
I’ll have to go back to my first’s baby book to recall what we did. I do recall that around the time we started solids we also started promoting sippy cup use. I’d put him in his tilting high chair and used the tilt to give him gravitational assistance. I think by about 8 months he was weaned off the bottle and drinking quite well from sippy cups (sans high chair).
I didn’t ever do a schedule. I offered food and they ate what they wanted. Sometimes they ate a lot. Sometimes they ate almost nothing. From everything that I’ve read and heard, solids in the first year are primarily for the exploration of taste and texture. It’s only from about 12-24 months when they take on a greater role in supplying nutrition. I also found the more I tried to schedule what they ate, the less they ate.
Hi Jane,
My little one is 8 months old. He has been on solids since he was 4 months.
We fed him 5oz bottle followed by food. But my health visitor told me that from 6 months of age food is more important than formula as babies iron stores run out and he will need the nutrition of food.
For the last month our feeding routine has been as follows:
6am – 7oz bottle
10am – breakfast (baby porridge, weetabix etc) drink such as water or juice
1.30pm – Lunch (spaghetti bolognese, chicken curry, tuna pasta etc) drink such as water or juice
5pm – Tea (mashed banana, apple&pears, pancakes) drink such as water or juice
7.30pm – 7oz bottle before bed.
He seems to really thrive on this routine and the health visitor i see fortnightly has told me this is ok.
I hope this helps
I nursed both my babies, so I would breastfeed first, then give solids. From
what I understand, the introduction of solids isn’t for nutitional value, but mainly to get the baby accustomed to the motions that take place in the mouth to take in solid food. As a matter of fact, my first one had such bad food allergies that i had to take him off solids until about 9 months. He’s a fantastic eater now regardless of the delay.
A tip about solids that I like to tell other moms is to try making homemade baby food. Steam and purée fresh veggies . Your kids will grow up loving veggies because they become accustomed to the “real taste” at an early age.
Henry is 7 mo. and he has a 6 oz bottle when he wakes up and then 2T of oatmeal and 1-2T of applesauce before his morning nap and then one container of veg (sweet pot. squash or peas)…half at lunch and half at dinner and then bottles regularly as needed. His love of solids has ramped up and he seems to want a bit more each day.
Have you looked into rice cereal as well? I believe Gerber makes it with iron in it. My daughter loved it mixed with her baby food, other friends have said they add it to the bottle to add some substance to the formula. Also a local pediatrician that a friend sees firmly believes that your child should be eating the same meals you are. Instead of buying baby food he recommends taking whatever meal you are eating and pureeing it for your child. He swears it helps children learn to love real food and they won’t grow to be picky eaters. I have done it with my daughter after she had been eating baby food for about 2 months and we have never looked back. She is 2 1/2 now and eats litterally anything we put in front of her. Not in excess but she is absolutely not picky. Good luck!
I haven’t started solids yet, my daughter is only 5 months old, we’re waiting until 6 months. But wanted to share this website with you; regardless if you make your own food it has a ton of information and a suggested feeding schedule. http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com
We go with the “food is for fun before the age of one” rule, so I don’t stress if my 8mth old hardly eats anything, or skips a meal here or there.
We give her oatmeal (not baby stuff, just what we make for ourselves) at breakfast time, which she spoonfeeds herself – we hand her a loaded spoon and she puts it in her mouth. Although sometimes will just play with it!
Then finger foods at lunchtime, around 12ish, before afternoon sleep,
Then dinner around 5.30 and we all eat together as a family. She will just try a bit of what we’re having.
With regards to the milk (we bf) I just feed her on demand, whenever she wants it. but it seems to be fairly evenly spaced between solids meals. so couldn’t really say if it was before or after!
So yeah – pretty flexible – like you!
Here’s our little one’s eating schedule
7amish-6oz sippy cup of formula
8:30-9aish: Oatmeal (Mixed Grain) w/ 1/2 jar of fruit, puffs and a sippy of water or milk (2oz)
11a: 6 oz sippy of formula (may or may not finish)
12:30-1p: Oatmeal, 1/2 jar of fruit, whole jar of vegi, puffs, and a sippy of milk or water (2oz)
4pmish: 5-7oz sippy cup
6pm: Oatmeal, 1/2 jar of vegi, puffs, and a mum
7-730ish, 4-6oz bottle, then right to bed.
When does she nap you ask? Ha, she’s not much ofa napper. She take 3, 30-45 minutes naps a day. She’s a great eater. We like ot give her a variety of finger foods, oatmeal, veggies, and fruits.
My pediatrician gave me the opposite advice. My baby is two days older than yours, and he’s been on solids since 4 months. He has been instructed to have the solids first, followed by the bottle, as he’s getting more nutrition from food. Babies 6 months and beyond start to get more nutrition from food, but there are guidelines. 1-2 servings of protein, 3-4 servings of fruits/veggies at this stage.
We have a breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert schedule. Breakfast is fruit mixed with oatmeal, followed by bottle. Lunch is protein and veggie, followed by bottle and dinner is the same. Green veggies in the afternoon, because they cause a lot of gas, and orange veggies at night. Before bed, he’s still enjoying his “dessert” bottle before he conks out. He rarely finishes any of the 4 8oz bottles I make. He’ll drink anywhere from 4-6 ounces. I’ve also started giving him water, more often now that he’s fighting a cold.
As for naps, 2 a day, one late morning, one in the afternoon. Solids really changed everything for us. I am so thankful for our much more manageable schedule.
I breastfed my guy and gave him a bottle of formula a day. We were on the go a lot and I wasn’t regimented. If I was lazy, and we were out I’d just whip out the boob.
Have you tried giving him sips of water? You can once they’re 6 months. He can drink a little out of a sippy cup. Your lucky you got your guy his rotavirus shot. My guy got it at 14 months and had to be hospitalized for dehydration. I didn’t even know what it was till he got it. Then I am told there is a vaccine… I was choked..
I just went with my baby’s flow when it comes to eating solids. Some days we fed him three times a day, other times two, sometimes one or none. Sometimes he would just want a bottle! It wasn’t until he was about 9 months where we really fed a lot of solids. It was at that time also where he started to self-wean from the bottle (we had to almost make him drink it). So, it’s definitely a dance day to day. Your baby will tell you what he wants!
My little guy has been eating solids since 5 months. I feed him cereal (Heinze ) mixed with fruit. For lunch he gets the same with a veggie, dinner is meat of some sort mixed with cereal. In between he drinks a bottle. At night though I feed him first and then a bottle right before bedtime. I have found that mixing cereal with the food is better, it doesn’t seem to go right through him. I don’t add much cereal enough to give the food more texture. He likes the little puff snacks and he drinks from his sippy cup.
I’ve been (theoretically) the worst parent when it comes to feeding. Or so I thought. I started solids at four months with my little guy. By six months he was already eating stage 3 foods. A month later, he was eating table food. Now at almost nine months, he eats whatever he wants. He still gets bottles during the day, and he BF’s first thing in the morning and right before bed, but for the most part I just share what’s on my plate… albeit in smaller bite-size pieces. Just this week, though, I found out this is actually a THING. It’s called Baby Led Weaning, I guess. Letting him choose what he wants to eat and when he’s ready. Go figure!
My baby is 5.5 months now, and eats solids almost every day but most of his diet is breastmilk. At this point the food is just for fun, so I only give him food if it seems like he’s drunk enough milk for how far along the day as at that point. I tried rice cereal but it constipated him something awful, so I switched to baby oatmeal and that seems to be fine. I also make foods for him – applesauce, carrots, butternut squash, avocado, bananas. Steam and puree. Couldn’t be easier! He hasn’t refused any foods yet, but definitely didn’t like the avocado as much as he likes carrots or apples! Can’t wait to try something green.
We skipped jarred baby food and cereal entirely and went forwards with the baby led weaning plan of feeding infants. So at 6 months we started to introduce finger foods and let our son feed himself. We’ve taught him how to hold his own pre loaded spoon with real food (yogurt, oatmeal, applesauce) and get it to his mouth independently, he also picks up bite sized pieces of food on his highchair tray and feeds himself. He’s just over 8 months old now and is an incredible eater, willing to try just about anything! We’re so pleased with our choice and hope that he’ll continue to be an adventurous eater.
As for food vs breastmilk, he nurses about 5 times a day and eats 3 meals a day as well. If he skips a meal due to a nap, he’ll have an extra nursing session to make up for it instead. We’re not really on a schedule for nursing, but he lets me know when he’s ready for it.
Like Julia, we went for baby led weaning. Still used some jarred food but my son preferred finger food.
i am following the same exact approach (except i don’t have Pinkie Pie her bottle until later). I give her fruits for lunch & veggies & fruits for dinner (she too loves to eat). Pinkie Pie gets 6 bottles a day (which has about 5 oz in it) so I am thinking she is doing well. Pinkie Pie also loves her puffs so we supplement her with those when we need some quiet time at dinner or during tv time.