Meal times for babies

Ok, I can't tell you what to do of course, so I will tell you what we do and you can take anything from it that you think may be useful...

Erin has her first bottle at 7am, then if we aren't going out, "breakfast" solids at 8am.

Second bottle at 10:30am, then "lunch" solids at 11:30am or so.

Third bottle at 2:30pm, and then finger food / snack ("afternoon tea") around 3pm.

Depending on what we've been doing during the day, last bottle is around 6-6:30pm, and then "dinner" solids around 7pm, bedtime anywhere between 7:30-8pm.

Most of her meals are home made, and her appetite varies a fair bit, anywhere from half a cup to a whole cup - or if I'm really desperate (or lazy LOL) and feed her a jar she'll usually polish off one of those larger (what I call double size) jars.

Her fluid intake is varying a lot too and I put that down to a couple of things, teething and of course the amount she eats - so it can be anywhere from as little as 130mls, to the whole bottle which is about 210mls.

I know we started Erin on solids relatively 'early', bang on 4 months, and she was up to three meals a day just after the six month mark. She seems happy, is sleeping, peeing and filling her nappies as per usual... so I try not to worry too much ! (Which I understand can be hard!)

KH25 wrote: Ashleigh is nearly 9 months but around 6 months corrected age.

       Far out, it's amazing to think how far your thriving healthy 9-month old has come... it seems like years ago that you were announcing her very early arrival!  So OT but I had to say it!  She just looks so adorable. 

I'd be interested to see what people say about this too.  Since Ella's only 5 months, hearing our routine probably isn't much use to you... but she has a breastfeed, then solids about an hour after then, then just breastmilk throughout the day until the evening - breastfeed, solids an hour later, breastfeed before bedtime. 

My boy is a very thriving 8 month old...already 10.5kgs

Up 7ish, Bottle 7.30, Breakkie 8.00, Bottle 10.30, Lunch 11.30, Bottle 1.30, Bottle 4.30, Dinner 5.00 or 5.30, Bottle 8.00

I have tried many combinations but this is what is working for us now.
We tried to stretch his bottles to 4 hours but he was pathetic and would drink the same amount as 3 hours.
His bottle is anywhere from 150 - 200 ml. His food would be half a jar. (small jar)
Karitane said at his age he sould be drinking 1 L a day. So we base the volume of his bottle around that. They said once they are eating 1/2 cup to increase from 1 meal to 2 then from 2 to 3. She also said that until at least 9 months the bottle is most important, therfore offer solid 30 mins after bottle.

For me it has been trial an error, then once you think you have it down pat.....voila something happens! We are all different and so are our children.

Oh and she only has about 4 cubes of food per sitting.

I kind of do the same as most of you,

Ethan has his bottle then his solids about an hour later, so he is hungry but its not replacing a milk feed, seems to work well for us

peace wrote: She usually has 150mls in a bottle and even though I offer her 5 bottles a day she comes up short most of the time (which is rather frustrating).

Argh - my gremlins are the same! They take 80-100ml per feed, 6 feeds a day and the dietitian told me I have to get another 120ml per day of fluid into them. Sounds good - but how am I supposed to do that! They're not big solids eaters either, one meal a day, they have mostly home made stuff around 6 ice cubes shared between them, but yet they are gaining weight nicely and don't seem hungry.

Well I thought I would try her with some brekkie this morning as the past couple of days she has been waking quite early and just talking until I get her up. I just gave her some baby muesli and fruit and she polished it off Then she had her bottle at 11 and I just gave her some apricot and she polished that off too. Maybe I have been starving her Do you guys think that a bottle should be the last thing they have before bed? I was wondering if I should bath her and give her a bottle a bit earlier then her "dinner" then bed?

Peace and Emma - Ashleigh is only having 4 bottles a day now and only takes a maximum of 150mls. She has been on this amount for ages now and just before I dropped a feed would really struggle and never finish the bottle. Since dropping a bottle she now generally finishes it. I don't think she is really having enough but short of holding their mouth open and pouring it down their throat there isn't much you can do!!!

Kelly - we are in pretty much the same routine as you with regard to times.

Amelia has 200ml per bottle. She absolutely REFUSES to eat breakfast - doesn't matter if I try the solids first, last, an hour later - just doesn't work.

She has lunch before her bottle around 11.30/12ish. I have just been doing this for the past week in an effort to get her to eat more food - it depends on the day how much she'll eat - can vary from 6 baby teaspoons to half a cup.

She has a bottle at 3.30pm and then dinner around 6.30/7pm (although the past 2 days we are totally out of whack - she is asleep at the moment! All due to a 5.30am wake up yesterday). sometimes her bath is before tea, sometimes after - depends how long she's been up for as she seems to have dropped down to a morning & afternoon sleep and no nap or anything (usually) between waking at 2.30/3pm and going to bed about 7ish, although that can vary too - depends how her teeth are doing (thank god for teethmed spray)!