Weaning - struggling to fit in 3 meals a day

[Shefliesonherownwings]

DS has just turned 8 months and we have been weaning since 6 months. I'm doing a mixture of baby led and spoon feeding and he's doing pretty well with both, managing finger foods and thicker textures ok and is good with drinking water.

What I'm struggling with is fitting in 3 meals a day though, mainly lunch. DS is still having 4 bottles of formula a day and we can fit in breakfast and dinner fine, but lunch is very hit and miss. We are either out and about so its hard to give him much more than snacks, or he has a long lunchtime nap just after his lunchtime bottle, so there's not much time between waking and his afternoon bottle. Today he woke at 3 so I gave him something light and he'll have his bottle at 4. But often we don't get lunch in or he just gets snacks. Is that ok though, or should he be on 3 meals a day by now?

I'm wondering whether to start reducing the lunchtime bottle but he often feeds to sleep and I'm worried he still needs that milk or will struggle to nap without it.

How do others fit it all especially if they have long naps at lunchtime?

It’s fine - it’s all working for you
No need for three meals as day as milk should still be a good and important source of nutrition

Give him lunch before the bottle - ultimately that means he'll drink less milk but that's the aim over time.

At 8 months food is really about exploring textures and learning to enjoy different things.
I wouldn't stress about three fixed meals.
Milk is still his main source of sustenance at the moment until he's a year old.

You want about 18-20oz milk a day at this point so could probably drop a bottle
6-7 oz at 7am
breakfast at 8
(small snack mid morning if necessary)
lunch at 12
6-7oz at 3pm
tea at 5pm
6-7oz at 6.30/7pm
tea at 5pm

I have an 11 month old and I completely understand where you are coming from - my DD is BFing and has two long naps a day. Often we don’t have much time for lunch as she’s sleeping and when she wakes we have to run off to collect her two older brothers from school. Often I’ll take along some fruit or an Ella’s kitchen pouch for her to have in the buggy but as long as she’s getting two proper meals a day I don’t sweat it. She’s putting on weight and seems really happy.

My DDs were under a paediatric dietitian and she says not to move to 3 meals a day until after 9 months old and snacks after 12 months old. Make you can make the snacks more substantial, most kids love a picnic.

Thanks everyone, i'm guilty of comparing us to friends with similar aged babies who all seem to be on 3 substantial meals a day and I'm worried DS is behind.

I do wonder if he is having too much milk, he's having 4 bottles of 8.5ozs but happily drinks it at all. At his 8 month weigh in this week his weight was bang on track but maybe I should just reduce the feeds down to 7ozs and make the food more substantial?

My daughter has just turned 9 months and she's only just started having 3 meals a day in the last couple of days. She's still on 3 or 4 8oz bottles a day too. Like your son, she's tracking perfectly on her centile line so I'm not worried. She's definitely weaning a lot slower than others I know but I don't think that's a bad thing. I haven't tried to actively give her less milk, I've just followed her lead and she's slowly eating more and drinking milk less.

When does he start his lunchtime nap? My baby is nearly 8 months and struggled with weight gain before weaning but now she eats food like a baby elephant and is piling on the pounds (which is a relief!).
Our day looks like:
6.30 Wake and breastfeed
7.30 Breakfast, she always has weetabix mixed with either breast milk or formula (plus other bits)
9-10.30 nap
11 breastfeed - literally I have to try pin her down for this one, she’s not bothered at all! She can’t take more than a few oz!
11.45/12 lunch
2-3 nap
3.30 bottle of formula (offered 9oz, will take anywhere from 6-9oz)
5 tea
7.30 breastfeed
Then usually 1 or 2 feeds in the night.
It’s very rough but that seems to be the general flow of the day, quite often one of the meals is something easy like beans on toast or toasted bagel with sandwich type meat, fruit etc. or I save a lot of leftovers from our evening meal and will give her them
That being said, if your baby isn’t too fussed and weight gain is fine, just see how it develops over time. Our routine shifts all the time. I’m not sure she gets enough milk but is gaining and takes a multivitamin with breakfast so seems like we’re getting it kinda right?!

My DD did drop a bottle around 8/8.5 months but we were doing:-

7: milk
8: breakfast
9:15: nap
11: milk
12: lunch
1:30: nap
3: milk
4/4:30: dinner
6:30/7: milk

There is also nothing wrong with dropping bottles if you want too. Both my daughters dropped to 2 bottles a day by 8 months. They loved food, refused milk 🤷🏼‍♀️ We’d have:

7oz at 7am
Breakfast at 8am
Snack between nap
Lunch 12-1ish
Snack between nap
Tea at 5pm
7oz at 7pm.

Both kids napped & slept well, they ate a tonne of food. My 15 month old has eaten double my 4 year old since she was tiny 😂

I know my DD’s were down on milk quantity but they 14oz in a bottle, 3oz milk in cereal, a decent sized yoghurt & loadsa cheese, both chunks to snack on & in food.

All good, both happy, healthy children!

Thank you, it’s helpful to see other schedules. One problem we have is that naps are pretty inconsistent in terms of when he naps and how long for. He’s always been a rubbish napper. It’s only in the last couple of weeks he has dropped his third nap and started doing a longer afternoon nap. Mornings are still a bit all over the place though. Very roughly, this is our day:

7:30 wake
8: milk
9: breakfast
9:30ish: nap which can be anything from 30 mins to 1 hour 30 (this then dictates when the afternoon nap is).
12: milk
12:30-1:30: nap for around 2 hours.
4: milk
5:30: dinner
7: bottle then into bed.

I think I might need to start giving the milk earlier for all feeds except the last one. So milk at 7-7:30, 11-11:30, 3-3:30 so I can fit lunch in around 12-12:30. But as I mentioned above DS often feeds to sleep at lunchtime so I do worry that he won’t nap or not as well without milk just before. Someone upthread mentioned lunch first then lunchtime bottle so maybe worth trying that. I just feel like it’s all such a minefield and quite overwhelming.