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Feeding my 8 month old - what do you do?

Heather - posted on 12/18/2009 ( 5 moms have responded )

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My little guy is 8 mo and is BF and gets solids and some finger foods. Sometimes I worry that I am feeding him too much, or maybe even not enough.



This is our typical schedule - around 7 a.m. nurse, around 10 a.m. cereal (mix with BM and a little fruit) then nurse around 11:30 ish, nurse around 4pm, solids at 6:30 (one stage 2 vegetable and the remaining stage 2 fruit from his cereal) and then he gets a 6 to 8 ounce bottle of expressed milk for bed at 8:30. He generally doesn't wake up in the night and if he does I have a rule that I won't nurse him before 5 a.m. so he doesn't get used to that comfort nursing in the middle of the night.



So throughout the whole day he nurses(or gets a bottle) about 4 times, gets cereal in the a.m and one stage 2 fruit and one stage 2 vegetable in the p.m. My baby is big - 22lbs already! and I'm concerned about feeding him to fit his needs.



I guess my question is how much do/did your babies eat at 8 months am I on track with everyone else or not?! I nursed my older child til 7 month and then switched to formula and he was on a completely different schedule and looknig back now I think he was definitely overfed as an infant. I'm trying hard not to make the same mistake this time.

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5 Comments

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Karen - posted on 12/21/2009

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Quoting Lisa:

We do baby-led solids. My daughter had nothing but my milk until ten months, which was when she began to pick up food and eat it.

Since then she has eaten meals with the family, is given what we have, and eats however much she wants. I nurse her whenever she wants, and often offer it as well.

At eight months your milk should still be priority. You should be offering your breast first, rather than substituting with solids. Solids should be complementary until 12 months, which means they are only offered after nursing, and never in place of nursing.



I agree with this, we do baby-led too. It's impossible to overfeed a breastfed baby, and this way you won't find yourself encouraging baby to finish the jar when he isn't really hungry.

Minnie - posted on 12/21/2009

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We do baby-led solids. My daughter had nothing but my milk until ten months, which was when she began to pick up food and eat it.



Since then she has eaten meals with the family, is given what we have, and eats however much she wants. I nurse her whenever she wants, and often offer it as well.



At eight months your milk should still be priority. You should be offering your breast first, rather than substituting with solids. Solids should be complementary until 12 months, which means they are only offered after nursing, and never in place of nursing.

Laura - posted on 12/21/2009

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As long as he's just eating fruits, veggies, and BM, I don't think you can overfeed him. The problem gets into when babies start eating "our" food (Honey Nut Cheerios, waffles, fattening foods) that's when they can be overweight. Ask your doctor, because you didn't mention how long he is, and my daughter was around 20 lbs at 8 months, and she's 25 lbs now at 16 months. You'll be fine. :)

Becky - posted on 12/21/2009

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My son nursed about 6 times/24 hours at that stage and was eating breakfast(baby oatmeal and bananas and cherrios) and dinner (a protien like meat or cheese, bread and veggies/friut). When he started waking up more at night again to eat I added lunch with protiens and fruit/veggies.

Meghan - posted on 12/20/2009

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At this age, they can never have too much breastmilk. That should be their main sorce of nutrition with solids added in mostly for play and experience. At 8 months my both my kids ate very little food. We never did baby food, I just give them small pieces of whatever we were eating starting around 7 months. Whether they ate the food or not was up to them.

I think your schedule sounds fine. I wouldn't add anymore solids at this age and I would encourage self feeding only, that way you LO will get used to controlling their own intake. Plus it's way easier than spoon feeding them baby food. Just give them the bowl and spoon and let them eat ;).

If your little guy is healthy, gaining weight and meeting milestones, I'd say all is well.

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