Baby Foods

My pediatrician told me that my daughter should be eating twice a day by the time she turned 6 months (cereal & fruit for breakfast, cereal & veggie for dinner) and it is always encouraged to eat in the highchair (to create good habits) whenever possible. As far as stage 2 foods- they only a have a tiny bit more texture than stage one. Once she is fully capable of swallowing stage 1- move on to stage 2.

Our pediatrician recommends to start the 3rd meal at 8 months. This is to ensure that the baby gets in enough ounces of milk per day for proper growth and hydration. I think the goal for this age group is 25 ounces per day. If that is not a problem and your child wants to eat when you eat, I am sure another serving of baby food will be fine. The stage two is not much different than stage one, its the stage 3 that was a big change for us.

my 8 month old eats 3 meals of babyfood a day, which is what his dr. suggested. we are just starting some of the stage 3 foods with him. i would say she is ready for stage 2 with about 3 meals a day.

Yours may be a little behind as a premie, but if you follow her cues, you'll be okay. At 8 months my baby was eating 2-3 jars and cereal, plus some real food, 3 times per day. She quit eating from a spoon for a while, so I had to start giving her really soft veggies and fruit.
I had been giving her around 40 oz of formula, but the ped said that was too much and that we should trade out formula for food. I think 24-32 was "right" then, and then at 9 months she told us to cut it back to 24 and add enough food to satisfy her hunger.
For the milk issue, be sure to read the labels. Most of the dessets have whey or cream. Mine has finally grown out of the allergy, but she still can't eat much dairy at 10 months. She's on regular formula now, but has trouble with yogurt and the desserts. If you want the details of how we tested the allergy, just send me a note. Things are cheaper and much less stressful...

This is what I did with my son at that age. In the morning, he had cereal mixed with less than half a jar of fruit, for lunch, cereal with the same amount of veggie, then for dinner, I would give him what's left of the two jars, and if needed, mixed with some cereal. Of course, I don't know how helpful this may be for you, since I my son was carried full term, and weighed 10lbs. 13 oz.! He came out the size of a 3 month old! LOL

Good luck though, start her out slow, but Iwould say, even premature, she can probaly eat at least 3 times a day of baby food, mixed in with some milk in between, and even little biscuit snacks to hold her over for dinner. It worked for mine, but I had a turkey! LOL

If she is eating Stage 1 without any problems then I'd say go for it. There isn't much difference between the two stages really. The fruits and veggies are the same consisitacy but there is just more in the jar in stage 2, there is more varity and more blends in stage 2 also. For now I'd avoid any that say desserts, custard, yogurt or the fruit with cereal already added cause they will be thicker. About a month or so might be good for those. She'll probably only eat a half jar at a time to start but that's fine as long as you dish out what she'll eat and put the jar in the fridge. Just follow her cue along the way.

This was my son's eating pattern around 8 months (all stage 2)....Breakfast-1/2 jar fruit w/cereal mixed in and formula to thing if needed & a 4oz bottle, Lunch-1/2-full jar fruit, 1/2-full jar veggie and 6oz bottle about a half hour later, Dinner-same as lunch. And he would have a bottle here and there also. By 10 months he was on 1/2 jars of stage 3 and taking bites off my dinner plate. Now he has been on table food for a month and whole milk in a sippy 2 times a day. One 8oz bottle before bed but he is getting weaned off that and is down to 4oz in a weeks time. As you can see, he is a healthy eater!!

Good luck to you guys
S.

H.,
I am hoping you're talking about your 7 1/2 month old? But by this age all my kids were eating stage 2 and some 3 stage foods 3 times a day and cereal with each. If she has teeth she's going to want to try those out on something! Let her try them on food instead of your furniture and other things. Try her in the high chair during feeding time. She will enjoy it, if not she'll let you know. Just make sure she's well secured.
My youngest (now 2) loved sitting in her swing (it had two positions laying and sitting) and eating. Once she got used to that we put her in the high chair.
Good luck, I thought I had it bad with a 1 year old and new baby. My prayers are with you!

I wasn't sure weather my 7 month old son was ready for stage 2 baby foods yet either, until yesterday when printed on the jar was stage 2 "for about 6 months and up". So now I'm moving my son up to some stage 2 foods. You can feed her 2 even 3 time a day but just make sure shes still getting plenty of formula. It might also make you feel more comfortable if you talk to your doctor about it. Hope everything works out.

i would go ahead and feed her three times a day. one jar per sitting. as she grows her appetite will grow too.

At 7 1/2 months my children were starting to eat soft table foods. So I think moving your daughter up to at least stage two would be ok. By seven months my boys were eating three times a day, not alot at each sitting, but they ate when we ate.

My doctor told us it was ok to move on to Stage 2 foods once our daughter had tried all the Stage 1 (but still only introducing new things every 3-7 days). He didi say not to feed the meat products in babyfood because it is usually poor quality and not good for them. He suggested waiting until about 9 months and offering shredded or processed fresh-cooked meat as an alternative. He also suggested letting her "eat" with us in her high chair with each meal so she would get used to the idea that mealtime is different from playtime from the start. It takes longer to feed her that way, but she seems to enjoy the social interaction of it all. But remember that babies will need a snack (or snack bottle of formula) if the break between meals is longer than 4 hours or so.

Also, each baby is different as far as how much they will eat. We were told that formula should be the mainstay until about a year old, but that food becomes more and more important around 9 months. My 9 month old is still only capable of eating about 10 oz. of baby food a day with some finger foods mixed in. (That is with only drinking 24-28 oz of formula, too). I found that I can pour about 1/2 a jar of food in a bowl and feed her that. Then if she hasn't turned away, I pour a little more and offer it until she refuses. Babies learn pretty quickly to tell when they are full and will let you know. Any left-overs I store until next time. That way it is not contaminated with mouth germs and the remaining part can be used later.