My 5 month old son is exclusively bottle fed on cow's milk and weighs 6.5 kgs(LBW - 2 kgs)He seems to drink a lot of water..about 8 oz per day. He has nearly 15-17 oz of milk in a day along with 3 oz of thick rice and dal porridge once a day. He is doing good progress and has started rolling over since 4 months of age. I think he has too much water for his age. Please advice. Also please let me know whether this diet is enough for my baby. Can I add something to increase his weight fast. Shelly replied. firstly.... Your baby at 5mo old is way way to young for cows milk. a child should not be on cows milk until after one years in age. 2ndly he is also to young for solids. You should NOT feed your baby any solids other than formula or breast milk until after 6mo in age. even at 6mo they should only have pureed vegetables. ie carrots, green beans. water at any age is always good. a child can be one month old and can drink water. Water reguardless of age is ok for your infant. Its actually good for them. he should NOT have rice or daal yet. His lil tummy cannot digest that properly. It is to high in starch and to hard to digest. Give him gerber rice cereal by spoon. ONLY a small quanity. Its totally up to you. But me as a pediatrician, I dont advise my parents to start on solids until after 6mo of age. NO eggs at all until 8mo , even then must be ONLY the yolk, the white part can make them very ill. rolling over at 4mo is common. thats ok. I dnot advise fruits until after 8mo of age. after then only mashed bananas, plums, mixed fruits all by gerber. NO strawberries. NO juices until after 9mo of age. Juices are to acidic for a lil tummy to handle. I hope this helps some!

Shelly MD Neetu replied. Hi,

8oz water intake is too high, a 6 month should not be taking more than 2-4 oz of juice or water. Breast Milk has sufficient water in it so there is no need for water. In normal cases your child (a 6 month old) should be taking 26-28 oz of milk along with 2 cereal or fruit feeds in a day. Since he is five he should be purely on milk 26-28 oz + 2 oz water. When he is 6 you can start cereals, mashed fruits along with the same milk. If he is not drinking enough milk slow down on his solids. Dr's recommend milk over solids especially till 6 months.

Hope this will help