Solids Advice

Olivia is not hugely keen on solids at all. She has around 4-5 ice cubes of food per meal and most of the time doesn't finish it. I think not to worry too much as she is putting on weight really well and eats the right stuff: fruit, veges, meat and dairy. At Alyssa's age they are still topping up on the bottle as well. Am I right in thinking that Alyssa was a refluxer? This can hamper eating a little as damage is done to the esophagus, which still needs to drop down out of the way as baby grows. I put Olivia on to 3 smaller meals when she was about 6 months old as I preferred that she have more smaller meals rather than less frequent bigger ones because larger amounts can trigger reflux attacks.
Olivia's feeds are bottles when ever she likes, I have also found that this has made the weaning process a lot easier. Her "predictable" bottles are usually first thing when she gets up and 2 hrs after that then one at the end of the day. She might have up to 2 more in the course of the day but that varies. Olivia normally has breakfast after her first bottle, lunch at 11.30am and dinner around the 5pm mark. I sneak in a couple of grapes or crackers now between meals and she is usually fine with that. You have only just started solids so don't worry too much, ok?

Sounds like Alyssa is doing fine - and she sure looks healthy enough! I worry sometimes that my girls aren't taking enough milk as they'll usually only take around 80-100ml at a feed which is less than they took as newborns, and I hear everyone else saying "my baby takes 200ml etc. etc..." - I just try to remind myself that they are growing well, and are happy and thriving so I guess they just don't need as much food/milk as some others.

Maya on the other hand was a gannet. Would polish off 2 jars of baby food at a go by 8 mths and at 9mths was guzzling 4 x 240ml bottles as well. They really ARE all different!

Maya wrote: , and I hear everyone else saying "my baby takes 200ml etc. etc..."

Caitlin only takes half a cup of solids and 4 feeds of 200mls and she's 9kg.
We're still doing bottle then solids, but a couple of people I know who do it the other way around say that their 6-8mth old baby is eating a lot more solids and still finishing the whole bottle, so whatever works I guess. Plunket say bottle first until around 8mths old (I think? or was it 9mths?)

Pepsi Mya is the same age and ive been following the same routine as u and having simialr results, 1/3- 1/2 jar each feed, 1 bottle of formula a day (doing this as i am returning to work shortly) as well as breast feeding on demand. Mya is healthy happy and developing really well so were happy to continue as we are!

Pepsi - also talk with plunket nurse, she should have even given you pamphlets and charts on starting solids and how to progress from there. Like everyone else said Alyssa looks like a very healthy baby, so I wouldn't be too worried about how much she is eating as long as she is happy and healthy.

I am not sure what it is like to have a small eater sorry as Xanda eats so much that everyone tells me he should not be eating that much, and he has always eaten alot.

Olivia started giving me signals that she was ready for the lumps at about 8 months which was great. Unfortunately she has done a hugely bad bout of teething and so lumps have been off the table! Although she still acts like a seagull if I am eating anything and so I give her lots of finger food to eat which she enjoys.
She will give you cues, some kids wont do lumps at all and move on to finger food straight away.

Erin was never a big fan of lumps, so I gave up on them for a while, and have only just started on them again now... she still makes funny faces as if to say "Ewww... what's this cr*p !?"