Background:

Moriah is almost 9 months old.

She has BFed exclusively until she was 6 months old. From the age of 6 months until 2 weeks ago, I let her taste veggies, chicken soup (without the chicken) and different fruit but they never were instead of a BM meal. Only in additon to BM. (So you could say she BFed exclusivly until she was 8.5 months old.)

We went on vacation 2 weeks ago and that is when Moriah started demanding real food (solids) when she saw us eating. I am going with the flow and was prepared. She started having stage 2 Gerber and I let her eat a whole variety of foods from my plate (chewing things for her since we were staying at a hotel) such as chicken, ground beef, sour cream and what not. She loved it.

So now I started purree-ing chicken soup for her including the chicken and she loves that too.

Now to my question:

I want to BF her as long as she wants to but my goal is to make it to 1 year. WHat do I do about the following:

- Should the fruit and chicken soup come instead of a BM meal? (Right now she gets 5 oz of soup and nurses afterwards.)

- What about fluid intake now that she eats solids? When should I introduce her to water? So far the only fluid intake she has is BM.

- Will giving her water afftect her nursing (ie will she wnat to nurse less)?

Any other input is appreciated.

- Should the fruit and chicken soup come instead of a BM meal? (Right now she gets 5 oz of soup and nurses afterwards.)


It's recommended that you nurse first, but somewhere around 10 months I guess is where Anya didn't want to nurse at 6 when she got home from daycare, but would eat dinner w/ us and nurse afterwards


- What about fluid intake now that she eats solids? When should I introduce her to water? So far the only fluid intake she has is BM.


You can introduce water now - give her a sippy w/ a few ounces of water. Since she can't nurse at the same time as eating real food, this gives her a chance to practice w/ the sippy and learn to like water.


- Will giving her water affect her nursing (ie will she wnat to nurse less)?


What we did is give Anya water at meals - and then at other times of day her sippy is within reach. She still loves to nurse though.

Nadine, you are doing great!! Congrats on BF so long! :clap:

give her water now with meals and throughout the day. When Nikita was Moriah's age, he was drinking water, juice every once in a while (rarely, though, i don't like too many sugars in there...usually, when being spoiled by aunts and grandparents LOL)-4 oz diluted in water...

Nikita nursed almost exclusively until 8+ months-quite literally..we introduced baby food at 6 ms, but he never liked it, so he had very little of it and just wanted mommy's milk. When we did go to solids, he pretty much wanted to eat table foods 2 weeks later :lol: So it's great that Moriah wants to eat such a variety of foods for you! If she'll eat both pureed and table foods, you have the best of both worlds then! You can even puree leftovers from your dinners and freeze them, in addition to making her food..... I never got into it just b/c like i said, he didn't care for any pureed textures. But then again, he never showed any signs of choking on anything, so while i still watched him super closely, i wasn't really worried about him choking on stuff....

HOw's Moriah doing with table food sizes? Is she enjoying the texture?

Oh, and nursing now..... I don't remeber now when I nursed Nikita in relation to meals.....but i think either way you do it, if she is eating solids and nursing and is happy-it's ok? I want to say that i would nurse him, then a little later-solids...but i really can't be sure...

hth...

....and giving her water will NOT affect nursing at all.

I know it's all a difference in times and cultures, but i know that a while back, in Russia, the drs encouraged moms to give newborns a little water along with breastfeeding (as early as a day old),...not sure how things are done at home now, you see how even here things seem to change every 4-5 years in terms of medical advice...

Thanks for the input so far, Marcy and Lena!

Lena - when I talk about table food it is usually tiny pieces of bread and food I chewed. So I guess that it was close enough to purree. She still makes those choking sounds when things are not pureed texture. Cheerios she sucks and then they dissolve. Whatever doesn't comes out from her mouth eventually.

Nadine, ok, that makes sense. Yeah, it sounds like she is not ready for solid solid foods... THere is a good book about baby food- "Super Baby Food" it talks a lot about making your own food, etc.... if you can get your hands on one, it will probably provide great help to you making her food :)