[EMunion777]

Okay. Background: For Christmas my Aunt gave my husband and I toooooons of baby food for our little girl (4 months). We are sooo grateful. I thought I could cry and was speechless. Anyways... we got probably 12 boxes of rice cereal, tooooons of stage 1, 2, and 3 food, 4 bottles of juice, and 4 boxes of toddler cookies. I checked the expiration dates but it's all pretty useless to me as of now because I have no idea when she'll switch stages or how much she'll eat. So this is why I have questions.

Does anybody know where I can find the information on when little ones switch stages usually? And how much formula and baby food they have in a day and how quick or slow they gradually stop formula or breastmilk? How long does a box of rice cereal usually last? When would they be done with stage 3 baby food and rice cereal? How quckly did your child go through a box of toddler cookies?

I am clueless! I was hoping to figure this stuff out so I can go ahead and donate any food that may expire before we can get to it. I am sorry for so many questions. Even if you could just put me in the direction some online guide or something. I would greatly appreciate it. Thankyou.

[missewelch]

For my almost 5 mo, I use the gerber website. They tell you recommended amounts. For my son I mix 2 table spoons of Breastmilk with cereal and than add a couple table spoons of fruit or veg. I do fruit for breakfast, veg for lunch, fruit for dinner. On that website you can make a meal plan, and they have it broken up by the gerber stages. Supported sitter stage one, sitter stage 2, and crawler stage 3 . My son usually has a teething biscuit a day so I would look at how much the box has. Just a little bit of info from what I'm doing. HTH

[qrazy]

I will throw in my .02 here. When my oldest (turning 12 next month) was a baby, I did the baby food and cereal like the baby food companies recommended. But when my 2nd one (10 now) was a baby I was attending nutrition classes for doing childcare in my home and they recommended a very short time of baby food and then just give them real food. By real food I mean warm a banana and then mush it, bake a sweet potato and then mush it, etc. I did this with my second. She is a much less picky eater than the first one. She loves tomatoes, all kinds of veggies.
So my recommendation is to use baby food for a little while but then don't be afraid to add in real food. Many people just make their own baby food as well. Just cook real food that can be mushed and then freeze in ice cube trays. Thaw out an ice cube for a meal.
I hope this doesn't stress you by what I said, but just gives you a different perspective.

[EMunion777]

Thankyou. I actually had planned on making my own baby food. My mom even got us a food processor for Christmas to more easily puree it. Going through the boxes there are tons of only certain kinds so I will still need to go out and get other food for a larger variety. That I will make for sure.

Also, I went to the Gerber site and saw what you were talking about missewelch. Thankyou. That helps a lot.

Thanks for both of your tips.

[Jacksonsmommy]

They both stole my ideas, he he. I have however seen recipes where you can bake your own teething biscuits and cookies from rice cereal. I have not tried any myself, but am planning on starting soon. Our DD is 9 months old and already eating mostly regular food, so we are not using nearly as much jarred baby food.