Xander's 5 months, so we'll be starting solids soon, and I'm scared! I feel like I have noooo idea what I'm doing! Suggest a good book or website that you felt was helpful!
Particularly, I'm interested in knowing how much we should be feeding, maybe month-by-month. I plan to start with doing just solids at dinner, but at what point do you introduce a second meal and then a third? And how much are they expected to eat? Help me! 
hostess / watermelon / 14932 posts
http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/
I was terrified too! but honestly, it's so fun. just start slow and tell yourself it's play time - and as you both get the hang of it, it'll slowly become actual meal time 
GOLD / eggplant / 11517 posts
It was very overwhelming to me as well! I didn't do a ton of reading on it.
Here's how we did it:
6 months: Breakfast
7 months: Breakfast and dinner
8 months: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Once she's 9 months, I'll probably work in some more snacks as necessary.
Mostly just purees here (started with green veggies, then orange, then fruits) I've offered solids here and there (small piece of avocado, strawberries in a mesh feeder, etc.)
I've started working in a few puff-type snacks lately to help with her grasping between thumb and forefinger. She's almost 8.5 months now.
There's really no wrong way to do it (except for avoiding high allergen foods). See what your child likes and go with it!
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
@highwire: Thanks for the detailed response! I'm so scared, haha. I'm also not positive how to go about it with daycare - I guess I'll have to work it out with them, because presumably he'll be having breakfast and lunch there and just dinner at home.
@sorrycharlie: Thanks for the link! I'll have to check it out!
GOLD / eggplant / 11517 posts
@Adira: We had them do a green veggie for breakfast starting in month 6 (after a bottle). In month 7 I started offering a dinner at home. This month I'm asking them to do a breakfast and a lunch at daycare (always after a bottle).
They have purees there, so that part is really easy for us. If they didn't. I'd send one for breakfast and one for lunch each day.
coconut / 8861 posts
Wholesome Baby Food is an awesome start. We did cereals at first with little success. Once we got to purees, he responded a lot better to them. LO's 11 months old and eats everything. We're still working on chewing though. We stopped doing purees a couple of weeks ago since he wasn't interested in them anymore. Now, I try and get some food prepared when I get home for him to eat in addition to his bottle.
grapefruit / 4923 posts
i had no idea what i was doing. i did read the baby led weaning book, but knew that was going to be of limited use because daycare does not do BLW.
i started with oatmeal cereal and adding formula or puree to it. daycare told me i could make it chunkier/thicker than the directions on the box (which is 1 TBS cereal to 3-4 TBS of liquid and creates a very very loose mixture).
in terms of schedule, we do BLW for breakfast and dinner, and daycare gives him solids 2x/day with the other babies (at 7:45 and 11:30). i didn't decide this, it's just their schedule and i don't have a problem with it.
for the solids that i send to daycare, i mix 1 TBS cereal with 2 TBS or so of puree, and if necessary thin it out with formula. he gets two mixtures like that per day.
squash / 13199 posts
I really liked the site @sorrycharlie: suggested, very useful information there
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
@Adira: I googled this a lot. I ended up using the Babycenter guide as my resource. http://bit.ly/18Z9xLG
We started with dinner at home. We stuck with one meal for a while until we were really ready, then we sent one meal (snack) to daycare and continued with dinner at home. As she showed signs of readiness, we added more food.
My biggest concern was always making sure she was still getting enough milk while eating her meals in that first year. I always breastfed or gave bottle first, then offered the solid 1/2 hour later.
papaya / 10560 posts
I downloaded the moms on call book to my phone through the kindle app. i cannot even tell you how many times i've looked back to it for feeding questions and more!
cantaloupe / 6751 posts
Wholesomebabyfood.com was a great resource. I also bought Cooking for Baby off Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1416599185/ref=aw_1st_sims_6?pi=SY115)
pomegranate / 3398 posts
I'm a bit off the new "norm" maybe because of having two other LO's before this one. However, I followed her queues to me that she was ready.
She started cereal in the morning 2 weeks ago (more so due to reflux) and she was 3 1/2 months old.
Sunday we started her on baby food once a day. I started with the orange veggies so she's had Squash and loves it. She will get carrots on Tuesday and then Sweet Potatoes on Friday. Then I will start the green veggies and then fruits.
4 months is when the dr 'releases' them to start solids around where I am. But, in all honesty, I don't need a dr to tell me when my child is ready. This isn't my first rodeo.
She was leaning in and watching us when we ate and was showing interest for a while now. She has done beautifully with the cereal and now with the squash.
I will switch to a new baby food flavor every fourth day. That gives her body three full days to decide if it's going to agree with her or not before switching to something else.
I know I'm not in the majority here with process but I really couldn't care less.
To each their own, I followed my instinct and my baby's signs of readiness and at 4 months she's happy as can be with cereal in the morning and baby food in the evening for now.
Do what feels right. And try not to be influenced by everything everyone else says. Use it as resource tools but follow you and your baby's readiness.
That's just my opinion.
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
@highwire: Thanks for the info!! I guess I'll have to actually talk to the daycare about this when we get closer. I know they provide food when the children are older, but not sure if they have purees or not.
@mediagirl: Thanks for the link! That guide looks great!!
@Crisark: Thanks for sharing your experience!!
grapefruit / 4291 posts
I really enjoyed reading the BLW book as it made a lot of sense to me and was a nice counter to the standard advice in New Zealand.
We started with a lunch meal when A was just over five months but I didn't stress if we skipped a day or she didn't really eat anything. Once we hit seven months I added in a small breakfast and then started giving her table food for dinner a couple of weeks later. Now that A is almost ten months she eats three meals a day of mainly table or finger food and has dropped her lunchtime nursing session.
For the most part I've just followed LO's lead and she's naturally worked herself in to a feeding routine
squash / 13764 posts
We started at 5 months with one meal (breakfast). Around 6 we added dinner, but didn't stress if we missed it. Around 7.5/8 months, I added lunch. We started with purees and introduced finger foods around 7 months, but it took him about a month to really get them. I would try not to stress about how much he is actually consuming, although it's hard, since at his age when he first starts solids it's mainly for taste and practice. And have fun with it! Don't be afraid to try cool combos or just give him what you're eating, pureed if necessary.
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