Feeding FAQ: 4-6 months – Weaning

How can I get my 5.5-month-old daughter to be more interested in solids?

My daughter is now 5 1/2 months and we are still feeding her at 10pm. I am not sure whether I can drop this feed yet as she is still not taking enough solids as she should be according to the weaning plan. Getting solids down is a real struggle, but am attempting the tiered feeding at lunchtime, which works sometimes. Should I start to decrease her 11am feed a bit or offer only a tiny amount of milk first? Also at bedtime I cannot get her to take any more solids, even with the split way of feeding. Would it be OK to move her solids to 5pm and see what happens? Also, we would really like to drop the 10pm feed now; do you think she would make up for this at the 7.30am feed? Sometimes she does wake briefly between 5am and 6am and I don’t want her waking up at this time for a feed.
I also wanted to find out, because I started weaning her a little later and she has not increased her solids very much yet, if I still need to start protein at 6 months or wait a bit longer? When should I introduce breakfast as a the moment she is showing no interest in it. I am finding it very confusing knowing where I should be in the CLB weaning schedule as I started a bit later.
At present she is taking feeds at 7.30am 5-6 oz, 11am 6-7oz, 2.30pm 4-6 oz, 5.45pm 4-5oz, 6.30pm 3-4oz, 10pm 3-4oz. She weighs 16lbs
She takes 2 cubes at 11.30am, one sweet potato, the other a vegetable or 1 tsp baby rice and 1 cube of vegetable. She will drink 4oz first, have her solids and then finish her milk. At 6pm she takes 2tsp baby rice and 1 cube of apple or pear.
My daughter usually sleeps very well at nap times, although sometimes wakes after 40-45 minutes at her morning nap and very occasionally after 1 hr 1/2 at lunch. She settles herself to sleep well at all her naps with 10-15 minutes and doesn’t wake in the night.

Now that your daughter is approaching 6 months you do need to speed up her weaning a little. Protein is introduced in the 6th month as the iron stores laid down at birth are running low. Even if you delayed the start of weaning your daughter, she does need to begin to take protein once in her sixth month. Begin to offer her new tastes every two days so that by 6 months she will be taking a wide variety of tastes both sweet and savoury.
To encourage her to eat a little more than she is doing so at present give her 3-4ozs of milk at 11am and then offer her the solids at 11.30am. This should help her be hungrier then and take more than she is at present. By six months she should be taking about 4-5 cubes, so she does need to increase a little. Once she has taken her solids then offer her the rest of her milk which she should begin to cut back on.
Until she is taking more solids at 11am don’t offer her breakfast. She may well take cereal but it might knock the edge of her appetite for lunch. Once she has reduced her 11am milk and increased her solids you can begin with 1-2 tsp of a gluten free breakfast cereal mixed with pureed fruit.
Until your daughter has increased her solid intake a little then keep the 10.30pm bottle in place. Once she begins to lose interest in it and is only taking 2ozs but still sleeping through to 7am, can you drop it with out the problem forming of her waking earlier in the morning due to hunger.