solids - how much?

OK so we tried holding off my boy as long as we could, but he was giving us all the signs he was hungry so we started him on solids a couple of days ago. And my goodness he's a guts! He loves it. At the moment we're just giving him kumara... started off with it really quite runny, last night and tonight it was a thicker and he wolfed it down.

I made up a big batch of the mashed kumara and it's in the freezer in these tray things from Baby City (the holes are shaped kinda like crescents). The first couple of times he had half a cube, and last night he still seemed to want more so I gave him the other half. Tonight he had a whole one and I'm sure he would have kept eating if we'd have kept feeding it to him. He seems quite hungry - which makes sense cos he is quite a big boy for his age.

OK finally got to my question: How do I know how much to feed him?

Will he stop/push it out with his tongue when he's had enough? Cos at the moment he's all wide mouthed and it's straight down, he doesn't spit any out at all!

Ta

Gosh, remembering back that far! If I remember correctly Jack just didn't open his mouth or turned away when he had had enough

So I should just keep offering him more?

The guidelines I've been following suggest introducing solids really slowly when the baby is so young, as they can get quite constipated. What I did was start with one cube (equivalent to a Tbsp) for the first couple of weeks for lunch and 1-2 tsp of baby rice in the evening. After a couple of weeks I added another cube and another teaspoon of rice, slowly building up as E gave signs she was still hungry.

Cool, thanks. Yeah we offer him water in his sippy cup, he likes holding it and putting it in his mouth but I'm not sure just how much he is actually drinking! If it find he's getting a bit constipated I might give him some via the dropper cos at least I know he swallows it then.

OK so maybe I should just stick with the one cube for a couple of weeks, even though he would eat more, so he won't get as constipated? Or should I give him 1 1/2 cubes if he wants it? Sorry for the dumb questions..

is he settled after the 1 cube or still showing hungry signs? ie milk feeding more often thats how i would judge it

maybe offer him a little more then, just gradually build it up and he should be fine

Great topic Liz...  Daniel isn't interested at all yet.  But I have been curious.  Have you been to the plunket class on solids?  I want to go before we leave for Australia - figure I should make the most of it seeings as there is nothing like that in Melb. 

Chloe is only 3 1/2 mths, which is early I know, but she was just so hungry!

We give her all her normal milk feeds... she has a bottle at around 4.30 or 5pm and then about half an hour later, after some play time, I give her a WHOLE JAR of sweet potato, then we have her bath/massage routine, then another bottle of milk before she goes to bed. This is the only feed of solids that she has at this stage, that's the only time of day that she is REALLY hungry and I think it makes her sleep longer if she has some solids.

Recently I found out that it's way easier to feed it to her if it's thicker, the stuff straight from the jar is so runny and gets EVERYWHERE!! So I have started doing half a jar of sweet potato, or baby rice and carrots, and thicken it up with Farex before feeding it to her. I also give her sips of water from a bottle, in between some mouthfuls, because I'm a little paranoid about thickening it but she eats it so much easier when it's not all runny.

ETA: Occasionally she will look disinterested before the end of the jar, but most of the time I'm sure she would scoff more if she could
but I don't want to put her off her bottle later, so I don't give her any more.

Edited by Janey77