6 Month Old "Menu"

I mash the banana in the cereal & at night I mash avocado with the cereal. He loves it. He is now 20 months & still has 4 meals. bfast- lunch-nap-snack-dinner. all the experts are always telling adults to have 6 small meals a day so I wouldn't worry about the baby eating a 4-6 times a day.

My daughter never liked rice cereal, and I never made her eat it. She did like the Gerber oatmeal, which is just as good if not better. There's no reason she has to have rice (or any) cereal, if she's eating other foods and formula or breast milk.

Our meal schedule was hard to establish too. She would eat a good breakfast and lunch, but it was a long time before she really ate dinner. At 6 months, breakfast was the only meal she would take consistently, but I just kept offering at lunch and dinner times, and it eventually took. It sounds like what you are doing is fine.

For the sippy, water is perfect. Then try putting her milk in it. At 6 months I wouldn't expect much though. My daughter wasn't ready for that transition until 11 months. But you can still offer it and see what happens, at least then it's familiar to her.

My daughter is 18 months and still doesn't get juice. They don't need it if the rest of their diet is good.

K.,

I understand! The whole food thing can be stressful. Keep trying the cereal. Try adding a fruit or veggie to it & mix it up. They say some things take 8-15(something crazy like that) tries until they like them! So hang in there. As for the dinner feeding, can you pump & take some in to your daycare? Just an idea. What are your feelings about supplementing w/formula? I am a mother of 2 boys, 9 & 6 yrs old. I had to supplement w/my second one because I couldn't feed him enough! You could always put breast milk or formula in the sippy cups. The sooner you get her used to that the better. It'll make your life a little easier! They(whoever they is) say it's best to not fill them up on water. I think a little is not so bad for them, right? I hope this has helped! Hang in there. If I can do it anyone can.

Suzanne M

My daughter didn't take to the rice cereal either. We switched to the oatmeal kind and she liked it a little more but still didn't eat it up like I have seen other children do. Most of the nutrients come from breastmilk or formula. The cereal is just to help them transistion to solids. Try peas too as it has iron in them. As for the schedule, I had them start feeding dinner at daycare around 5:15. My daughter took forever eating so it just made it easier to do at daycare. I wanted to spend my time with her at home playing or cuddling instead of watching her eat in her highchair for 45 minutes which can be agonizing as she wasn't a good eater. I figured as she got older we could do the family dinner at home once she was more established with mealtimes and it didn't take her so long to eat. I guess it is a little selfish but being at work all day I really needed that time with her and not at the highchair.
Also, have you talked to them at daycare? They can help/guide you with the meal times so it can be carried over to home/weekends.
Let me know if you have any questions about scheduling or anything else. I remember going onto Mamasource to ask all these questions too. My daughter is now 15 months.
Take care!

Hi K.! Enjoy this age, beginning the solids and all the crawling and moving! It is so exciting! Anyway, I would try mixing the cereal with some of the fruits for the a.m. solids feeding. She might take the cereal easier that way. My youngest never loved cereal but she ate it mixed with fruit, then when she started eating table foods at 10 months or so she rejected it again. If that doesn't work, maybe try some oatmeal instead of rice cereal. I think some cereal is important because it's so good for them, but if she doesn't like it, don't worry about it - she is getting great nutrition from you and the solids already.

As far as the schedule goes, it's really what is best for your lifestyle and schedule. If she is ready for dinner at 5 p.m. and you are not home yet, have the day care provider give her some solids (veggies, some yogurt and fruit as possibilities) before you nurse for the night. It could be that she eats solids for breakfast and lunch and not at night, that is okay too. My kids ate breakfast at around 7 a.m., lunch around 11:30, and dinner around 5. They had bottles in between of course, and they had yogurt as mid-morning snacks as well (still do!). It will get more routine in a month or so, once you figure out what she likes and she adjusts to solids more. When she gets to about 9-10 months you can try her on stage 3 foods, which are chunkier and thicker and more like real "meals". Both my girls were phased out of baby food/jarred food by about 13 months and totally into people food. It goes fast! Every baby is a little different so just go with what works for you.

I'm pretty sure they need the cereal for the iron, which is very important for their development at these ages. There are other cereals to try (baby oatmeal, barley, etc..) and she might like the taste of that better. You could try mixing that in with a little formula, breastmilk, or fruit to change the tastes around a little bit. Remember, babies and toddlers often need to try new tastes 10 times before they accept it. I would give her 1 or 2 spoonfuls when she's most hungry just to try again each day before you switch to fruit or veggies. If you find her accepting the cereal, keep giving her more spoonfuls until she doesn't want them (but don't let her see/smell that sweet fruit because that may sabotage your efforts!).

Well, if you aren't getting home until 6:15 then isn't then when you are eating dinner yourself anyways? This is your schedule. It doesn't have to be the 6:00 sharp dinner that we had when we were kids. You have a different schedule and when she begins sitting down to eat meals with you it's going to be when you are done preparing them. And if that's 7:00 then that's the way it has to be. You have to go by a schedule that works for you and your family not by someone elses arbitrary schedule of when lunch and dinner are supposed to be.

Try adding something to the cereal - a little of the baby fruit stuff will give it some taste, or add some cinnamon (not with sugar, just straight cinnamon, which also has health benefits, according to recent reports). You can also add vegetables to the rice - think of what you eat for dinner and try peas, green beans, and so on. You can also change it up with other types of cereals too. It's hard to know if it's the taste or the texture she isn't nuts about. The more variety you can give her, the better off you will be when she gets older.

Of course water is fine for the sippy cup. Ask the pedi if you can add a little juice to a lot of water, just to flavor it a little, although one would hope that she'd go for the water.

I would try oatmeal as long as you don't introduce anything new at the same time as the oatmeal it shouldn't be a problem. I found my boys both preferred the oatmeal over the rice cereal. I wouldn't leave out the baby cereal it has high iron content which is good for them my 2o month old still eats the baby oatmeal. It is fine to offer water to your daughter. My youngest has always been a big drinker so started taking water very very young. If she doesn't care for it a drop of apple juice just to give it a hint of flavor isn't going to hurt her. You can mix in the fruit with her baby cereal it might make it more appealing to her. I just wouldn't eliminate it. If you think you are home to late to offer her dinner offer her some cereal or a fruit nothing big just something to get in her tummy. Good luck. Hope you find a schedule that works for you.

You've received lots of great advice, so I just have a few things to add. I'm not sure what kind of cereal (rice, oatmeal, barley) or what brand (gerber, beechnut, etc), but rice is very constipating, whereas, barely is loosening and oatmeal tends to fall in between. My son also liked the barley and oatmeal much better than rice.

And most of the cereal doesn't taste good at all. But I found that the beechnut tastes and smells absolutely terrible. Gerber tastes and smells much better. My son has been eating cereal since he was 4 mos old (he's just about 10 months now) and if I ever had to by the beechnut because that was all the store had, I had a terrible time getting him to eat it.

As for the sippy cup, you should introduce it with water. Juice tends to have too much sugar and they really don't need the sugar quite yet. I have read a few things that say not to give more than 6 oz of water a day so that it doesn't mess with the breastmilk/formula intake. And just so you're not surprised, it may take a few different sippy cup types/brands to find one that works. I found that the munchkin brand (from Target)has worked best for us. It does not have a valve, but requires more of a sucking motion to get the water out and it doesn't leak.

Good luck!

Hi K.,

If your daughter is doing well and gaining weight, there's nothing that says you have to introduce dinner (or 3 meals a day). I am still BF'ing my 8 month old. He has breakfast around 7:30 (cereal mixed with fruit or veg) and then lunch around 11:30 (a fruit and a veg) (both at day care). He gets 2 bottles during the day-one in between breakfast and lunch and the other sometime after lunch. You may find that your daughter still wants a bottle right after breakfast or lunch, but the older she gets (and the larger portions she eats) the more spaced out they'll become. I like you don't get home from the day care pickup until around 6 and I nurse him straight away. It's great bonding time with him after being away. My pedi told me that I'd see signs he was ready for a third meal during the day (like waking up hungry in the middle of the night), but she didn't have a problem with me waiting to introduce that third meal. I would recommend giving your daughter cereal though. It's something that they do need. Good luck!

K.,

First, yes just water in the sippy cup and take out the valve if it has one. Let her get the hang of it without the valve and then when she is a little older she can try to introduce the valve slowly.

As for the food. It took my daughter 7 weeks to get up to a 3 meal a day schedule. We did breakfast, then added dinner and finally added lunch. You can either nurse before the solid food or after whichever you prefer but she will still need the nursing. Breastmilk should be her main source of calories til she is 1 year old.

My daughter got cereal and fruit at breakfast and veg and fruit at dinner. (Our dinner was at 5pm though - enough time to try something new before she went to bed) this is something to think about when adding new items to your babies diet. Any chance you can give her a little food at daycare before you leave for home- or if she doesn't go to bed til 8:30 or 9pm then you should be OK. Check with your ped but I think you are supposed to have 2 hours before you put them to bed if you have given them something new to eat. Or speak to the daycare maybe they can give her some dinner at 4pm or so.
When my daughter started on lunch I would always introduce new items at lunch time - it just made it easier. Now she gets yogurt - Yobaby whole milk organic plain yogurt with separate fruit for breakfast - she loves this. Veg and fruit for lunch and cereal and fruit or veg, protein and fruit for dinner - it depends what she is in the mood for. She doesn't seem to be big on the proteins. My daughter is 9-1/2 months and didn't start with proteins until she was 9 months old.

Hope this helps and check with your ped if you have any concerns,

Enjoy the fun,
L. M

PS - she might soon start to grab for the spoon - let her have her own. Sometimes they also want to feed themselves. I put a very small amount on the spoon my daughter has and at first helped her put it in her mouth - now she can do it. And as she gets older - around 8 to 9 months you can start to introduce finger foods. Gerber puffs that disolve in their mouths, cheerios, pieces of cheese things like this but check with the doctor if you have any questions. Also T.B. Brazelton has a book called Touchpoints. It is really good and talks about feeding and I found it very helpful.

Hi K.,

My pediatrician told me that the rice cereal is where my son (8 months) is getting most of his iron from. If you are breast feeding, your daughter may not need it as much. I hear you with the 3 meals a day - it gets monotonous (sp?). What I have been doing is giving my son a fruit or vegetable mixed with formula and rice cereal (mix and heat for 15 seconds) for breakfast. With that he has 6 oz of formula. Then for lunch I usually do a Stonyfield Yogurt, 6 oz bottle and maybe a biscuit. I also give him fruit juice mixed with water everyday - usually at breakfast or while I am out somewhere. Because he had a cold for about 10 days and I wanted the juices to help him get vitamins. For dinner I usually do a vegetable mixed with cereal and formula, 6 oz bottle and a dessert of some sort of fruit.

Hope any of this helps!!

(first time mother of one boy, 8 mos and I am 44 - old;-)

Hi,

The majority of their nutrition comes from breastmilk or formula for the first year, so that is one of the reasons pediatricians often don't have tons of advice.

I have been following the Baby Super Foods book with few exceptions (I am not giving dairy or eggs for a while). She suggests for each serving of fruits and veggies there should be two servings of cereals. If you look at the food pyramid the bottom level (and therefore the main part of our diet) is based on whole grains.

We tried rice cereal and my daughter didn't like it so we use oat cereal. There is also barley and other types of cereal too. We mix it with breastmilk and a fruit or a veg.

I think 6 months seems a little young for 3 meals a day. I have heard that they are supposed to work their way up to three meals by 9 months.

I have read that when the babies are young you are supposed to boil any tap water before giving it, but I don't know when you can stop doing that. If you use well water you should have it tested for lead. I have also read that you can give 2-4 ounces of water a day once you start solids.

Good luck!

my girl is 7 months now, and i've found that if you use a "runny" vegetable like summer squash (steamed and pureed fresh) it's good to mix the cereal right into thicken it up, plus it's my daughter's favorite vegetable now. We switched from rice cereal to oatmeal cereal too, you can try that. She doesn't even notice the cereal when mixed w/the thinned veggies.

Hi K.. Add one feeding at a time. So you started with breakfast, then add lunch, after another couple of weeks, add dinner. Go slow in case of any food allergies. Also, some babies sleep better with solids, others do not if they eat something that upsets them, so another reason to go slowly. Ease the solids into her digestive system.
If you want to give her some water, they sell Nursery water at drug stores. It is just to get her used to using a sippy cup. I have a one year old who STILL will not use one, and Ive tried several kinds!
Aask your pedi about the cereal. I use oatmeal because the rice cereal bound up my DD, and our doc said she needed the iron in the cereal as I was BF'g. If your LO is also using formula, then that might not be needed.
Good luck!