TTMA feeding solids

[piccyami]

I'm kind of conflicted about feeding solids right now. DC feeds them 2-3 jars of food a day (each!), but Z gets too distracted for bottles and usually only takes 6 ounces while they're there. I feel like we should be feeding them solids at home, especially when we eat something that would be great for BLW, but I want Z to get more formula. Right now, they get 3 - 6 oz bottles at home (so Z's getting around 24 oz a day) +/- a bottle.

I don't want to add more solids because Z prioritizes solids over formula, but I want to add solids because we only feed them solids on the weekends and rarely at a meal we're eating, mostly because they go to bed so early.  We usually eat dinner after they go to bed.

Or maybe just make me feel better that they're eating, whenever and however that is.

[Stringy]

Well your last sentence is certainly true. Eating whatever and however. But at just 6 months I'd ask day care to always offer bottles first and not solids so that if hungry, that's the stuff they eat. And/or send less solids so day care can't feed them more than you give? Formula should be their primary source of calories and nutrition right now.

I'm in a similar place, but I'm almost 4 months ahead of you (really??). P won't drink ANY bottles when I'm at work now. But she did until like 8-9 months and by then I was okay with it. And she also nurses all night long. And is a chub. If she were at all average to under weight I'd probably do it differently.

If I could go back I'd probably push the milk first before solids- mostly in hopes that I could get her to sleep more. But I feel like I can't night wean now since its her only milk. She'll eat any solids we put in front of her.

Did that make any sense?

[brandiewine11]

Definitely milk before solids.

If you want to do BLW, just give them a bottle and then when you sit down to eat (or while you are cooking dinner), put a few bits on their trays to play with. At 6 months they are not going to take in enough with BLW to replace milk. Nor should they.

As far as daycare is concerned, I'd ask them to back off. That seems like a lot (although we never did purees aside from the occasional pouch so I could be totally wrong). But if it's interfering with formula consumption, it's too much. If I remember correctly your daycare provides this? Will they do BLW instead?

[marshian]

Still inside baby here, but I've been doing tons of research on BLW. From what I've read, "food before one is only for fun". Calories need to come from milk/formula. Always offer that first. Then food after. They will eat what they want.

For BLW, everything I've read highly discourages doing purees and BLW at the same time. With purees, they are learning to swallow first, then chew later. With solids, it's the opposite. They're more likely to choke if you do a mix. So I would pick one or the other at this age (6 months, looks like?).

There's a BLW Facebook group which has tons of info:
www.facebook.com/groups/1578341132430270/

[freezorburn]

I'm just really impressed that your kids go to bed before you have dinner. That never worked out for us. Must be nice to be able to eat one meal in peace.

[briarrose]

I definitely agree with PPs who have said to get daycare to do bottles before solids. They most definitely should be doing that, especially at this young age. We only did BLW with DS, so I am no help on the puree front, but BLW did work fantastically for us if that is the route you want to go. I know people who have done both BLW and purees without problems, but we just weren't interested in messing with purees if we didn't need to.

[critter015]

We did mostly purees and my kids started cutting down their milk intake pretty quickly after they started getting 3 meals a day of solids, even if I nursed them shortly before eating. For us, food before one was food... C was almost completely weaned by 11 months because my milk supply dipped due to pregnancy and she refused to drink frozen bm or formula. O self-weaned right after his first birthday. But all of my kids really took to solids and by 9ish months were eating whatever we were as long as the pieces were small enough. If they are with you while you are eating you should give them something to eat then, and maybe cut back at dc, but if they are at dc for 3 meals a day then just keep doing what you are doing (C was at DC from 7 am to 6 pm, so they gave her breakfast and lunch and then something later in the day and she just had a snack with us while we ate dinner.)

[piccyami]

Sorry for the post & run yesterday. Everyone was much more hands-on than usual all evening.

Thanks guys. You all definitely made me feel better about the solids. They just moved rooms, and while they're feeding them solids 3 times a day in this room, they're splitting the jar with another baby (jar is mixed with cereal in individual bowls). And when they mark that they ate "100%" of whatever, they're just using that to mark what they had, not necessarily how much. Z just isn't eating much right now outside of bedtime, MOTN, and breakfast, so we're going to work on getting her to eat more. Today, she has a bottle and a sippy cup at DC. We'll see how she does. We ordered stage 3 nipples for their bottles and we're hoping that helps her, too.