Help on baby's schedule, please!

[stillsleeptraining]

I have an 8 month old who is dropping her third nap. She feeds to sleep and I can't work out now to time lunch, naps and feeds because she feeds to sleep.

It'll be difficult to change the feed to sleep because that's her natural preference and when we did resist it, she developed a feeding aversion (there were other, physical reasons too and it's complex, but it was pretty horrendous and it's definitely her preference).

Currently, her schedule is:

• 3.30-5am-ish: night feed milk and back to sleep
• 6-6.30am wake
• 7- 7.30am solids
• 8.30-9am milk and sleep

-10am latest wake

• 11.30-12 milk and sleep
• lunch when she wakes, but this is getting later and later, so 1- 2.30pm
• 5.30pm dinner (she won't accept milk in the afternoon now - only sometimes from a cup
• 6.45 bedtime milk

She's under a dietician and her milk intake is fine now, but that's also why we're ok with night feeds for a bit.

Would really appreciate some advice.

Hi @stillsleeptraining. This sounds a similar schedule to my little one (now 18 months) who only fed to sleep at that age. I struggled with lunch too!

What I used to do in this awkward timing period was offer a small snack pre nap and a small snack post nap instead of lunch - at that age my DD didn't really have anything proper so it would be like a bit of fruit before and toast after kind of thing.

My DD still naps at an awkward time now 11:30 - 12-30 usually but if she goes to nap later than usual I still do a snack pre nap.

Also don't worry about the feeding to sleep thing - I wouldn't have been able to get my DD to sleep any other way at 8 months but at 13 months she decided she was ready to stop and I had no issues moving away from it (I was ready to though).

I would do lunch at 11 and a snack on waking

I fed mine on demand (milk) until past a year and 3 meals a day for solids then let them as and when they wanted, usually in the pushchair or car seat to be honest unless they snuggled up on the sofa with me, both mine was early walkers (and very late talkers)

I'd do an early lunch then nap then a snack mid afternoon to get through to tea time. It's such a pain when they're in the awkward nap/meal stage.

I’m not sure if it will be helpful but my 8 month old generally does:

5:30am wake up and milk

7am breakfast

8:30am milk then sleep until 9:30(ish)

12pm lunch

1pm milk then sleep until 2:30pm(ish)

4pm teatime

6pm milk and settle down to bed

Are you breastfeeding sorry it isn’t clear

Thanks, everyone! That's really helpful. Stops my brain exploding trying to figure it out.

It was a lot easier with DS. He wasn't an easy baby generally, but at least he ate when offered.

It's bottle feeding nowadays.

Only three bottles of milk a day
What other fluids does she have ?

If you can push the first nap so it's always at 9:00, you could do lunch at 11:30 and then just some milk after lunch? I don't think that would be a problem. I appreciate she may drink slightly less milk if she has had lunch, but you could offer her the rest when she wakes?

Mine all fed to sleep at that age. It eventually stopped but I really wouldn't stress about that at all. If she likes a bit of milk to get to sleep, so be it. She won't always sleep in the day and it's not really an issue if she has milk before she sleeps until well past a year old.

I'm a big believer in not preempting problems, if it works now, stick with it till it's a problem :)