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Hi Leanne,
My little girl is 8.5 months, and loves her food, but with some conditions, it has to be mashed, and mixed with rice cereal. Is there an age when she shouldn`t be having rice cereal anymore? ALSO..I am wanting to make her blamange, white sauce & cheese sauce, but the recipe calls for cows milk (she is Breastfed), is it too early to use cows milk in cooking? I find there is so much conflicting information regarding babies and solids, it is driving me crazy...oh and can she have jelly? (if i make it myself)
My child health nurse also told me i should be giving her 3 meals & 2 snacks (morning & afternoon tea) a day, but we just can`t fit it all in (time wise).
She usually has 3 meals (sometimes 2), and 4-5 breastfeeds a day.
Please help... she is my 3rd daughter and I am finding it so much more confusing than with my previous 2.
Thanks Ruth
I hear you on the confusion, there is so much well-meaning advice that it makes your head spin and sometimes question your own confidence.
Sounds like you are going well. Once bubs are on solids such as fish, chicken and then red meat then you don’t need to offer them baby cereal for the iron, though you can offer it as an option whenever you and bub choose. There are of course those more interesting baby cereals from 9 months (they call them muesli`s I think).
On routines, I found Karitane most helpful, they recommend the following for bubs 6-9 months:
- Early morning milk feed (baby may return to bed)
- Up time 2 ½ to 3 hours. Solids. Play. Sleep (1.5 to 2 hrs).
- Up time 2 ½ to 3 hours. B`feed. Solids. Play. Sleep (1.5 to 2 hrs).
- Up time 2 ½ to 3 hours. B`feed. Solids. Play. Bath. Milk feed (or delay until just before bed). Quiet time. Sleep.
As to the exact time these schedules fall into depends on you and bub. These are all just guidelines, your baby is your best guide! If baby is growing well and at her usual rate then things are likely to be fine. You can see from the above that you are on track (I would try to keep the 3 meals going as it will just make the 9 month transition easier).
At 9 month babies can start finger foods and should be on chunks, you can also offer solids first before milk feeds. You are likely also to be able to offer snacks as you will be down to 3-4 feeds a day and of course portable food is so much easier.
I have some tip sheets on Huggies on starting solids and also a book, they may help with guiding you or at least reassuring you that you are on track, the links are:
Solids
Which foods when and fridge chart
Hope that helps
Cheery oh,
Leanne