What is your babies feeding schedule/routine? (Solids and Milk)

[Rldowning]

Hi all, not sure if this is the best topic to post this under so hope I get some replies.

My baby is 7 months old, we've been trying solids since she turned 6 months and it's a very slow progress, still only taking a little, if any at all, in the morning times.

I was wondering, what does your feeding schedule look like? Are you offering solids an hour after milk? She still guzzles her 6oz bottles and it feels like she's never going to take good portions of food to drop a bottle.

How did everyone else find the process? I'm trying not to be too concerned yet that she hasn't taken to solids (purees) at this age.

Mine are well past that stage but there's a handy guide here

We had a slow journey.
It's ok to give them milk after eating/trying solids.
Some babies just need more milk and longer than others.
Keep offering it - I would wait longer than an hour after milk- she propably not as hungry yet.

Try offer food before milk, if that is possible. Try to start the day with breakfast rather than offering milk for example. This is especially doable if she is still having night feeds and had an early morning bottle so is hungry but not starving for milk.
Part of the battle is getting yourself into their new routine I found. My now 12 month old eats weetabix at 6:30am and I just have a cuppa because that is way too early for my breakfast but they are starving after a 12 hrs sleep! She will probably need lunch early, maybe at 11am, again that’s fine. Food before bottle is the trick - but before they are too hungry (hangry!) to accept food and only want milk is ideal.
7 months is early days anyway, it’s about trying different tastes and textures and soon will build up into meals rather than milk. Try to enjoy it and good luck

Hi @Rldowning how many meals is your little one having?
my daughter is 6 months too and is on one meal currently. Her wake windows are about 2 hours. So I often do morning milk then nap up around 10:30/11. Then milk on wake up and at 12 lunch then 1pm nap. Then milk when she wakes from the nap.
i am breastfeeding so I don’t know exactly how much she takes but she hasn’t dropped any feeds despite thankfully eating solids well. We are doing combination of blw with finger foods and mashed foods- eg today was sweet potato so she had wedges of it and mashed too.

I think the key thing is to time solids so they aren’t tired and also aren’t starving. So in my opinion milk on wake up from a nap and then solids an hour later tends to work well.

i

At 7 months I was:
7am breastfeed
8am breakfast, usually porridge
11am breastfeed
12 noon lunch. Bit of anything I was having. Sometimes pouches.
3pm breastfeed
5pm Dinner. Same as lunch so stuff we were having or just some fish and veg or similar
7lm breastfeed.

All timings approximate.

@Pinklilly I'm just offering one meal at the moment, in her morning wake window.

I see different advice on how many meals a baby should get, sometimes I see one in morning and one in evening and others I see advising to offer one and then increase to more.

I'm only offering one as I thought I would wait until she seems more interested.

I also have a 7 month old, but she LOVES solids so guzzles anything she is given. She is my third though, and I remember at least one of my older children was harder work. The thing to remember is that she will get there in the end, it just might take a bit of time, and milk should still be her primary source of food at this stage anyway.

You could try giving her finger food to play with to get her used to some different tastes. Some babies don't like taking food from spoons at first. My baby will happily sit and chew on a piece of toast or a bit of cooked broccoli for ages. I usually find most of it down the side of the highchair, but I think at least some goes in! Or the old favourite banana wafers (you can find them in the baby food section in the supermarket), which all of my children loved.

@Rldowning i think you’re doing the right approach about waiting for interest to build on number of meals. I have 2 kids, my first wasn’t that keen on weaning and we took it slow and now she’s 2.5 and fine! So take it at your baby’s pace.
the mistake I made with my eldest is I kept worrying about how much was being wasted so I ended up not offering as much variety. Keep offering and get creative with the “leftovers” one day suddenly they just start to eat bigger portions.

@DappledThings I'm on a similar routine at 9 months, can I ask how you progressed from 7 months on? My 9 month old isn't eating much after having bottles so wondering whether to switch food and milk around in the day. He's never had much of an appetite but I'm not concerned about how much he's eating but more he's getting a chance to yet hungry for solids!

I had a really slow journey, mine didn't really start eating properly until he was about 13 months old. Things that worked for me:

• offering food before milk
• finger food & letting him feed himself
• always eating at the same time and not staring at him while he ate!
• sometimes sharing the food or letting him eat off my plate

ultimately trying to relax and not get too worked up about it. Food at this stage as PP said is all about trying different flavours & textures, milk is the main food source.

Thanks @shardlakem I think I'll try swapping lunch to before his bottle and see how he does. Not too worried at the moment but can't see him ever reducing his milk if he's offered that first!

This is completely normal, it's still so early for your little one! At this point, they still need exactly the same amount of milk because food isn't giving them the calories and vitamins they need. Food before one is just for fun 😊. Don't put too much pressure on it, you shouldn't be worrying about dropping bottles until about 10 months. Good luck!