Advice for Feeding 5 Month Old

Hi A.! My son is now 7mos old and I had all the same questions you did! Here is what worked for us at that age:
6am-6oz bottle
9am-6oz bottle
about 45min later-rice cereal and stage 1 veggie or fruit
12pm -6oz bottle
3pm-6 oz bottle
7pm-Bedtime and 6oz bottle
At 6 mos we cut down his feedings to 4x day at 7oz and increased to baby food 2x day. He started slow on amount he ate and it slowly increased over time.
Also-my son was recently constipated last week for the first time since starting solids and I gave him baby jar prunes..worked like a charm!
Hope that helps

I have just started feeding my 5 month old baby food as well. What I usually do is give her rice cereal in the morning. I measure it out with the oz. from her bottle. I pour in 1-2 oz of formula and mix it. Then at her next feeding I give her the baby food- Step 1 from Gerber (peas, sweet potatoes, etc) and let her eat until she refuses it or the whole container is gone and then give her a bottle. For her next feeding she gets just a bottle and then for her last feeing at night she gets the baby food and a bottle again. I always try to make sure that she has at least a little bit of formula when she eats the baby food. My daughter is constipated too and we've been trying all kinds of different things. I've found that massaging her tummy helps her most of the time.

You first will need to go through each vegetable and fruit for 3-4 days to find out if she is allergic(one at a time). Then move on to the next veggie for 3-4 days. You can feed her a couple of tablespoon of cereal at breakfast with fruit once you make sure she's not allergic.Make sure she's not allergic to barley and oatmeal cereals also.Don't stop her regular bottles just because she is eating solids. My twins still took 4-5 bottles at this stage(6 oz).Give her a bottle at breakfast lunch,dinner,and bedtime for sure.here's what I would feed her.

Breakfast- bottle, 2-3 tablespoons rice cereal(fruit optional)
Lunch- bottle,veggie (you can move it later in the day if she's on an early morning nap)
Dinner(can be earlier,maybe 3:30-4 oclock)bottle ,veggie optional until she gets a little older
Bedtime- bottle

Try to keep her on a schedule but make sure you feed her when she is hungry(after her nap give her a bottle).Always give her the bottle first so she doesn't only eat her solids.Eventually she will be eating a veggie or cereal and fruit at every meal(3-4 times a day)at about 6-8 months or so. She will tell you when she is full:)

Good Luck!

My baby is also 5 months old, and she currently drinks a total of about 24 oz of formula per day (which is on the low side according to charts i've seen). We feed her a tablespoon of rice cereal with a half jar of baby food mixed in, just once per day, in the evening. Both of my girls had issues with constipation when eating rice cereal, but the baby food prunes did the trick for them! I've heard that at this age, formula is more important than cereal or baby food- you're just getting them used to trying different floavors and eating from a spoon, but make sure she's getting enough formula (I think 24-32 oz per day is the right amount for her age). I was told by our ped. to hold off on juice until baby's older (but she also told me to wait til 6 months to start cereal and I didn't listen to that advice!)

I agree with what Lisa K . said about sticking with a food for 3-4days for allergies. (This is what our peditrician said as well)

My son will be 5 months next week Here's a sample of his feeding schedule (I am nursing along with solids- We are working on veggies now. Then after we go thru all the veggies we'll start fruit.

Nurse 1st feeding when he wakes up (anywhere from 5-8am)

about 1-2hrs later I give him breakfast about 2-3T of cereal mixed with water (I make it slightly thick & lumpy & I also give him veggie (1/2 of a 2.5oz jar/container)
so about 1-1.25oz)

nurse again around 11-12 & again mid afternoon 2-3pm
(generally 3hr gap between those feedings)

nurse again just before dinner & then cereal 2-4T & the rest of the veggies for dinner

bedtime nurse about 2hrs later

Hope that helps you. If your daughter is still hungry trying incresing the amount by 1-2T, maybe that will help. have you discussed a feeding schedule wit hyour Dr yet?? Maybe they will have a better format of schedule to follow for you..