solids questions

Okay, I am confused. My girls are 4 months old and the pedi gave the green light for cereal. I understand increasing the amount as we go along and things like that, BUT do you feed the solids first then the bottle? Or the bottle first and then the solids? Do you space them out (example: bottle at 10am and soilds at 11am or the other way around)? Do you not space them out and give the solids and then the bottle right after? Oh, jeez...

Can anyone tell me what they do so I have some sort of idea and how the way you do it works for you.

Thanks twin mamas!

 

I can answer part of your question as we just started solids. Most people seem to do the feeding in the morning sometime, we do this as well, that way I figure if it upsets their stomach or something like that we can deal with it during the day rather than at night!
Also, they tend to do formula/bf first and then about 30min later do the solids. So, that is also what we have done. This way it doesn't fill the baby on solids and take away from formula or bf.
The reading I did said not to overdo it for the first while, so only give them a tiny bit in the beginning like 1-2tsps each. I am not sure how or when to increase it tho, still figuring out those details.

 

At first dont try to feed the solids in place of the bottle. They only associate the bottle with hunger, so if you try to give them a spoon of food when hungry it's only going to make them angry! (I learned this the hard way). I would give solids about 1 - 2 hours after the bottle, so they aren't "full" but aren't really hungry either.

Once they are a little older you can give solids or a bottle for hunger, but not until they are good solid eaters.

 

We always do the solids after a bottle of EBM/formula. I usually don't do it immediately after as my babies spit-up, so in the hopes of less spit-up I wait usually 30 minutes before giving them their solids.

 

I have always fed the bottle first, then solids. The bottle is their main source of nutrition at that age. HTH .

 

When we started solids, we did it in between two bottles. So they had a bottle at 4pm, solids at 6pm, bottle at 8. This worked well because they were hungry, but not starving and the solids didn't interfere with their bottle intake.

 

I agree with pp--when you first start, offer it to them when they aren't that hungry. We had two ANGRY babies on our hands the first time we tried because they were ready for their dinner bottles and didn't realize the cereal was food. Plus it took them a week or so to figure out how to actually eat it, rather than wear it.

We do solids in the evening right before the last bottle. We both work full-time; so that's really our best option, schedule-wise because the mornings are too hectic with everyone trying to get ready to head out for the day. I only give them 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of cereal and a tablespoon or so of vegetables (so far, only sweet potatoes, but they are a big hit). Though they have gotten more when I've messed up the consistency of the cereal and had to add more to soak up the liquid.

That's what works for us; but I think there isn't really a wrong way to do it. I would try a few things until you hit on a schedule that works for yours.

Good luck!

 

QUOTE(Leighann @ Jul 27 2008, 12:10 PM) [snapback]898486[/snapback]
When we started solids, we did it in between two bottles. So they had a bottle at 4pm, solids at 6pm, bottle at 8. This worked well because they were hungry, but not starving and the solids didn't interfere with their bottle intake.


Same here. I would at least wait 1.5 hours after bottles to give a solids meal. It seemed to work well fo us. Good luck and have fun!!