Help - am I doing this wrong or is it meant to feel like it is permanently 'meal' time??

[Ceebee74]

My DS is 9 months old and after many stops and starts with weaning, we are now on 3 small meals a day.

However, with 3 meals a day and 4 bottles of milk, I seem to forever be warming milk/food up, waiting for it to cool down, preparing finger foods or feeding him - is this right?

An example of his day:

7am - bottle (will drink 9oz)
8am - breakfast - about 6 dessertspoons of cereal
11am - bottle (approx 7oz)
12 - lunch - usually finger foods (tbh, he doesn't eat much of it, just plays with it and throws it on the floor) followed by a pudding (yoghurt, fruit puree etc)
3pm - bottle (7oz)
5pm - tea - about 4 dessertspoons of savoury plus some chopped up fruit (again most of the fruit goes on the floor)
7pm - bottle (9oz)

Is this how it should be? He seems to be drinking tons more milk than other babies his age.

Also, it makes it difficult to go anywhere as there always seems to be a 'meal' time (or nap time) whenever we want to go out.

Help!!

[Taylormama]

i am no expert believe me but i have a 30 min gap between milk and meals so bottle is at 10.30 am and lunch around 11.00 am. I must confess i don't heat food or milk up . My DS is 10 months and still has 24 oz of milk per day - he needs it!

[colditz]

That's pretty normal IIRC.

that's why it's best to leave weaning until as late as you can get away with

[nogoes]

I felt like that too. Around 18 months it becomes more relaxed. I miss that stage actually!

[welliemum]

Sounds normal!

What I do is, I keep a stash of food in a little bowl and then hand them bits whenever it occurs to me. Pieces of fruit and veg, porridge pancakes, leftovers from yesterday's meal - easy stuff so you don't stress if they don't eat it.

[Ceebee74]

Thank you for your reassurances that I have not botched up this weaning lark

Just concerned as we are going to the zoo in a couple of weeks and I have this feeling we are going to be stopping for food or milk constantly and not actually see many animals iykwim

[lulumama]

take a lunch box of finger food, he can gnaw at himslef in the buggy , so you can get round the zoo !

rice cakes

bread sticks

chunks of steamed carrot

cheese

apple quarters

chunks of banana

little sandwiches...hummous is good as holds together well


and of course his milk ! take a couple of cartons of ready made formula, he can have that at room temp, so no need to stop to heat it !

[Ceebee74]

Thanks lulu - what a fab idea

[amijee]

I started off like this and felt the same but now do something like this ( ds is nearly 9 mths)

6.00 - breastfeed
9am - breakfast
12.30 - lunch followed immedietely by milk ( approx 5 oz)
5pm - dinner
6.30pm - breast feed
8.30pm - milk ( 8oz)

[mrsbabookaloo]

My day with my 10 month old dd is pretty similar:
milk at 7:30,
breakfast 8:30,
milk at 11:00,
lunch at 12:30,
milk at 2:30,
tea at 5:30,
milk at 7:30,
so it is either food or milk every couple of hours, but we still seem to have just enough windows in the day to go out. I'm more relaxed about the milk now and can give it on the go in the pushchair, on a bus etc if needed and if we are on a day out and have to have meals out and about I take food that doesn't need to be heated up and I don't worry too much if it's not a "proper" meal: bread and cream cheese and a banana is OK if it's not all the time! I have worried too much about this I think and am just beginning to get to the stage where I've realised that every single meal and milk feed is not a life or death situation!

[Ceebee74]

Mrsbab - your day does sound a lot like mine - it is a struggle to fit naps in aswell sometimes!

Unfortunately DS is quite a sicky baby (when sick, projectile vomits everything) so I am wary about feeding him away from home and only do it if I really have to.

[LittleMan]

Hi Ceebee
My day a couple of months back was also similar, wake up bottle, breakfast, mid-morning bottle, lunch, mid-afternoon bottle, dinner, bedtime bottle. However since then on the advice of health visitor the mid-morning bottle was dropped first (to be honest it was only a few oz and ds didn't want it any more either) then last month dropped the mid afternoon one too. Ds was ill and off food and milk so didn't want it again anyway and hasn't really missed it. I have replaced both with healthy snacks instead! Hth.