Not knowing whether or not it was alright, I tried to call the Maternity Helpline (Which I got told I'm able to until she is 6 months old.) but they said cause of her age, I have to get in touch with the health visitors. Ehrm... How?
So I had a long and confusing research session on Google again.
Firstly to see if I started her too early. From the list below, don't think I did.
- She is at least 4 months old. (3 and a half.)
- She weighs twice as much as her birth weight. (Born with 2.7 kg, now 5.7 kg.)
- She weighs at least 13-15 pounds. (12+ lbs.)
- She can sit with support, allowing her to lean forward when she wants another spoonful and backward to refuse. (Oh yeah. Big girl!)
- She has control over her head and neck muscles and can turn her head to refuse food. (She's been doing it with bottles for over a month now.)
- She has stopped exhibiting the extrusion reflex when you put a spoon in her mouth. (Not precisely but she's trying and learning. Food goes down, not only spat back out, take it this way.)
- She is drinking at least 32-40 ounces of formula per 24-hours and still wants more. (Average of 35 oz daily.)
- She is breast feeding at least 8-10 times per 24-hours (after the first few weeks), empties both breasts at each feeding, and still wants more.
- The time between feedings becomes shorter and shorter over a period of several days. (Not really?)
- She can bring an object in her hand directly to her mouth. (That's mainly her own hand, my finger or her bib or blanket.)
- She shows interest in others eating around her. (That's the main reason we started her on solids so early!)
- She becomes fussy in the middle of the night, whereas before she slept through with no problem. Or her sleep periods are becoming shorter instead of longer. (Fussy around night time plus woken up earlier the past week or so.)
About how to do it right:
'Further, you should always introduce new foods after a nursing or bottle feeding. Your baby still receives his main source of nutrition from either breast milk or formula up to the one year old mark - do not let solids interfere with liquid intake.'
'4-6 Months:
Always offer solids after bottle or breast. Baby may eat anywhere from 1-3 tablespoons of food at 1 or 2 "meals".'
'Don't force foods on your baby. If your baby does not open his or her mouth for the food immediately, wait for baby to open his mouth when food is offered. Always let her eat at her own pace and on her own terms. When baby turns her head away or stops opening her mouth, this probably means she had had enough; respect that and stop offering the food. You don't want to continue to offer foods and run the risk of overriding her own appetite control system.'
I'm also doing the 4 day rule with her. Making the purees myself is fun and think is safer and healthier than feeding her with jarred food, after all at least I know what's in it.
So far she prefers baby porridge over the purees which I totally understand. It's thinner and has the milky taste that formula does. Either way, I'm going to reduce the amount of both "meals" and will feed her after a bottle, not before. Whenever we run out of porridge, I will replace that "meal" with a puree too. Hopefully by then she will get to like them a bit more.
So our planned food schedule:
09am - bottle
12pm - bottle
01pm - porridge
03pm - bottle
06pm - bottle
07pm - puree
09pm - bottle
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