What's your (meal) routine?

[MLWfirsttimemum]

I am in the process of weaning my 5 month old daughter. The 'routine' we've followed up until now is feed at 7am, 10:30am, 14:00, 17:00/18:30 (one bottle, in two halves) and at 22:30. I am not sure I think it is ideal for proper meals, i.e. lunch should ideally be a bit earlier but I don't know anyone with small children so need ideas for what other people do in terms of mealtimes and routines. Please talk me through what schedule/rhytm/routine you follow i.e. what time do you have breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner etc and how does that fit in with bath/bedtime.

[ChocOrange05]

Hi

We follow GF routines and so I bought her book on weaning for some ideas. We are doing BLW but sticking to set meal times. Our day looks like this:

7am: breastfeed
7.45-8am: breakfast
11am: breastfeed (but we will drop this when he is more established on solids i.e taking more)
11.30am: lunch
3pm: breastfeed
5pm: breastfeed
6.30pm: bottle feed
10.30pm: bottle feed

We will probably introduce dinner at the weekend and that will be at 5pm to replace the first part of the split feed.

No real snacks as yet (unless you count eating my duck quesadilla and berry pavlova at the pub today ) - I think they eventually replace the 2.30pm bottle.

When we do dinner I hope it won't impact on bathtime/bedtime with the plan to have dinner at 5 and bath as usual at 5.45-6pm.

I hope this helps!

[nappyaddict]

DS has breakfast at 8:30, lunch at 11, dinner at 4. Sometimes he is ready for dinner as early as 3:30 and then he will have a yoghurt or some fruit at about 5.

[JJ1471]

My ds is almost 6 months and we are roughly following this routine at the moment:

6am bottle (I wish he'd sleep until 7am!)
7am breakfast
(morning nap around 9am-10am)
10am bottle
11am-11.30am - lunch (I find if I leave it too late he gets too tired to eat)
(longer nap around 12pm-1.30/2pm)
2pm - bottle
(short late afternoon nap sometimes at 4pm/4.30pm)
5pm - tea
6pm - half bottle before bath
(bath)
6.30pm - second half of bottle
(bed)

He is also still having a night bottle feed at some point, hoping to be able to drop that soon!

I've started also offering him a snack sometimes around 3.30pm of some finger food e.g. fruit, although he just plays with it at the moment.

I was only able to introduce this routine though when I stopped breastfeeding a few weeks ago, as before then I seemed to be feeding him all the time in between meals.

I regularly offer him sips of cool boiled water in a bottle too, always before/after/during meals and before he goes down for a nap. He'll drink about 2-3oz over the course of a day.

Hope that helps!

[envy27]

Hi - my dd is just 7 months and I started weaning just before she was six months. The milk routine before was very similar to yours MLWfirsttimemum, except that there was only one feed at 6:30-7pm - not broken in to 2 feeds. My dd is not a very big eater so the routine we are now follwing is:

7am (or whenever dd wakes which is anywhere between 6:30 and 8am) - bottle feed

10am - breakfast

1:30pm - Lunch

3:00pm - bottle feed

7:00pm - bottle feed (bath just before this feed and bed immediately after this feed)

11:00pm - bottle feed

I am currently only giving her 2 solid meals a day as she took a long time to start eating - in fact only started this week. So would like her to get used to solid food and get a bit more established before I start the 3rd meal. Seems to be working for us.

[LCRNK]

Hi. I have an 9 month old and she has settled in to our eating routine

8.00 breakfast

12.00 Lunch

4.00 Dinner

7.00 Bottle

She stopped breastfeeding about a week ago but seems content enough to take a bottle before bed. After her bottle at 7 she sleeps right through til 7.30 the next morning.

[littleboyblue]

Hi. I've been playing about with this for ds2. This is what's happening at the moment. He is nearly 6 months.....
5/6am - Up 7oz milk followed by baby cereal
8:30/9 - Nap until 10am
10am - 7oz of formula
1pm - 7oz milk
1:30/2pm Nap until 3:30pm
4pm - 7oz formula followed with solids
6:15pm - bath/top and tail wash (bath nights are weds and sun atm)
6:45pm 7oz formula and bed.

I have to work around ds1 who is 23 months. I plan to gradually alter the timings to fit in with everyone else as weaning becomes more established. Is a bit hit and miss at the moment!

With ds1, I kept milk and solids completely seperate, but ds2 didn't seem happy with that. he needs the milk to calm him first where ds1 was just wanting any food he could get his hands on!