Need advice on moving forward in solid foods

Looking for some straight-up advice to follow from some experienced mommas. Frankly, I am exhausted with my sweet LOs still waking once and twice a night for feeding and I am just a zombie. I am really slacking on the solid food schedule and I just don't know where to go next without researching and frankly, wholesomebabyfood.com is great but there is so much info that I have just shut down. Below is what we have done and a couple questions on where we should go. Many many thanks ahead of time!

We are eating twice a day - here are the foods that have been introduced:
Rice, oatmeal, multi-grain (with barley), avocado, banana, yams, sweet potato, white potato, green beans, apples, pears, squash

Questions:

1) We are still pureeing. They don't really get yet that you pick up the food and put into mouth - tried a couple times and I just don't think they are ready yet. They will "chew" (don't have any teeth yet) if you put tiny diced soft consistency but I have to put it in their mouth. When do I need to encourage them to practice with chunkier foods? Hopefully I am not discouraging them by spoon feeding pureed...they gobble it up which is nice.

2) Which foods am I missing as key foods before bringing in meats like chicken or turkey?

3) They get really anxious to eat before meals and go crazy when they see me making the food. Should I move to 3 meals or at least offer a little snack? They are BFing just fine but very frequently now (every 1.5-2 hours)- wondering if they could use more solids. They take in 3-4 ounces of food each during those two meals.

4) Yogurt is good now right? What if one LO has a problem if I drink cow's milk? Yogurt should still be fine?

Just want to make sure I am not messing up eating for these LOs down the line. I can't believe how fast this has crept up - we started solids slowly at 5.5 months and here we are...a runaway train!

Thanks again - ANY input/advice is sure appreciated. I feel like we started with a bang but I am fizzling at keeping this process moving along. :thanks:

 

1.)I I think around 9 months old is when we started to introduce finger foods but it took them a couple of months before they accepted it.

2.) peas and carrots, applesauce

3.) If they are acting hungry and you think they'll take it I would go ahead and give them 3 meals of solids. That's what they're going to tell you to do at the 9 month check up. 3 meals and a snack.

4.) I don't know about yogurt with a milk allergy, mine don't have any allergies so I'm no help on this question.

Sounds like they are doing great! I hope they start sleeping more for you soon. For my two, solids did not help with sleep.

 

1. Mine did not get finger foods until they had a couple of teeth to chew them with. A good thing for starters for them to mash on with their gums might be Gerber Puffs...it will give them practice before they start finger foods.
2. Carrots, applesauce, peas
3. If you think they are hungry when they go crazy while you are making their meal, a little snack or trying out a third meal won't hurt.
4. Mine did not have a milk allergy and we started Yo Baby Yogurt around 9 months.
Like Aimee, solids did not help my two to sleep any better. I hope you start getting some good sleep soon :hug:

 

Questions:

What I did at that age was put some on their trays, and also spoon feed them.

Off the top of my head, peas and peaches.

I would try adding another meal. We were on 3 by that time.

Yes, and most likely. Yogurt is easier to digest than regular milk.


GL!

 

Just adding on. One of mine had a possible milk protein allergy and we were told to stay away from dairy until after a year (yogurt included).

 

1. just to add to what the others said... i think it was the 9 mo. appt. where the doc either ask how their hand eye control was or told us to start trying to get them to pick up little things. we just let them pick up and eat the cheerios off their trays. I never did do the gerber puffs or anything... I figured if these dropped on the floor they weren't that expensive.

2. mine liked peas & carrots too.

3. yep just add another meal in. are you feeding them the solids after their bf'ing session? solids are for practice and your milk has more nutrition. but by a year I guess they are supposed to be eating more solids than milk.

4. yogurt, I do think its easier to digest - has less lactose (I believe) than milk. we started it at 8 or 9 months.

 

I've read/flipped through a ton of baby feeding books and if I can recommend just one, it's Baby Bites by Bridget Sweeny. I got it from my library. It's an excellent step-by-step book with enough flexibility to make it actually doable. I liked the day by day and 'a day in the feeding' explanations. There's so much info out there that it's overwhelming and she focuses it down.

That said, 1) I think that if you just try occasionally with chunkier foods, they'll let you know when they're ready.

2) You need to introduce wheat, I'm thinking.

3) Add a meal or a regular snack.

4) I tried yogurt recently and might have had a reaction so I'm backing off for a month or so.

 

Thanks mommies! You are all lifesavers! I do breastfeed 30-45 mins before solids and they usually BF again within an hour after, but that feed is usually a shorter one. I will add the peaches, carrots, applesauce, and peas - that will get me to the 9 month appointment and I will discuss meat and yogurt and the other stuff. I am going to go ahead and add a third meal I think - or at least a half meal/snack. And Rebekah - going to check out that book from my library. I can't thank you all enough.