My son will be five months old in a week. We started introducing "food" two weeks ago - starting with single grain, rice cereal mixed with his formula. Following the pediatrician's schedule we worked him up to 5 tablespoons of cereal mixed with 5 tablespoons of formula twice a day. Over the weekend we introduced vegetables (green beans/ stage 1 baby food) - again following the pediatrician's instruction we have started with 1/4 of a 2.5 oz jar of baby food - two nights, our son will get 1/2 of the jar tonight. I have been continuing to feed him rice cereal in the morning along with a smaller portion bottle of formula then he takes two 8.5 oz bottles at day care and then the rice + veggies + a smaller portion (4oz) bottle during his nighttime routine.
I should say he LOVES the veggies, and LOVES the rice cereal and still welcomes the smaller portion bottles (still taking the full bottles at daycare) - I know we are so lucky!!
Am I feeding him too much? Not enough? Tomorrow night, following the schedule, we should be feeding him the full 2.5 oz jar of vegetables. Do I continue the rice cereal at the same proportions + the bottles?
Any advice is welcomed, I am so confused and just want to make sure I am doing the right thing to set him up for a healthy relationship with food in the future. Thanks so much!!
Food is only for practice at this age. Baby food has very few calories or vitamins/minerals, and none of the good fats he needs. And the cereal can cause constipation. He gets his nutrition from formula. Keep the food to a minimum for another 2-3 months.
The bottles should be fed first. They are his primary source of nutrition. Solid foods at this age are second. Do not replace any bottles with solid foods. Maybe in about 3 months you can consider pushing more solids. Personally, I think 5 months old is really young to be starting/feeding so many solids.
Not sure why your pediatrician is having you start solids so young? Food is really just "practice" for now, so I guess as long as he likes it, digests it okay and it doesn't take the place of the much more important and nutritious formula then you can keep doing what you're doing.
I agree there is not a right or wrong answer. I never measured what I gave my kids. When they stopped acting interested or turned away, spit it out, etc then I knew they were done. Sounds like you are doing a great job! Keep it up :)
he's pretty young. the most i'd do at this point is a little cereal, and i would not shortchange him on the formula. he's just too young to be getting significant amounts of his nutrition from solid food yet.
khairete
S.
Honestly, I don't think there is a right or wrong answers. You do want to make sure he gets plenty of formula, since that is his primary source of nutrition, but I would just kind of follow his lead on the rest.
My oldest loved trying new foods, so I let him. I spaced it out because we were told to wait a couple of days between knew foods so that if he's allergic to something we would have a very good idea of what it was. I also made sure he had plenty of breast milk or formula. After that, I just kind of followed his lead.
My youngest didn't want to try foods. I backed off and kind of forgot about it, actually. Tried again when he was 9 months, and he still wasn't interested. Turns out he's just too much of an "I can do it myself" kid and didn't like me trying to feed him. I started giving him finger foods, and he just went to town.
You are doing just fine! Keep introducing new foods (it's great to introduce him to different takes and colors and later textures), and have fun with him. If he doesn't like something, back off and try again later.
I always did bottle first, since that is more important then food. I never measured anything. When my son was five months, he would eat a big regular size bowl of cereal. The kid had an incredible appetite and was never even close to chubby. He will let you know when he does not want anymore.
That is really young. I've read it sets them up for a host of problems later on. Their digestive systems cannot handle it well.
Rice has arsenic; I'd be careful since that's a toxin.
We never did much solids before 12 months. We'd start at 6 months to play with them a bit. Please research this. Your ped doesn't sound up to date. There is more out there each month about the harm of early solids.
I tried - but our son didn't really take to solids till just about his first birthday.
There's no rush.
He did well on breast milk/formula until he was ready.
I'm only going to say this once. Your pediatrician is an idiot, please find another doctor.
Your baby is eating flavored goo that has NO nutrition in it at all. Nothing. It's to teach an older baby to chew and swallow.
It takes up space in their tummy and keeps them from wanting to nurse. They are starving for nutrition so they eat more food and it doesn't "feed" them so they want more. They look like they're loving it because they get fat. BUT they are NOT getting the nutrition they need.
You need to research this so you can make an informed decision. It's NOT good to feed a baby this age any solids at all.
It goes in, doesn't get digested well, sits in their tummy causing gas, when it goes in the lower part it can plug them up, cause diarrhea, cramps, and more. It doesn't give them anything at all.
If you research this you are going to be appalled your doc said to do this.
Babies don't even need baby food at all. They can even do totally without it until they're going to start eating table food.
Baby food doesn't have nutrition in it. It is flavored goo. It has minimal vitamins in it so they can sell it on food stamps and get parents to buy it so they stay in business but it's NOT FOOD!
Personally, I would not move too much faster. I know that methods change quickly in child rearing but even when my youngest was a baby (4 years ago) my pediatrician still felt that food at this age is just for practice and didn't really need to be started until closer to 6 months.
That being said, if your son is enjoying it and digesting it okay, I think it's fine to keep it up, but there is no reason to move quickly. I didn't really start replacing bottles with food until about 7-8 months. Obviously my kids still got bottles, I just mean that I didn't cut down on the volume much before then. I would really make sure that your son is getting enough formula/milk right now, he's still quite young and that's where the bulk of his nutrition is coming from at this point. Start with the bottle first if you need to and then add in the food at the end. Or sometimes I just did cereal during the day and then added in veggies at night.
