6 month old food and nap routine help!

[Blondebombsite83]

I have a 6 month old ds who sleeps from 7.30-7.00 most nights with the odd 5.00am scream when his dummy falls out. During the day he had a very set routine. Now we've started weaning it's all gone out of the window.
He used to settle himself for his morning nap and scream blue murder for his afternoon one (but he got there). Now he needs feeding to sleep both times for all our sanity.
He gets fed to sleep at bed time but settles himself in the night. Has anyone got any advice/examples routines for their formula fed, weaning baby?
He seems to not want lunch so I'm thinking just breakfast and dinner for now?
Aaaaghhhh just when you think you've got it sussed they change it all and don't bloody tell you!

I've just wrote a reply to a different op about much the same thing:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/sleep/2998038-sleeping-through-to-night-feeding

In early weaning (as in from about 6-9 months) solids want to be in addition to milk, not instead off.

Milk is the most calorie dense foodstuff baby can have, gram for gram. It is calories baby needs. Remember most early weaning foods are low calorie foods like fruit or veg. So you shouldn't be giving these at times baby could be having milk.

Given the increasing need for calories due to increasing motor skills around this age, it's not unusual that milk intake post-weaning is actually more than pre-weaning. It's a misconception to think solids will 'full up' baby - it's not a physically full tummy that baby needs, it's calories.

My 91st centile baby was on 2 hourly bottles pre-weaning. 7oz bottles at 7am 9am 11am 1pm 3pm 5pm and 7pm. Post weaning I jumped straight into 3 multi-course meals but kept the seven 7oz bottles a day.

It was literally like a return to the newborn days when baby spent almost all of her days either feeding or sleeping. Our routine at 6-7 months was:

7am milk
8am breakfast
9am milk
9-11am nap
11am milk
12pm dinner
1pm milk
1-3pm nap
3pm milk
5pm milk
6pm dinner
7.30pm milk

As weaning became more established, portion sizes increased and more food groups covered (in particular protein), then milk feeds were dropped. But this was more like 9 months.

For reference on portion sizes, each meal for baby would consist of:

• one 6 months jar of something savoury, spoon fed
• a plate full of whatever I was having, as I was having it. Given as finger food.
• one yoghurt, spoon fed
• sliced fruit as finger food

So each meal involved four courses. Two spoon fed so I knew the calories went in, two as proper food given the same as i serve to the rest of the family. Over time more of the proper food was needed so that purees were no longer needed.

Fate is that your meal size for 9mo? Not sure I could get 6mo to eat so much.

OP sorry for hijack.

I should add before replying that DD wavered between 91st and 97th centile until 12 months. She was a chunk, always drank masses of milk and it became very clear as soon as weaning started that she'd eat anything I have her. The only factor affecting the amount she ate was her physical dexterity to feed herself, because I didn't help with the BLW "proper food"

I started weaning a few days after she was 6 months. She had maybe a day or two of just baby food jars - one jar 3 times a day. Then for the next few days I added a yoghurt so it was jar+yoghurt twice a day, porridge+puree fruit breakfast.

By the end of the first week of weaning she was having the four courses, as mentioned.

At 6 months she may have eaten very little of the proper food, mostly just having the spoon fed stuff. But it was still offered (mainly because it kept her busy and part of the family as we sat at the table to eat).

I would say that continued to about 9m, then I started to reduce the purees as she had more proper food. By 12 months she was just eating family meals with the rest of the family.

Thanks fate, I've got a 9th centile boy so appetites will probably differ! It's taken a month to get him to eat most of a jar in one sitting. We do blw alongside puree too and hoping by 1 he will eat what we do.

So the old routine was:

7.30 7oz plus porridge
8.30 nap til 10.00
11.00 5oz ish possible 2nd short nap
12.30 lunch veg puree 7oz
2.00 nap til 4.00
5.00 dinner veg puree and 7oz
7.30 bath 8oz bed

Now it's anything goes. I've read so many differing routines online that I think I'm going to stick it out this week seeing what he wants to do when before trying to coerce him back into a routine.

I've been really spoilt because he's been in a routine since a couple of weeks old so I feel rubbish when he's not. Also he's now teething so I think that's why he's not eating as much.

Very impressed that your baby has such an effective routine. We found that 2 meals a day were enough at this stage then eventually moved to lunch as well.

I had to tweak my DD routine at 6.5 months but it was nap (rather than weaning) related. Her daily sleep needs probably went down so I had to drop a cat nap in the afternoon and extend her awake time. Here is her current routine (she is nearly 7 months):

6.30-7.00am - wake up
7.15am - milk - 7oz
8.15am - breakfast (she loves porridge but we also give scrambled eggs or weetabix)
9.00-9.45am - nap 1 (in the pram, usually between 30 and 45 min)
10.45am - milk - 7oz
11.30am - lunch - chicken, lentils, beef, fish with vegetables + fruit
12.15-2.45pm - nap 2
3pm - milk - 7oz
5pm - dinner - vegetables + yoghurt
6.15pm - milk - 8oz
7pm - bed
10.30 - milk - 4oz (it is a "dream feed" and we are trying to cut it out)

She has also been consistently tracking the 91st - 97th percentile curve and my friends keep asking me if I am going to sign her up for weight watchers. She does not eat as much as FATE's DD but it is probably because she does not yet have many ways to burn calories - her gross motor skills are average.

I am a big fan of a daily routine (it helps me keep my sanity) but I can see the schedule always needs tweaks and adjustments as the baby grows.

That little nap that happens at 11am is unusual Blondebombsite83. It's usually biggest naps are first and second naps, then between 6-8 months the third, smaller, teatime power nap is dropped and the other two space out more.

I would try for cot naps starting at
9-9.30am
1-2pm
Then depending on the lengths of these two naps, be prepared to try for another nap (say in the bouncy chair) between 4-5pm. But limit the length of this nap.

He seems to only have the 11.00 one when it's convenient for him to. He's not fussed for it if he's stimulated, if we're in the car or pram he'll nod off. He's 50th to 75th febrile with regular v wet nappies.
@wintertravel1980 your routine seems similar so I will persevere through the teething with it. He ate lunch today but only a little. I just think he's growing, teething and weaning all at the same time which seems a bit much for an adult let alone a 6 month old. I just need to break his feeding to sleep habit which he never had before!

Centile not febrile