Baby foods??

[snd1231]

Help me please. I'm a ftm to triplets. Two of my kiddos are cleared for baby foods and one is just not quite there. They are 9 months/ almost 6 months adjusted. I have no idea what I'm doing. They eat amazing with baby foods. But I think I'm not doing it right. Do y'all replace a bottle with the baby food? How much baby food is normal for them to eat? How many times should I feed it? Normal for formula input to decrease?
Help!!! I'm so overwhelmed.

[valie]

Their formula should be their primary food source still.

For a 6mo gut they can be getting about:
- 8tbsp cereal
- 3tbsp meat & alternatives
- 9tbsp fruits
- 6tbsp veggies
per day.

I BF at wake-ups and bedtime and feed meals at regular-ish mealtimes.

Sorry I'm not much help on the formula side.

[NellieOleson]

Jul 19, 2016 19:34:47 GMT -5 valie said:

Their formula should be their primary food source still.

For a 6mo gut they can be getting about:
- 8tbsp cereal
- 3tbsp meat & alternatives
- 9tbsp fruits
- 6tbsp veggies
per day.

I BF at wake-ups and bedtime and feed meals at regular-ish mealtimes.

Sorry I'm not much help on the formula side.

That's a crazy huge amount of food IMO. Our pediatrician recommends no more than a tablespoon or two of cereal and/or baby food twice a day at this age.

snd1231 - It really depends on how your babies are doing with weight gain and growth. If they are struggling with it, give them their normal bottles, and afterwards let them try a little bit of food. If there aren't any problems you don't have to be so worried about making sure they get formula first, but you still want it to be the primary nutrition until their first birthday. (Adjusted probably?)

You don't want to be replacing formula with food. As the saying goes "Food before one is just for fun." I feel like remembering that takes a lot of stress out of the situation. Good luck!

[fish8412]

Jul 19, 2016 19:34:47 GMT -5 valie said:

Their formula should be their primary food source still.

For a 6mo gut they can be getting about:
- 8tbsp cereal
- 3tbsp meat & alternatives
- 9tbsp fruits
- 6tbsp veggies
per day.

I BF at wake-ups and bedtime and feed meals at regular-ish mealtimes.

Sorry I'm not much help on the formula side.

For my 6 month old this is WAY too much solids. We just started solids when she turned 6 months on the 8th so she only eats 1-2 tablespoons one time a day.

I remember with DD1, she started to eat 3 small solid meals a day at around 9 months.

Some babies eat more solids than others between 6-12 months of age.

[valie]

IDK what to tell you... the numbers came from a handout my doctor gave me when DS was 6mos. It wasn't long before he was eating that much, but he's always been a big eater.

[snd1231]

Wow. Ok maybe I'm stressing too much then. Here's our feed schedule excluded naps etc.

7:30 wake up
8-9 bottles. Nolan takes 6-8 oz Gracie takes 4-6 oz and Nataleigh takes 4-5 oz
10:30 yogurt (dr approved for probiotics since they have gut issues) between the two that eat they take between 4-5 oz of yogurt.
1-2 bottles same amounts as above
5-6 bottles same amounts
6:30 or 7 between the two 1 to 2 small containers of a veggie and a fruit
8:30 bottles same amounts

So Nolan takes usually between 28-32 oz and 2 oz yogurt and 2ish oz of baby food.
Gracie gets about 20-24 oz formula and 2 oz yogurt 2 oz baby food.
Nat is having serious feeding issues and we are lucky to get 20 oz in her.

[dizzycooks]

We do blw, I do t know if that would be harder or easier for you. We have the go ahead for white protein and yogurt as well. 1 protein and a fruit or veggie twice a day is my goal. Mostly she tastes it, she consumes very little at this point.
She still nurses every 2-3 hours and over night.
I remember this changing around 8-9 months or so. My kids are now voracious eaters so they did figure it out.

[scorpioscuba]

Jul 19, 2016 20:08:03 GMT -5 NellieOleson said:

Jul 19, 2016 19:34:47 GMT -5 valie said:

Their formula should be their primary food source still.

For a 6mo gut they can be getting about:
- 8tbsp cereal
- 3tbsp meat & alternatives
- 9tbsp fruits
- 6tbsp veggies
per day.

I BF at wake-ups and bedtime and feed meals at regular-ish mealtimes.

Sorry I'm not much help on the formula side.

That's a crazy huge amount of food IMO. Our pediatrician recommends no more than a tablespoon or two of cereal and/or baby food twice a day at this age.

snd1231 - It really depends on how your babies are doing with weight gain and growth. If they are struggling with it, give them their normal bottles, and afterwards let them try a little bit of food. If there aren't any problems you don't have to be so worried about making sure they get formula first, but you still want it to be the primary nutrition until their first birthday. (Adjusted probably?)

You don't want to be replacing formula with food. As the saying goes "Food before one is just for fun." I feel like remembering that takes a lot of stress out of the situation. Good luck!

All of this! Don't stress over it. Keep formula their primary source of nutrition and let the food be fun and experimentation. Follow their lead. You are doing fabulous mama!

[silverspoon]

We just do oatmeal in the morning and a veggie at night. We didn't decrease ounces of formula. I think we're going to start adding fruit to his oatmeal in a week or two. I don't know exactly how much he gets off the actual food because we don't measure it out.

I had to learn not to stress about it. I feel like a forgot he's just a tiny human. He doesn't have to follow some chart from the doctor or Google. Just find what works for your family.

[snd1231]

Thanks ladies! Y'all are amazing!

[crimsonandclover]

Jul 19, 2016 21:24:00 GMT -5 dizzycooks said:

We do blw, I do t know if that would be harder or easier for you. We have the go ahead for white protein and yogurt as well. 1 protein and a fruit or veggie twice a day is my goal. Mostly she tastes it, she consumes very little at this point.
She still nurses every 2-3 hours and over night.
I remember this changing around 8-9 months or so. My kids are now voracious eaters so they did figure it out.

BLW isn't really recommended for preemies. It was one of the reasons I didn't do it with DD1. DD3 was such a late preemie that we're kind of doing it anyway.

snd1231, I also think you don't need to worry so much about amounts when it comes to solids. Some babies like it more, others less.

How is Nataleigh growing? For reference, my 6.5 month old (so about her age adjusted) only eats 2-3oz per feeding (but has more feedings a day - I honestly don't keep track of how many) and has had about 8 spoonfuls of purees in her life, most of which came right back out of her mouth. So I think as long as she's growing parallel to the curve, you don't need to worry too much!

[kcrkcs]

I do solids at dinner because my supply is typically low then and she is hangry. She also will occasionally get a bit of something if she is grabbing food out of my hand during the day, but I don't sit her down to offer food to her. I do not breastfeed ahead of dinner because there usually isn't much to give her :/. She eats some cereal and recently added yogurt as well as a mix of whatever we are eating or some fruit/veg. That's easy to gum. It only took her about two weeks to go from tasting to actually consuming the majority of what I give her. I know she started solids early but it was something she really initiated and has gone really well so I guess it just goes to show that there isn't one correct progression.

[snd1231]

crimsonandclover thanks for your advice. I'm trying not to worry much. She used to be an incredible eater taking 5 oz every 3-4 hours. Now she likes 2-3 oz every 4ish hours during the day and sleeps 12 hours at night. We usually do a lot of dream feeding. She's not growing super great for her growth curve. We have a nutritionist and our neonatologist following us closely and might wind up with a feeding tube due to serious oral aversions caused by long term vent use.

Thanks kcrkcs. My other two do great with baby food and want all the food but Nataleigh is holding strong against it haha. I keep trying tho!

[wholenewworld]

snd1231, do you do fortified formula for any of your babies? My LO (not a premee) has had poor weight gain so we fortify my breastmilk to 24 cal. Just wondering if you have had experience with that. Assuming your docs would have mentioned that if they thought it would help, more just curious if you are in the same boat.

[snd1231]

Jul 20, 2016 16:40:39 GMT -5 wholenewworld said:

snd1231, do you do fortified formula for any of your babies? My LO (not a premee) has had poor weight gain so we fortify my breastmilk to 24 cal. Just wondering if you have had experience with that. Assuming your docs would have mentioned that if they thought it would help, more just curious if you are in the same boat.

Yes ma'am we do. We used to do all BM but due to needing thickened feeds I had to stop BFing and switch to formula. They were always on fortified BM tho. Nolan is on regular 22 cal(preemie enfacare has more calories than normal formula) my two small girls are on 26 cal.
Eta: at one point I had to mix three different calorie breast milk pitchers it was a nightmare! If you have any questions about it feel free to message me!!