Serving Size

[sbazemore]

My 7 month old twins have started on solid foods and so far there seem to be no glitches or problems. However I am unsure as to just how much I should be feeding them. They are currently 15 and 17lbs. My pediatrician says that they'll let me know when they're full. He also says that their fluid intake will go down. For breakfast they usually do 2tablespoons of cereal mixed with fruit and then about 2 ounces of milk. However for lunch and dinner, they eat a half jar of vegetables and half jar of fruit. They will eat more if I offer. (About how much do babies usually take from a jar?) We haven't started meats yet. Then I offer them a chance to nurse or a bottle. They usually only nurse for a minute or two or end up just playing with the bottle. They are more interested in the tasty fruits and vegetables. Any suggestions. I'm just confused about serving sizes... Should I increase their serving sizes or just stick to what we have going now....??? They seem to be consistent with their 3 hour eating schedule?

[AndreaR]

sbazemore - congratulations on your twins! you are not alone in this dilemna. a lot of us on the june board have questioned whether or not we are feeding our babies the right amount or the right food. i don't really have an answer for you, but i will share what we do for our 8 month olds girls who are about 14 1/2 pounds each.

for breakfast, lunch and dinner - 3T cereal (made with about 1.5 - 2oz formula) plus 1/2 jar of stage 2 baby food (i think the jar is 4 or 4.5 oz). if they are still hungry, i will give them a few bites of soy yogurt or fruit

we usually give them a snack between 3:30 - 4:00. they have some yogurt or some fruit

i nurse one of my girls and she nurses first thing in the morning (around 7:00), before her naps (9:30, 1:00) and before bedtime. she usually nurses once more at a random time during the day, and sometimes in the middle of the night. except for the first morning session, she doesn't really take that much milk at the other feedings.

my other twin drinks from a bottle. it is hard to get her to take more than 15 oz total in one day (not including the formula we add to the cereal). i asked the doctor and he said she is okay, mostly because she eats the solid food so well. he said we should keep trying to get as much formula into her, but not to worry too much.

i hope that helps you. feel free to visit the june board. we are always posting about this.

good luck!

[MindyInNy]

My girls are now just over 10 months old, but I think when they were around 7 months, I was doing a bottle, then waiting about an hr to 1 1/2 hrs after the bottle & offering solids. So they would get a good amount of formula & some solids. It was fairly recently (like maybe in the last month or so) that I started offering solids before the bottles. I started off w/ breakfast followed right after w/ a bottle, did that for a couple of weeks, then did the same thing for lunch. Now we're eating 3 meals a day, but still having 4 bottles. So it goes something like this: 8ish am- breakfast & bottle (about 1/2 c dry cereal mixed w/ water & about 5-7 oz fruit), anywhere from 12-1ish lunch & bottle ( about 6-8 oz veggie, sometimes meat), a bottle around 4-5 (slowing I am trying to cut this one out-- it's down to about 5 oz), dinner around 6:30/7 ( veggies, meat & fruit w/ cereal, the equiv. of about 4-6 oz for each girl). 8:30 ish pm last bottle- 8 oz. So we're offering around 24 oz each day, and the girls take the last 2 bottles very well, but often leave a lot in the first two, probably because they eat a lot of solids. FYI, at their last check up about 3 weeks ago, they weighed 20 lbs 12 oz & 20 lbs 3 oz. Hope this helps!