How much solid food to feed a six month old eat?

Question

My son is six months old. I nurse him 5-6 times a day and in between nursing sessions he has cereal(6-7 tbsp), fruit, veggie (3 tbsp each) . Is this a lot? I want to nurse him until he is a year and a half. But now a days he nurses so quickly (he's usually done in 10 min) that I am afraid my milk might dry up. Please help.

This quantity of solid food that I have mentioned is spread out throughout the day. This is the total amount he eats each day

Answer 1

I am still breastfeeding my 6 mo old daughter and she is eating solild food. I feed her the starter foods from gerber and give her a little of of the table that she can eat. I feed her 3 times a day and I usually give about 2-4 oz of solid food and she will still breastfeed when she is done. Babies around this age usually take around 6-8 oz of food every 4 hrs. I don't believe it will hurt your milk. It will keep her from being hungry more often.

Answer 2

Your milk will not dry up as long as you keep nursing him. He's just gotten really good at getting the milk out and it takes him less time then it used too. I have 6 month old twins and they nurse 6-7 times each day and have about 1/4 cup of rice cereal in the mornings. Babies get all the nutrition they need from breast milk during the first 12 months solids are just extra it doesn't matter how much they eat it's just for the experience of eating solid foods.

Answer 3

I found some WHO guidelines that state that the average 6-8 month-old in an industrialized country as energy needs of about 130 calories worth of supplemental nutrition (solids).

From my personal experience, I only fed my daughters one solid meal per day at 6 months, but I allowed them to eat as much as they wanted at that meal. I added a 2nd meal at 8-9 months, I think, and added the 3rd around 10 months. Of course, if they wanted to try what I was eating (and it was something I could share), then I'd let them have a few other bites here and there.

Since I was nursing often the rest of the day, I wasn't worried about losing my milk supply. I also continued to nurse about 1 hour before meals until they got closer to a year old. My older daughter weaned at 14.5 months during my pregnancy (so I don't know how much milk I had left), and my younger daughter is still nursing frequently at 20 months.

I think your best bet is to keep offering solids for fun now and wait a while before increasing the amounts. Also, continue to nurse on demand, and your milk supply should be fine.

Also, keep in mind that babies at that age are much more efficient at the breast, so he may be getting the same amount of milk in less time. Length of a nursing session is not indicative of supply.

Good luck!

Answer 4

My daughter is six months old and is breastfed...She started solids at about 4 and a half months old. She will have rice cereal in the morning then I will nurse her..then at lunch she will eat one container of stage one fruit or veggie then I will nurse her ..and at dinner time I will do the same as lunch...Then of course I will nurse her when she wants to be. She is a happy very healthy baby. At her last doctors appointment she weighed 16 lbs 11 oz and is about 27 inches long.

Answer 5

My pedia said feed him till he quits. But the amount you give is "safe" if he's breastfeeding as well. You can still add a few more teaspoons but not over 2 tablespoons more of food. A full gerber bottle is safe also. For you to cope with the nursing issue of drying up - make sure you have supplements to help you lactate and your diet should be soupy veggies that are rich in iron or protein. Plus you should drink milk as well because breastfeeding can drain your body's calcium reserves.

Answer 6

That sounds like an awful lot to me if he is eating the solids all at once. Does he eat solids several times a day and that is the 'total' amount for the day?? If it is spread out, all should be good. My oldest son was a biggggg eater too -- I swear he was empty down to his toes.

Answer 7

my mom has a five month old and she is still breats feeding her, you should try to stop breast feeding him and get him to feed from the bottle. it's not good to give them a lot of solid food at their age but give him large fruits to suck an lick, that what my mom does. hope this helps.

Answer 8

you know same thing happen to me and my doctor said my kids weren't getting filled off my milk so i put them on formula and it straighten out there eating habit and i put them on whole milk at 9 months it filled them up better then breastmilk believe or not

Answer 9

mostly it's better to breast feed upto 6 months after that you can feed him baby food available in the market