Meals - How many, how soon?

[TomTitTot]

DD is five months and two weeks old, and we started her on baby rice for her evening meal two days ago. She loves it and is swallowing like a champ. We've decided to use the slow introduction of potentially allergenic foods as suggested here and elsewhere, however in all of the material I've read very little is said about when you extend the feedings to twice or even three times a day. Any tips on this? DD would likely be perfectly happy with introducing more solid feeds, but I was wondering if there is a rough guideline, or a certain amount of time we ought to wait before expanding her feeds.?

the advice used to be one meal at 4 months, 3 by 6 months, but it keeps changing. I would follow her prompts if it was me, if she seems ready then try another meal, but try not to let her milk intake drop too much this early on.

We were going to do first month 1 meal, second month 2 meals & then third month 3 meals with ds (now 17 months). But it actually happened quite differently. First 2 months (7-9 months) were only 1 meal (supper so his dad could see him eat!) as ds slept through all of the middle of the day & so missed any possible time he could have lunch, plus he wasn't hungry at breaskfast as he had lots of breastmilk on waking. At 9 months his naps changed so he was awake around the time I had lunch so started giving him some of my food then as well as bit of our supper. Then at 10 months he had a huge growth spurt and just seemed permanently hungry both for bm & solids so started giving a bit at breakfast as well. This tailed off after a couple of weeks and he really didn't show much interest in breaskfast again until he was nearer 1 year. Once he was happily on 3 'meals' (as he self fed he sometimes didn't eat very much sometimes) I also started offering a morning snack and then an afternoon snack, depending on his naps.

I think the key is not to worry too much about how much or when you are supposed to give & follow your LO's lead. As long as they still get the majority of calories & nutrition from milk until they are 1 year then it really doesn't matter imo.