Hello all..
i keep hearing about giving variety of foods to babies. i started offering solids to my baby just when she was 6 months old. now she is exactly 7 months. i just managed to introduce her to 2 vegetables, 1 fruit, 1 cereal and moong dal water. I was advised to leave abt 4-5 days gap between any new food introduction. And inbetween she developed loose stools for a few days. with all this, i was able to manage only so much. Moreover i go out for work, and my mil insists on introducing any new solid food only when i am at home on holidays, which is right.

when i see people's diet chart it really scares me if i am depriving my kid of anything. pls advise.

also my BM seem to have reduced little and putting together the BM i directly give and the milk that i express, it should be close to abt 150ml only. Is this sufficient for my baby?

pls advise what i shd do. my baby's birth weight - 2.8kgs - she is now close to 7.9kgs. mom replied. Her are links for diet chart for 7-8 m (first) and 6m (second). I m including link for 6m old tho ur baby is 7m, just bec u say baby is slow on solids.

http://www.indiaparenting.com/boards/showmessage.cgi?table_name=dis_feeding&messageid=5638

http://www.indiaparenting.com/boards/showmessage.cgi?table_name=dis_feeding&messageid=6452

If you baby is doing fine - wt and growth, milestones, health, activity - are fine, then first stop worrying.
We often get disturbed by looking at other moms and babies as we feel what we are doing is not sufficient.

Secondly, its always recommended to BF a baby till 6m and then start with semisolids. If u hv done that, u hv done good. And now obvoiusly, ur baby will take time to get settled with solids.

There are diff reasons for moms to start semisolids at 3/4/5m - thye may be working, BM is less, or simply bec some of them feel right to start at that age. But they also took time and hv faced hurdles like loose motions, cold cough, fever and have had to give a break to semisolids in that period.

So if u r reading abt 6-7m old babies are eating this and that variety, its because those babies are now well settled with semisolids, which is almost 2/3 m now for them.

So dont worry, dont hurry. Go slow. The best signal is your babies acceptance. Introducing new food per week is a good idea, provided ur baby is accepting it well by the end of the week. Also, the food u introduced last week shd be continued in next week along with the new item. When u introduce a new food in a week and see baby accepting it, gradually increase the quantity over the week so that for eg if u started 2 spoons on monday ur baby takes say abt 3 oz on sunday.

When ur baby is unwell, don’t stop the semisolids u have already started, just avoid foods that are not suitable for the type of illness. So if ur baby has loosemotions, avoid foods u gv her earlier buy are laxatives. And if u hv started potato/curd then u can give it during loosemotions.

I know potato is not recommended too much but I started it for my baby alonf with curd. While introducing new foods to my baby, I also aimed at keeping balance from illness point of view so that if she has cold/motions/fever, some or other semisolid can be given. For eg, if she has cold, daal, khichdi is on. Motions, potato curd is on. Etc etc.

I m giving a recipe for potato+curd. My baby likes it and even the elders!

Boiled potato, mash well. Mix with curd (room temperature) and beat well till smooth. Add v little salt so that there is just a hint of taste. Now, prepare a tadka separately like this : Heat Ghee, crackle some Rai(mustard seeds), litttlle hing (asafoetida but no hing in motions) add curry leaves, v v finely chopped coriander or spinach(no spinach if motions), switch off the gas. Add litttlle turmeric and jeera powder. No jeera in motions. Now put this tadka in the potato+curd mixture and mix well. Take a little on ur hand and taste – see if u want to add salt.

Its ready to be given to baby.

When curd is cold, I add warm water at the end of recipe so that it not only increases temperature but also I get the desired consistency.

If u hv started Rice, continue it when baby has motions.

Ur baby’s wt seems good and if everything else is fine, u r not depriving her of anything. B patient and go as per baby’s acceptance with new foods.

As for BM, I shall tell me personal exp. M a working person and the supply reduces as we feed less. I joined office when baby was 4, initially I used to come home at lunch time and feed baby. But office also can consider u till certain time. So gradually I stopped coming in lunch, and then sometimes I wd get so late in office that my baby wd get only 2 small feeds from me – morning and night. The supply became so less, I got worried.

Managing everything and expressing milk became a problem, so I stopped that.

This is my second baby, so things became more diff over time managing everything. My decreasing supply was worrying me, baby was not taking BF properly as she preferred bottle now … and I was thinking to stop BF totally! Had almost decided to stop, then I put a query to Hetal to guide me.

Thanks to that angel, she suggested to continue BF as much as possible, as long as possible without worrying. Today my baby is 8m and I am still BF her.

Whatever milk I produce, I feed her. Sometimes I see only 2 v v thin sprays from my breast, it disturbs me but I tell myself I need to carry on. On weekends I feed her more so supply increases then I feel good. Baby is settled with bottle but asks for BF whenever I m back from office, or when she wants to sleep, 1-2 times at night, early morning, or just like that when she needs affection! She gets v little, but so far so food! So I m happy too!

So in short, things are fine, be patient and go slow.
Don’t worry and don’t burden urself. When u cant manage things, prioritize and then don’t worry abt things that u decided to let go.

hope this helps
a mom