hi Archie

happy to see that u visit this board. i have a question. Trisha is 5 months old from today.

till now im giving 1st food 2.5ozpack in the morning and in the evening i give cereal mixed in formula. cereal about 2 ounce per day or less than that ..its depending on her.

after starting all these 1 st food now she doesnt like cereal that much.

my question is, how much we need to give for 5 month old baby?? shall i increase one more 2.5oz pack?? like morning, noon and evening like that.

also when can we start giving our indian food like dal rice, idly like that. for dal rice usually we use to mix little salt and ghee. can we add ghee and pinch salt in her diet???

one more concern is...nowadays in night im feeding her every 2 hr once. usually she use to sleep 5-6hr at a strech. but now she is waking frequently. what could be the reason???

also one more question, sorry i keep on asking questions today. when is the right time to start cup??? she hates bottle. which is good??


takecare
sheeja. archie replied. Dear Sheeja,
Thanks for your trust but I must say this is not so much of my expertise area. I shall write my experience and what I learned from books. Hope that will be of some help.

Trisha not liking cereal over 1st food is natural. you may experience sooner or later that she is liking a particular flavor even from shelf of 1st level foods. You will still need to adjust dose as per her requirements. May be try to give her three bottles, one in morning, one afternoon and one in the evening. In the beginning it will be OK to try morning and evening, if she needs more then go for afternoon. Try to keep variety included otherwise you will find her not liking variety and difficult to find her adjusting foods.

I think you can give her rice puree. You might not want to add ghee this early. Bring this concern to pediatrician. I always do! My Indian Pediatrician had told me to give Advait plain dal and rice when he was 5 months, I did that, but no oil. Try to minimize amounts of salt in such food. Try not to have salt in the beginning and add only if required. Once Trisha likes salt she will grow her salt needs in diet and not a good thing.

I think Trisha is taking advantage rather that fulfilling her needs. This is also expected at her age. This is the time to start teaching this infant. Feed her full before bed and put to bed in an hour. Try not to give her feeds rather provide some water or sort of that in night. If she is really hungry water won't satisfy. But remember she won't take water in the first few trials and will make fuzz-that's normal. If she takes water and sleeps then it's OK. If she is not getting hungry and just want to put habit of drinking in night then she would not respond to water and unfortunately will continue with her night schedule. But she is taking advantage she will learn that mother is giving water and not milk and will try to reduce her wake ups midst of night. Believe me I have done these things to Advait. It was difficult to put him back to crib. Because he fall sick soon after I returning from India, he was sleeping with me and would get up in the night. After a lot of efforts we managed to put him back in his crib. Also his habits of getting up were cut by suggested trip by my husband right in 2 days.

It is little early to start for cup. Say after 8 month or so. If she is indeed in need she will ask for cup right in 8th month or before but 5 months is difficult for her to take and feed herself with cup.

archie