How quickly to 2 and 3 meals - Breastfed?

[Kty8901]

My baby is 6 months and breastfed except 1 bottle formula at night. I started on solids a couple of weeks ago (on advice of the HV), but I just started her on veg purées / mash. She’s now on mixed flavours and I’ve started to introduce grains and dairy..she’s taken to it really well and will eat quite a big bowl in one sitting and still breastfeed an hour either side of that!

She’s a big baby (90th centile)...ive seen conflicting guidance about how quickly to move to 2 and 3 meals a day for breastfed babies. Things like ellas kitchen book says 2 meals from now and 3 meals from 7 months..breastfeeding websites say 3 by 9 months.

She still wakes very frequently in the night so wondering if upping the solids will help since she seems so hungry? At the same time I don’t want to do it too quickly and mess up my supply.

9 months for 3 meals seems more sensible.

NHS advice is 3 meals by 9-10 months. I would follow your baby’s lead though, we started at 6 months then went up one meal a month when I felt like she was ready for more. She seemed to have problems at first with the digestion of solids so I’m glad we went slowly (you don’t want a constipated baby trust me!).

Remember as well milk is still meant to be their main source of nutrition until they are 1.

We did baby led weaning so just put food on the high chair tray. We did 3x a day from the start but the great thing about it was that she ate when she was ready, increased intake at her own pace.

Second @Lockdownfatigue ‘s advice - food on the tray 3 times a day, variations on whatever we’re eating - she can then take what she wants and increase at her own pace. We ended up starting weaning at 5.5 months this time as DD2 was basically faceplanting in to our meals at every given opportunity - and went totally BLW. Experience has been like night and day compared to DD1 who we went through the whole purée/mash/slowly slowly rigmarole with - she remains to this day a nightmare eater. DD2 on the other hand loves flavour and trying new things. Both have been EBF to beyond a year. I would take the stress out of it and just go at her speed.

Yep, we have done 3 meals from the off (unless DS sleeps through a meal depending on nap times) but it’s just tiny amounts per meal and baby led. Sometimes just a bit of yoghurt / mashed banana, sometimes toast with something, sometimes more like ‘proper’ food eg some pasta and veg. If we’re out it might be some appropriate bits of what we’re having. Just depends what we’re doing and eating. Managing to be a lot more relaxed about it with DS than I was with DD!

I did exactly as @Lockdownfatigue. I’d say Dd was eating 3 proper meals a day by about 14 months, but she always had food at breakfast, lunch and dinner with me.

Mine is 6.5 months and we’ve had a similar dilemma. Been weaning for about three weeks now and he just wants more. He cries if he thinks the food is going to run out!

The problem we’ve found is that he doesn’t seem to have an off switch which, combined with his milk intake, means he is occasionally sick - he has had bad reflux previously and is a big baby too (91st centile). He has also been struggling with constipation since we began weaning.

We have settled on two meals a day as of the past ten days or so. This works for us - he has breakfast and usually dinner, but occasionally lunch if that works better for us. I’m going to try to hold off on 3 meals until September but may end up offering some finger foods at lunchtime before then.