What is the minimum formula and solid food a 6 month old should eat?

Question

OK well my almost 6 month old daughter is really big!!!! My ped said she is healthy, but she is getting close to being over weight... She is 21.12 lbs and 27 1/4 in long... Yah I told u she was HUGE!!! LOL she is in 12-18 month old clothing... Now my ped said she is healthy (I got a 2nd opition just to make sure) and that she is a big girl, so she will need to eat more... Now my daughter opens her mouth wide for solid foods, she is sitting up all by herself, and she loves to pull up and stand up... So development wise she is far ahead, but I am not sure if she is over feeding herself or what.. now she will tell you when she is full, but I think her problem is that she eats so fast that she does not feel when she is full... SO I am going to try an experment and I want some advice.... My daughter was eating 5 2nd stage jars of food and 16-24oz of formula plus some cereal.. LOL yah I know a lot... my ped said it was ok because she was a big girl and she asked 4 all of it...

But I am going to try to cut back to 2 jars of food and 1/4 cup of cereal and up to 32 oz of formula.... Yesterday this is how much she ate, but so far today she has been fine on just formula so I might try to even go to just 1 jar of food, and some cereal b4 bed... any advice??? how much solid food and formula does a 6 month old need??? I do not want to under feed her....

Answer 1

Asking on this forum isn't a particularly wise choice because all children are different...sizes, genetic history, energy level, caloric requirement, etc. This is why we have pediatricians and child dieticians. If it were this easy to get an answer about your baby's diet, those other guys wouldn't have paid the big bucks to go to school. ((-:

All kidding aside now, my eldest looked like the Michelin Man's baby up until she was past a year old. She had rolls on her rolls! By the time she was 10 months old I was worried. My mom said she'd run it off when she started walking. Other people asked if I was feeding her too much. I got opinions on both sides. So, like a smart mom I talked to my child's doctor. He said stop worrying. What I was feeding her was fine. I had purchased a few books on baby nutrition, which you may want to do, and he approved them. I followed them...not religiously but used them as a guide.

So, long story short...she is 8 years old now and a lean, healthy, active little girl. If I showed folks her picture at 9 months they'd have a hard time believing it was the same child. Oh, and BTW, she still eats us out of house and home! lol

I'm not telling you that you are, or are not, overfeeding. What I'm saying is that everyone on here is going to tell you what they did with their kids and what they "think" you should do, without ever knowing you, your family history, or ever seeing your child.

In my opinion, it'd be unwise to feed your child based on strangers' comments on a forum. If you were fixing a computer..that'd be different.....
Find a child nutritionist, through your doctor, and have him or her recommend some good guides/books to have at home. Or, check them out yourself at Amazon. Use ones created by the experts as a guide and you'll be fine.

(BTW, the only advice I will give which won't be about how much she should eat in total - that's up to you and an expert- , is if you think she's eating too fast, try putting smaller portions down at a time so she has to wait a small amount of time between each. Give her something to drink half way through. With our preschoolers, we wanted them to learn to love veggies and always eat them. So, we gave them their veggies first in a little dish. Nothing else. After they ate those, we'd give them the next course. I gave small portions and if they wanted more, I'd give more. But I'd never give a pile or one of our kids had the idea he had to eat it all. Then he'd get a tummy ache. I often also read a story during eating time so the focus wouldn't be all about food for him. Just a thought.)