Average 10 month routine?

[Dfjackson]

Hi,

My very very chunky 10 month old baby girl has NO routine!
We exclusively breast feed with around 2 solid meals per day breakfast and tea, I try fruit around lunch.
my question….
What should our milk feeds and solid feeds look like?
I’m still attempting to feed every 2-3 hours of milk, is this right? it seems my baby is perfectly happy to not have solids if our day goes a bit pear shaped!
She will eat around half a baby bowl of porridge or wheetabix and a little fruit smoothie, and around half a bowl of veggies with whatever we’re adding with it that evening for tea. I try to give fresh fruit for lunch but sometimes not. She has allergies so food is quite restricted - egg and dairy.
I keep reading that breast milk is still main source of nutrition so do I just carry on offering milk so often and then solids or should I be offering milk less?
my day is a shambles to be honest my baby probably doesn’t know what’s going on the poor thing!
we roughly get up at 7am and that’s about the end of routine! I try keep her sleep wake windows at around 3-4 hours but never ever goes to plan so nap times and bed time varies most days! Which means meal times vary most days too!
Any help much appreciated!x

My 10mo is EBF. She's on 3 meals a day and typically has something like a full Weetabix/bowl of porridge/slice of toast, then a serving of fruit.

For lunch she has something like rice/veggies/chicken, jacket and tuna, or toast and avocado/egg etc, often with a portion of fruit and yoghurt.

For tea she has whatever I'm having e.g. Sunday dinner, spag bol, chilli, baked sweet potato, etc.

I'm planning to add in snacks from 11 months.

I think by 12 months, it's recommend they're on 3 meals a day +2 snacks though. It's hard and I find I spend literally all my day weaning now 😂

As for breastfeeding, my baby has anywhere between like 4-10 feeds, depending on her mood, if she's bored, etc 😂 bare minimum she has a morning feed before breakfast, a feed to sleep for nap 1, a late afternoon feed (often to feed to sleep again unless she's in the pram) then her night feed. Mine just suddenly started eating a lot more solids the past month, and has dropped her milk feeds naturally.

I wouldn't worry though, if what you're doing works for your baby and she's gaining weight, then that's fine! Milk is still the main nutrition before 1. It will depend on the baby- mine is just a foodie!

Hi there!
I could have written this myself! My DC2 is almost 10 months old and I'm feeling very guilty about his solids! I feel like I can't provide a routine: exactly just like you! Fortunately we have no allergies, so eggs are what saves me. But I can't find a coherent schedule and, like you, there are some days when he only breastfeeds! I'm feeling so low with this... I constantly compare the situation with my eldest: I dedicated soo much time to my eldest... I feel I'm neglecting my lovely DC2 😔
Sorry because I have no advice, I just wanted to share my solidarity.

You can treat the breastfeeds as snacks.

Are you offering solids before you offer breast?

Mine also became massively more interested in solids at 11 months.

Thank you all for your replies! So milk should be offered first still? Am I doing that right? :(

I offer breastfeeds first before all solids, she basically just has milk as her main food really every 2 - 3 hours then solids around that but just not much at and no set schedule so sometimes we could go a full day on maybe one or two small solid meals and then milk mainly. When I read that milk is still the main nutrition until 12 months but your supposed to wean at 6 months I’m confused to how much solids and milk I’m supposed to be giving

I will continue to offer milk more towards 3 hours, up the solids and try without fail to stick to a routine from now on so she knows what to expect everyday x I’ve been lazy and just probably in a rut as she just likes her milk and it meant I haven’t had to spend planning my entire day around food!

thank you all xx

This makes me feel less like a bad mum!
I think our babies just like milk I don’t think we are doing anything wrong.
My baby is huge and got so many fat roles lol
It’s probably the right time now though to not hinder any development and try my best to get a routine going as I’m hoping to return to work between 12&18 months so better get something in place now so she is not as dependent on milk as main food and more of a snack/drink like other posters have wrote x
It’s so so easy breastfeeding isn’t it no cooking no clean up! Just a happy drowsy milk drunk baby haha!
I am going to offer milk first still but aim for breakfast an hour after wake up and tea around 5pm everyday. Once that’s set in stone I will aim for a set lunch closer to 11-12 months x
Hope you can get something in place also…don’t feel any guilt we are just doing what works for us an our babies they will eat solids forever…Nothing wrong with the big portions of nutritious breast milk for now. Even an avocado has nothing on our boobie goodness haha x

Why is your day a shambles, is there something going on at home? At 10 months milk as main source of food is ok, but in two months time food will need be the main source so you need to start transitioning to this now. I’d aim for three proper meals a day, you don’t have to cook separately, just give what you’re having. So for example for breakfast a full portion of porridge or weetabix with some cut up fruit, lunch a little sandwich with some cut up chicken, veg sticks and fruit, dinner whatever meal you’re having and a yoghurt for pudding. It doesn’t have to be difficult or elaborate food.

We have been self building an extension to our home, my partner works a terrible 12 hour shift pattern and we live quite far from family. I am very much on my own with everything and most of the time I can barely eat myself for some reason. I just have 0 structure to my day anymore. I suppose I’ve gotten into a rut really of taking the easy option with everything I do :(
I don’t understand really how milk is main nutrition and then give solids too as my baby then reduces milk intake the more solids I introduce is this ok?x I’m trying to find a balance but give up easily and just resort to lots of milk and small amounts of solids x

Yes, it's fine to let your baby gradually wean herself off milk. You can offer three meals a day at normal mealtimes, and offer milk at the same times you normally would, and she'll gradually start eating more food and drinking less milk. Give a little bit of food at first, and then offer more if she wants it. What's your plan for childcare when you go back to work? If it's nursery, you'll want to make sure you have a place reserved, but also you can just map your mealtimes onto that to ease the transition.

Yes it’s fine to reduce the milk amounts, food also contains nutrients so a mix of milk and food at this age is fine. In two months she’ll be on three proper meals a day and some snacks so good to get into routine of this now, even if she doesn’t eat much of it.

We will hopefully have my mum for help when my partner and my shifts cross over.
then maybe some sort of forest school once we’ve got over the separation anxiety from me x

Sounds like you are doing a great job. The Breastfeeding Mentor and Lucy Webber Feeding Support on Instagram are both useful accounts. I saw one of them posted that at aged one 25% of calories should come from solids and 75% milk and then by two that should have switched.

This is really interesting thank you. So the transition happens between 1-2 years. I’m guessing each baby just decides when they’re ready to take more?
Thank you so much

At 10 months we were offering food before breastfeeds /formula I had to stop breastfeeding between 10 and 11 months. She wasn't engaging in weaning.
She had a milk feed before her mid morning and mid afternoon naps and then before bed. She had 2-3 feeds overnight. She was offered breakfast, lunch and dinner and might eat a little one of those times on a good day twice but was only having a few mouthfuls of food a day

Yes I have found my little one eats a bit more now but still has days when he is ill when he only wants milk mostly. He is older though at 18 months.