How many spoon fulls of solid food should i put in a bowl for a 6 month old?

Answer 1

2 tablespoons are equivalent to 1 serving, so I would give around 5 servings/d. Total for the day about 1/4 -1/2 cup food...pureed veggies, fruit, cereal, no meats yet. 1 Stage 1 jar is about 1/4 cup.

Answer 2

You give a 6 month old finger foods - NOT spoons full of solid food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do you want the baby to gag or what......

Answer 3

Give him as much as he will eat! He isn't going to eat more than he should he is only 6 months old!

Answer 4

Just a couple of tablespoons. However I really advise against spoon feeding at all. If a baby is ready for solids they are ready to feed themselve, this gives them completely control over how much of what and when. When you spoon feed they can't taste what is on the spoon before it is in their mouth, they can't really effectively spit it all out and it is very easy to spoon food deep enough in the mouth that a baby is forced to swallow.

Your baby is used to managing their own food input, why take that away?

My son has always fed himself and only around 10 months did he start reluctantly taking food from a spoon. He would still rather do it all himself, however he always eats what I eat and some things need spoons.

http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html
Understanding the babies motivation
This approach to introducing solids offers a baby the opportunity to discover what other food has to offer as part of finding out about the world around him. It utilises his desire to explore and experiment, and to mimic the activities of others. Allowing the baby to set the pace of each meal, and maintaining an emphasis on play and exploration rather than on eating, enables the transition to solid food to take place as naturally as possible. This is because it appears that what motivates babies to make this transition is curiosity, not hunger.

There is no reason for mealtimes to coincide with the babies milk feeds. Indeed, thinking of (milk) feeding and the introduction to solid food as two separate activities will allow a more relaxed approach and make the experience more enjoyable for both parents and child.

Won't he choke?
Many parents worry about babies choking. However, there is good reason to believe that babies are at less risk of choking if they are in control of what goes into their mouth than if they are spoon fed. This is because babies are not capable of intentionally moving food to the back of their throats until after they have learnt to chew. And they do not develop the ability to chew until after they have developed the ability to reach out and grab things. Thus, a very young baby cannot easily put himself at risk because he cannot get the food into his mouth in the first place. On the other hand, the action used to suck food off a spoon tends to take the food straight to the back of the mouth, causing the baby to gag. This means that spoon feeding has its own potential to lead to choking – and makes the giving of lumpy food with a spoon especially dangerous.

It appears that a babies general development keeps pace with the development of his ability to manage food in his mouth, and to digest it. A baby who is struggling to get food into his mouth is probably not quite ready to eat it. It is important to resist the temptation to 'help' the baby in these circumstances since his own developmental abilities are what ensure that the transition to solid feeding takes place at the right pace for him. This process is also what keeps him safe from choking on small pieces of food, since, if he is not yet able to pick up small objects using his finger and thumb, he will not be able to get, for example, a pea or a raisin into his mouth. Once he is able to do this, he will have developed the necessary oral skills to deal with it. Putting food into a babies mouth for him overrides this natural protection and increases the risk of choking.

Tipping a baby backwards or lying him down to feed him solid food is dangerous. A baby who is handling food should always be supported in an upright position. In this way, food which he is not yet able to swallow, or does not wish to swallow, will fall forward out of his mouth, not backwards into his throat.

Adopting a baby-led approach doesn't mean abandoning all the common sense rules of safety. While it is very unlikely that a young baby would succeed in picking up a peanut, for example, accidents can and will happen on rare occasions – however the baby is fed. Rules of safety which apply in other play situations should therefore be adhered to when eating is in progress.

[more at the link obviously]

Answer 5

Start with just a little and your baby will let you know if he or she wants more!