My son, Will, is six months old. He started eating rice cereal about a month ago. He would only eat it with bananas mixed in. He started to get pretty constipated, so we switched to oatmeal. He loves it and will eat without fruit mixed in with it. Now that he's six months we are starting to introduce vegetables and fruits. I'm breastfeeding. I'm very confused about the whole process. I had a lot of questions at Will's 6-month appointment yesterday, but his doctor didn't seem to have much time and I'm not sure if I agree with his opinion on somethings anyway... So, I wanted to see what you all think:

* When is the best time to give solids? Some say to offer one hour after nursing and others say to combine nursing and solids in the same feeding by giving the solids immediately after nursing.

* When did you start offering solids 2xs per day? When did you got to 3xs? (I was thinking about going to two feedings this week. Oatmeal in the morning and a fruit or veg in the evening. Then going to 3 in another month or so.)

* How much is too much? I read on kellymom.com that at one year of age only 25% of a child's diet should come from solids and the rest should still be from breastfeeding. But this informations seems to be based on people that are planning to BF till their child is 2 years or older and I only plan to go for about a year. I asked the doctor when solids start to replace BF rather than just being in addition to it and he said to just let the baby be the guide. I just don't want to end up accidentally weaning him too early...

* About how many times a day did you BF your child at 6 months? Will BFs 6 times per day and has been doing that for quite a while now. He sleeps from 8PM to 7AM. He does still wake up at night (that's another story) but he almost never nurses in the middle of the night anymore. So, to get in 6 feedings between 7AM and 8PM he feeds every 2 hours most of the day with one or two feedings that are a little further apart. When I start to feed solids 2xs a day do you think it would be OK to go to only 5 BFs a day, so that he will be nursing aprox every 3 hours?

I really will appreciate any advice you all can give me! I know this is a long post, so please don't feel like you need to answer all my questions!!

Oh, in case this would help y'all with my questions: Will's weight is 17 pounds 14 ounces and is in the 50th percentile. His height is 27 inches and is the 75th percentile. So he's been growing fine w/ what we are doing so far.

I remember having all the same questions as you. Let me see if I can remember what I did...

At 6 months old, Jack was bf'ing 5 or 6 times a day. He was not feeding in the middle of the night. I always bf'd him first before giving him food b/c I was told the bf was more important than the solids.

We introduced cereal to him at 5.5 months old. He only ate once a day. I fed him late afternoon, in between bf sessions. I don't remember when we upped it to two solids a day. Maybe when he was 6.5 months? But when we did, I did one in the morning and one late afternoon, always between bf'ing. And at that time Jack would only eat his cereal mixed with bm (not water) so I had to pump. That was a pain. Once I started mixing fruits in, he didn't care (big sigh of relief! LOL).

I, too, was concerned with my supply going down. So I did not replace a bf session with food. I always fed in between. And it all worked out fine.

It sounds like you are doing fine!
HTH!

Thanks for the help!

Luckily Will doesn't mind having his oatmeal mixed with water. He loves it plain without any fruit mixed with it. He wouldn't eat the rice cereal with breast milk, formula, or water mixed in it. I'd tried to mix formula w/ it just to keep from having to pump. He finally started to eat the rice when I put bananas (and water) in it. But when he started to have problems w/ constipation I switched to oatmeal. He likes it better anyway. And I feel like it may be better for him because I was worried that by mixing fruit w/ his cereal he'd only like sweet food.

What about finger foods? Do you remember when you started them?

We started with puffs. At...I think it was 7 months. It was a great way to teach him the pincer grasp. We stayed on puffs for a while before introducing anything else.