Unsure as to which meal to try next

[sparkle101]

Hi,

Hoping you can help me. My DD has been on porridge for two weeks and loves it and I want to introduce another meal but unsure whether to do dinner/lunch. At the moment she has:

7:30 milk
9:15 porridge
12:00 milk
16:30 milk
19:30 milk

I also want to cut out a bottle and bring her last feed earlier (6ish?). Which meal would you recommend changing into 'proper food'. I have been very lucky and she has slept through since 8wks, am worried changing will interfere with her sleep.

Any help please? TIA

why do you want to cut a milk feed? At the start of weaning food is in addition to milk and to get them used to new tastes/textures not to fill them up. You could add in whatever meal you want - I gave food about an hour or so after milk so that the milk intake wouldnt be dropped so quickly.

Our day went like this from about 6 months:
7am - milk
8am - breakfast
11am - milk
12pm - lunch
2.30/3pm - milk
5pm - dinner
7pm - milk

Depends when your child sleeps. It's best to eat with her so that she can see you eat but obviously not if that means keeping her awake at her usual bed/nap time - she won't enjoy it or eat much if she's tired and she may prefer milk for a last feed at night if this is the way she falls asleep (on the breast/bottle). I agree that at this age (6-7mo?) milk is still the main source of calories and nutrition so dropping a milk feed may not be possible yet anyway. I'd just offer something between milk feeds and see what happens - you may find she doesn't need as much milk after a meal, or she may be able to go longer before needing it.

Thank you ladies for your answers, the reasons I was thinking of dropping a milk feed were 1. The tin (FF as milk intolerant) says she should now be on 2-3 bottles of 8oz per day and she is currently on 4 and 2. She naps an awful lot and to add in solids to either meal would mean a cut in naps which she doesn't seem overall interested in and when she misses a nap she gets very grizzly (as every baby does!)

Feel stupid asking this but nervous first time mother! Thanks again!

My DD always naps about an hour after eating food. If she doesn't nap she is extremely irritable and grouchy all day.

So, I fell into the following routine with her food:

8am - 8oz milk, and x1 weetabix

12 - 3oz milk and x3 cubes of food
normally feed her protein at lunchtime so meat stews, lentils or fish. I've gradually upped her solids and reduced her milk).

4pm - 4oz milk, veg puree and finger food (currently tried toast, peas or sweet potato wedges as she hasn't really been interested in them) and yoghurt or fruit puree.

7.30pm - 7oz milk

She naps about 9am ish and 1pm ish. She currently isn't on the move (she's 9.5 months) so haven't added in snacks yet.

When I started weaning I did lunch first as she wasn't too tired to eat. She wasn't really interested in breakfast for ages so dinner was the next meal I introduced.

I wouldn't worry too much about what the tin says. My DD (7 months) is a snacker and is currently having 5 small bottles (3-5oz) a day instead of 2-3 big 8oz bottles.

I would add a lunch as well as a breakfast for a few weeks then add a dinner as well after another week or so. Once the 3 meals are established you could then look at cutting the milk feeds.

FWIW DD has the following routine at the moment:

6am - bottle
7am - breakfast
8am -nap (1-2 hours)
9/10am - bottle
12pm - lunch
1pm- bottle
1pm- nap (1-2 hours)
4pm - bottle
5pm - dinner
7pm- bottle
7.30pm - bed

Thank you mousesma and mooseymoo was going to speak to my HC today but she wasn't there so just going to man up and use your advice and introduce lunch tomorrow, could be interesting, she is emptyting her porridge in the morning so think she is ready, I will do as mousema suggests and think about dropping milk when the meals are established.

mooseymoo those times sound about the times I am working with so may try and copy that but see what DD wants to do as well obv!

Thank you ladies, any other advice greatly appreciated!

How is your DD coping with lunch? All OK?

Hi moosey lunch didn't really happen (don't think she was hungry) so we tried dinner instead and she is getting on really well (only 4 days in so far). Between 5 and 7 she is getting quite grouchy though, seems grizzly not proper crying just grizzling so could that be her stomach getting used to digestng the new food? She won't take water so giving her sips of milk between her dinner, so don't think she's thirsty after. Hasn't affected her sleep either so that's good too!