Feeding Schedule

Hey A., I am a stay at home mom of 2 (2yrs and 4yrs old) -I also keep some of my friends and family's kids at my home. With my own kids - they both ate 1-2 jars at every meal. On average about 4-6 jars a day with bottles. Also cereal was great for me. All of the gerber cereals are packed with vitamins...just don't overload on the cereal because all the iron in it could cause constipation. If you are looking to try new jar foods - I would recommend gradually introducing her to new foods. Try one new food for about 2-3 days - if she has no allergic reaction, you can feed her the new foods anytime. Make sure you only try one new food at a time though, that way if she does get a rash or anything like that- you will know exactly which food she is allergic to.
For table foods (and some jar foods- just check the label) - as long as she is not allergic to milk (some babies are on soy formula for milk intollerance - both of mine were), You could try mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes,pudding, applesauce, really anything that is of soft texture she could try. Depending on how many teeth she has - you could try little things like cheerios - or if that makes you nervous to give her something to chew...Gerber also makes those puffs ( I cannot think of what they are called) that dissolve in their mouth, so there is no choking hazard. They work great - especially in teaching her to feed herself. Eventually, you could give her the harder snacks, like goldfish and crackers. Yogurt is a great choice- as long as she can tolerate milk. Any kind of yogurt should be fine. I like the yoplait smooth and creamy - no chunky fruit in it. And for juice - if you have to give her (most doctors and dentists recommend water- so do I)- but if you do give it to her mix it with water - 1/2 juice and 1/2 water or 1/4 juice and 3/4 water.. juices are just loaded in sugar and it is really bad for babies teeth.
I hope some of this helps you in your motherhood adventure. Good luck.

K. J., 28, mom of 2, and child care provider

I think you are on track. Once she got accustomed to baby food, our daughter ate a jar in the morning (fruit/applesauce or cereal), a meat or veggie for lunch and sometimes two jars for dinner. Looking back, I think we started table food a bit late (around 10 months) but I was nervous about it. :)

We skipped stage 3 foods and moved on to "real" food around 10-11 months. I sent this info to another person who posted a question about baby food, so I'll just copy/paste it here:

We started with regular applesauce, mac & cheese (cut up tiny), potatoes (inside of a baked potato, or mashed potatoes), soft green beans, peas, Gerber fruit puffs (they dissolve), cheerios, oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, breads, etc. Basically most side dishes or veggies you'd have with a regular meal can be used if they are soft enough or small enough.

I must confess we also eat out a lot, so in those cases, she loved rice and sweet carrots (think of the kind you typically get with Chinese food, but you might want to pick out the eggs), plus stuff at the pizza/salad buffet like the little ham chunks, pineapples, peaches, shredded cheese or chunks of cheese, cottage cheese....

Also helpful for fruits is a mesh feeder (like this http://www.munchkin.com/products/detail.html?pID=37) Baby can chew on it and get the juices and pulp but you don't have to worry about choking. I guess you could put other stuff in it too. Our daughter loves strawberries, apples, blueberries and those little mandarin oranges. And bananas.

We also gave her yogurt starting around 11 months, when we started the transition from breast milk to regular milk.

Hope that's helpful.
Karen

hi A., we're on about the same schedule with our 7 1/2 month old. she gets one jar at lunch and one at dinner. i think the best thing to do is watch your baby and not the age/what doctor says. the longer you hold off on introducing certain foods, the better chance they have on not developing any allergies. have you tried making your own food? the cookbook "so easy baby food" found on www.babycenter.com has food trays that come with it. it lists which foods to introduce at what age and about how much to give them. also, the Dr. Sears baby book has helped us a lot with everything for our child. i hope this helps!

wow after reading all the responses you received it just seems every baby is diffrent i have a 4 month old she will be 5 months on may 11th she still of course takes her bottle but also shes already eating 2-3 jars of 1st foods a day...shes not fat she just has a hearty appetite ya know...i would say just to increase her intake of to what she is able to take. You know your baby better than anyone so i say if her pediatrician says shes good dont worry to much...shes growing and healthy thats all you can ask for. hope you find a schedule and routine...take care.

Hi A.,

I have five kids of my own but I am also an Infant Care Specialist. At 8 months she should be on solids. She needs more than 2 jars of baby food a day. Try soft boil pasta with little bit of parmesan cheese (if she has no allergies to it). You can also give her any type of fruit juice (no kool- aid). If she has teeth coming in you can also boil some vegetables(broccoli, cauliflower, carrots) really soft and give them to her as well as finger food. This is what I did for my kids and for all the babies I have kept so by the time the babies were a year old they were off of bottle and were using sippy cups and eating what the parents were eating.

Hope this helps.

When my DD was that age she was eating about that much. We eventually got to 3 jars, 1 at breakfast, 1 at lunch and 1 at dinner. We worked up on size, at 8 monts I think she was eating stage 2 foods and we did stage 3 later (or 2 2s), but not all kids like the texture. She also started eating snacks between lunch and dinner (loved cheerios and puffs - both dissolve quickly).

Most of her nutrients should be breast milk or formula, but at this age she is probably interrested in solid food too. Follow her lead - she will stop eating when full (don't force) and should let you know if she gets hungry again.

Don't stress over adding juice or yogurt. We did yogurt at 9 months - my DD loved it from the start, but likes Yoplait kids over Yo Baby due to texture (same sugar content). Try juice in sippy cups a little at a time - my DD didn't really like juice until 12 months or so.

As for table food - I dont think there is a rush, but mashed potatoes, bananas and noodles are good starting points. Soon enough your LO will be letting you know she wants food off of your plate.

Dont worry so much.I say just offer her fruits and veggies from a jar inbetween bottles.Or do like I use to do and feed her the jar food first an then give the bottle or vise versa.My son always had to eat immediately so I always gave the bottle first and followed by some fruit or veggies.

A.,
When I was searching for information about transitioning our daughter from baby food to table food I found this website: www.wholesomebabyfood.com. It gives a wonderful list of foods that are appropriate to introduce to babies at different ages. I hope this helps!

Most pediatricians will tell you not to give juice. Why? They say that it really has no nutrition benefit, it is mostly just sugar, and it leads to obesity. Why no nutrition benefit? Because all juice today is pasteurized, so the enzymes are gone. And juice eliminates the fiber from the fruit. So you are better off giving them fruit and water. All that sugar in juice (real or fake sugar) lowers the immunity so your kid will get sick more often. It will set your kid up for a lifetime of expecting all drinks to be sweet, which will at some point in their life lead to them being overweight. Lastly, most kids will fill up on juice and then not want to eat.