https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Tue, 07 Apr 2026 15:47:10 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-485917 Mon, 07 Jan 2013 12:18:35 +0000 littlek 485917@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Thehistoryofus: Aw, that's too cute! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-485869 Mon, 07 Jan 2013 12:09:15 +0000 T.H.O.U. 485869@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@KayKay: Our LO did this too, we were just having them feed her lunch, and they said at breakfast she would crawl over and try to get the other kids food. We took it as a sign she was hungry for breakfast! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-485844 Mon, 07 Jan 2013 12:02:26 +0000 prettylizy 485844@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mamabolt: That's awful :( I really hope that they come to understand your views on this. Ultimately remember this, you are a customer and they are providing you with a service so you get to call the shots. That is the way the relationship works. Worst case scenario, you say this is what you've discussed with your LO's doctor and that is that. You get to make the parenting decisions for your LO, not their daycare providers. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-485826 Mon, 07 Jan 2013 11:58:29 +0000 KayKay 485826@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mamabolt good luck! I think it's a great idea to bring some info on BLW. </p> <p>Focusing on the positives, it does seem nice that they are picking up on your LOs cues and concerned with her seeming hungry between feedings. Maybe point out that, this early on, you wouldn't expect consumption of solids to really affect her bottle schedule anyways because so much of it would just pass through her. You could definitely offer more oz of milk per bottle, though, and see if she takes it.</p> <p>LO is 8 months and just in the last few weeks we've really seen an increase in the amount she is interested in eating. She's still taking a bottle/nursing at the same frequency/amount, although is more randomly leaving a couple ounces than before when she would always finish each one. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-485824 Mon, 07 Jan 2013 11:56:35 +0000 brownie 485824@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mamabolt: I'm sorry you are going through this. It doesn't sound like an ideal situation. I know that many people who do daycare have a lot of experience and can feel like that is the only way. But you are the momma and you ultimately get to decide, not them. Hopefully, you can all get on the same page because that is the best situation for your baby. </p> <p>I don't think that drinking BM every 2 hours is unusual for an EBF baby. My son was a BM snacker himself. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-485818 Mon, 07 Jan 2013 11:54:58 +0000 kiddosc 485818@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>The ladies at our daycare really started rubbing me the wrong way with pushing solids too. They first really pushed us to start him on cereal as soon as he turned 4 months. I had to tell them SEVERAL times we would be waiting. They even went so far as to say that they notice that babies that wait too long to begin solids just never really eat well. It really bothered me, but I kept reminding myself these were older ladies and they raised their children under a different set of guidelines. We stuck to our guns and introduced solids on our own terms, regardless of all their comments. Now at 7.5 months they say he's the best eater in the class... Gee, could that possibly be because we waited until he was ready to start solids? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-485752 Mon, 07 Jan 2013 11:35:12 +0000 mamabolt 485752@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Well, today I didn't see her main teacher at dropoff, but I had written in her logbook that we decided to wait on sending in solids, and would keep offering at home and when she was more interested we would send in purees. Her teacher called me to follow up and again I felt like she was pushing it, her reasoning is she seems "restless" between feedings and she mentioned that it seemed unusual that LO eats every 2 hours still at her age. I pointed out that she doesn't eat at all overnight (sleeps 8-7) so I didn't have an issue with how frequently she was eating, but if she was really concerned about her being hungry I would send in more milk. She also asked me where I was getting my info on solids, BLW, what I meant when I said LO didn't seem interested in solids at home, etc. The whole thing really rubbed me the wrong way and I ended up calling back and talking to her again and asking to set up a meeting so we can all chat in person about it and get on the same page. I hate the way I feel like they are questioning our parenting decision and it's really affected me the last few days because it is removing the trust I feel like we have with them, and that makes it very hard to feel comfortable leaving LO there. Hopefully after the meeting (where I will be bringing some literature on BLW) we will all feel more comfortable and on the same page! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-478029 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 13:17:45 +0000 T.H.O.U. 478029@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our daycare also wouldn't let us send finger foods at that young of an age. Mostly because of the mess but I think also the choking hazard. </p> <p>We asked them to always feed her a bottle of BM first and then offer solids. When they fed her purees we did like you said and just stressed that we were not concerned about her finishing or eating it all. Let her drive it. We told them to feel free to throw away whatever she didn't want. It seemed to work well and never impacted her desire for BM. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-477977 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 12:56:03 +0000 brownie 477977@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>If you aren't comfortable with this, you need to tell them. We also did BLW at home and purees at childcare (a babysitter). She was/is not comfortable with it. Even when we send food she still cuts it super duper small for him (we gave him a full rib the other day and he did fine). But as long as he is eating for her I don't care. We just did what we needed to do. </p> <p>On thing that helped us is that he had food allergies. We used that as an excuse to only allow our food to be eaten. So maybe you could say there is family allergies you want to work through them first before sending something to school. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-477957 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 12:47:09 +0000 ladyfingers 477957@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>If they push it in that way and you're still uncomfortable, just tell them your pediatrician has advised you otherwise and that you will be starting her on a solids program that you've devised with your doctor, which doesn't yet necessitate solids during the day. You're the mama! I think some daycares like to have all kids doing the same thing sometimes so it's easier on them. Solids are not nutritionally necessary at 6 months, so there's no reason to be forcing them on you before she's ready. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-477926 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 12:40:06 +0000 purrpletulips 477926@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>You should be able to instruct your daycare to only give the solids after your LO has finished their bottle. When DD was in daycare we gave this instruction and didn't have any problems with her not wanting to BF as much or drinking less in her bottles. I believe they actually gave her most of her bottle then solids then finished the bottle (sort of a wash it down approach). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-477803 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:59:49 +0000 littlek 477803@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@KayKay: That is too cute! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-477799 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:58:33 +0000 winniebee 477799@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@KayKay: Ha! Industrious little baby! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-477791 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:56:38 +0000 KayKay 477791@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We told daycare we weren't going to start solids until 6 months, even though the other same-age babies had all started earlier. And then we would just do a BLW meal at home. After a couple weeks, daycare told us that LO was constantly staring at the other kids eating, would open her mouth like she wanted a spoonful of other's food, and eventually tried to grab the spoon herself. We took the hint :)</p> <p>For the first month of meals at daycare, I took one meal of finger food and one meal of puree. Soon after, daycare told us that LO hated being fed and could we please just bring all finger food. So she's BLW full-time now. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-477625 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:01:58 +0000 Bluebonnet 477625@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Tell daycare you're doing solids at home. I believe at 6 months, our pedi said to do solids once a day, so we just did solids at night. When we moved LO to solids twice a day we sent breakfast to daycare and did dinner at home. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-477582 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:49:45 +0000 winniebee 477582@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>You're the mom do what you think is best!</p> <p>At 6 months, solids are developmentally apporpriate (purees and BLW) but you already know this. Babies will let their feeders know when they are not hungry/don't want it. It's very clear when my son wants to eat - he opens up nice and wide for the spoon. When he doesn't want it, he turns his head or pushes the spoon away. I tend to think it would be hard to feed him puree if he didn't want it. Sounds like he is getting plenty of milk so a small solids meal probably won't affect that much. </p> <p>I started sending solids to daycare just before 6 months. They They say he is very interested/jealous when other kids eat and eats every last drop of solids. That's how I knew he was ready. keep telling me to send "more" but I already send cereal and one puree meal so I think that's enough - I am slowly increasing the amount of each meal though. He eats 2 solid meals plus 15 oz of milk at daycare (plus 10-12 oz of milk at home). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-477526 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:36:28 +0000 Mrsbells 477526@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>If you dont want to give her purees than just tell them you dont want to. But if you do decided to send in purees make sure you try it at home and see how much she eats first, that will give you an idea of how much she will eat at school.</p> <p>Our daycare starting asking me about solids around 5 months, but I didnt send any solids in to daycare til LO was over 7 months old when I knew she really had the hang of eating purees. I just explained to them that we were still getting the hang of things at home </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-477517 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:32:56 +0000 mamabolt 477517@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Good questions ladies - I will definitely ask about whether she seems interested when the other babies are eating or not! They said she seems "fussy" between bottles - she gets a 5 oz bottle every 2 - 2.5 hours. I think the few days back after break all the babies are going to be a little off and don't want to draw conclusions based on that.</p> <p>I don't have an issue with her getting purees at daycare and doing BLW at home down the road, my issue is more on forcing solids before she's interested since I know she doesn't "need" them. They brought up solids previously at around 4.5 months again mentioning that she seemed fussy between bottles, and I said flat out that we were not considering introducing them until 6 months and I would send in more milk instead. So I think that has put me on the defense about their view of solids. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-477483 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:22:52 +0000 mrsjazz 477483@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We send purees to the nanny share house and do BLW at home. But LO is a bit more interested in food than your LO. I wonder if they are asking you to do so because your LO seems interested in eating when the other babies are eating? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-477477 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:20:35 +0000 mediagirl 477477@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think you need to go with your gut on this one. If you aren't ready to send solids to daycare yet, don't. My daycare asked if we would like to bring solids in and I told them I wasn't ready yet. they said they were willing to feed her whenever we were, just let them know when. I would just make sure daycare knows you're going on your own schedule and will send them when you're ready! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-477475 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:20:18 +0000 BabyBoecksMom 477475@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mamabolt: Our daycare did the same thing. We would go ahead and send in purees to daycare and let them know to not force it if she didn't want to eat it. We continued to do the BLW at home so that she could get used to the different textures of food. Once she actually started eating the solid foods, we stopped sending the purees and replaced them with solids. All of the ladies comment about what a great eater she is compared to all of the other babies, and she's the youngest one. Good luck! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-477474 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:20:11 +0000 autumnlove 477474@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our daycare was the same so I sent purees to school (6-10 months)and did BLW at home. I started sending finger foods around 10.5 months. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-477471 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:18:47 +0000 littlek 477471@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Did they say why you need to bring food? Is LO jealous or overly interested when the other kids eat? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/solid-food-and-daycare#post-477461 Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:15:08 +0000 mamabolt 477461@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>LO just turned six months old, and over Christmas break we introduced solids. We like the BLW approach and have been letting her play with different foods. So far (not even 2 weeks in) she doesn't really have a lot of interest in eating the food and makes faces when she does get some in her mouth, but DH and I are fine with that and view it as the natural progression of things.</p> <p>However, daycare is pushing us to send in purees for them to feed LO during the day and I'm not sure how to respond. My mama instict says she is just not that ready for solids yet, and we want to let her keep playing and exploring them on her terms rather than having them "forced" on her at school. I am afraid of her being offered more than she really wants and it impacting her desire to BF, and I am committed to her getting the majority of her nutrition through BM for the first year. But when I mentioned baby-led weaning the care provider had never even heard of it, and just said "well, eating purees is important for them developmentally." What would you do? </p>