Help me with a feeding schedule!!

[Lunamoon23]

Hi - first time mum here. Little one is very almost 9 months, and I feel like I’m terrible job with the weaning/feeding.

im trying to transition into 3 meals a day, after a slight delay as it took him a long while to take to eating a meal. He’s currently on 4x 8 oz bottles of formula milk a day ;

one upon waking (around 6.30-7am)
then a mid morning bottle at (10.30-11am)
then a afternoon bottle usually before his nap around (1-1.30pm)
and then a bottle before bed. (7-7.30pm)

id like to start introducing breakfast and lunch aswell as dinner which is usually 5-5.30pm and bedtime is 7-7.30pm.

but I’m struggling to figure out how the hell to fit it all in, aswell as naps/playtime/nappy changes and that’s without needing to go or do anything in the day.
a BIG contributing factor to that is, he’s the slowest eater ever! (Like his mum) It can take him an hour to finish dinner, eating the whole time but he seems to pause inbetween bites for a long time and gets distracted by just about anything and everything.

am I doing something wrong? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
also if you can give any advice or portions and what your serving up for breakfast/lunch that’ll be great.

What happens if you go straight to breakfast and only offer a bottle afterwards if still hungry? Another option is to start reducing the bottles an Oz at a time to see if that improves appetite for solids. When I stopped breastfeeding at 8 months we just went straight to breakfast instead of formula and it improved my LO's appetite.

Cut down on the milk if you want him to eat more. So when he wakes at 6.30/7 give him 4 ounces and them breakfast an hour later. I would drop the mid morning bottle completely and give him an early lunch instead. If breakfast hasn’t gone well then perhaps also a mid morning snack. Keep the nap time bottle for now but I’d also be looking to reduce the amount and drop it altogether by about 10/11 months. Snack when he wakes from his nap. Dinner at 5pm-6pm. Then finally bedtime bottle. I also wouldn’t let a meal time drag on for an hour. 30 minutes max then clear away. If he’s struggling with finger foods then try stuff you can spoon feed for main meals and leave the finger foods for snacks maybe.

I too would go straight to breakfast and offer a small amount of formula in a cup with the breakfast. It should save you a bit of time as you’ll just be doing one meal instead of a meal and a bottle.

By the time he’s 10 months he should be on roughly 15 Floz a day. So once you’re nearer to that age you can look at which other bottle you’d like to drop

Thank you for your comment. All the advice I keep reading says snacks shouldn’t be given to under 1s? And because he isn’t actually eating a lot of food I worry about dropping ozs off his bottles incase he’s then hungry.

but maybe if I stay more consistent at a routine he’ll start to eat more and I won’t have that worry.

Have a read of this guide from the Caroline Walker Trust too.

It does give sample menus and suggested portion sizes. My DC2 was a real spoon refuser though so we had to do finger foods for every meal. Lots of things can be eaten with fingers though including a Roast Dinner and Spag Bol.

Dont worry about him being hungry either. He's getting more than enough milk. If he refuses a food or a meal you can just assume he’s not hungry.

One way to help you with this is to keep a food diary as lots of babies and DC tend to eat more some days than others. Looking at what he’s eaten over the last week should help you to relax

I don’t know what advice you’re referring to re snacks but as PP says by 10MO they only need about 15oz of formula which is probably going to be given first thing and bedtime so absolutely I’d give snacks between meals because 12pm lunch to 5.30pm dinner or whatever your routine is a really long time without eating otherwise. And I’ve never personally seen any advice that says they can’t have a banana or a yoghurt or something healthy outside of main meal times. Everyone I know was giving quite a lot of snacks at this age mainly because it’s often the easiest way placate them! Ask for advice on here about taking an older baby on a long haul flight and the response is always ALL THE SNACKS! But also way easier than doing formula out of the house so it’s a delight to move on from that.

I’d gradually drop the milk and see how he goes with more food. Morning/breakfast is probably your best bet as you always have the option to make up the calories with milk during the rest of day if they don’t go well. Whatever you try- good luck! He will get there, they all do eventually.