When to offer solids before milk? Any advice would be appreciated.

[Rldowning]

My baby is 8 months old and I am now trying to introduce 3 solid mealtimes, breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is the schedule I'm currently trying, times my vary slightly.

8am - 6oz Bottle
9am - Breakfast
12pm - 6oz Bottle
2pm - Lunch
4pm - 6oz Bottle
6pm - Dinner
8pm - Bedtime Bottle

She is still guzzling down all her milk, even with solids in between, does the milk intake seem right for her age?

At what age did your babies drop their first bottle feed and at what age did you offer solids instead of milk for a mealtime?

I'm finding figuring all this solids/bottle feeds/dropping bottle stage quite confusing. Worried I should be further ahead in the solids stage than we are? Thank you everyone!

As food increases milk usually decreases. I'm sure it was around 9 months that the mid morning bottle became a snack and drink of water for my ds.

@dementedpixie Will she eventually drink less of the bottle? At the moment she guzzles down all her milk even though she has solids in-between.

How much food is she having? What type of food is it? Do you offer water with her meals?

Up to 9 months I was told that the food is in addition to the amount of bottles/milk they were having at the start of weaning. So like they go up in bottles as they go from newborn - 6 months, they then stay the same amount of bottles but food starts to add to this.

From around 9 months or when you notice that food has properly taken over, which IME is fairly clear, you can start dropping bottles one at a time.

Quantity of milk seems absolutely fine. She will start to decrease milk slowly on her own, I’d possibly swap the order of the lunchtime feed. I used to offer all bottles first and he was a bit picky with food.

My LO has just turned 10 months and he’s roughly doing this;

7.30am - 8oz bottle
9am - Breakfast
11.30am - small snack
1pm - lunch
2pm - 2 or 3 oz bottle (I think this will stop completely in a few days)
5pm - Dinner
6pm - 6oz Bottle
7pm bedtime

He has around 8oz water a day too throughout the day.

I stopped offering his lunch bottle first about a week ago and now he’s wolfing down his lunch and lost all interest in his bottle.

I also try and offer her water with meals from a sippy cup and she's just not all interested?

@dementedpixie Breakfast is mainly some form of cereal, and lunches and dinners are puree and shop bought pouches. Although I'm trying to find things to start making myself more.

She isn't interested in water at all, I offer it in a sippy cup with each meal.

I feel she eats a fair amount of the things offered.

@Keepsmiling2948 Thank you for the advice, I'll start offering solids before bottle once I'm happy she's taking in a decent amount of food.

When you first offered solids before the lunch bottle, how long after did you give the then lunch bottle?

I'm just wondering if I was to offer solids at 11/12 instead of a bottle, should I still offer milk right after to see how much she drinks?

I'm also concerned she isn't drinking any water during the day, she's just not interested.

I didn't switch the order of milk/food.
Your lo maybe needs more dense and filling food before they start to cut back on milk.

Pouches/purees are quite watery and maybe low in protein so until she eats a higher amount then milk will be her main source of calories.

Does she eat finger foods? She won't need a lot of water if she's having lots of milk. Making the cup of water available at meals will give her practise at using it.

@Rldowning i usually offer a bottle about an hour after lunch or 45 mins before the lunchtime nap whichever comes first really. When I swapped them it didn’t take him very long to treat his lunch like a full meal. He’s gone from 6oz to 3oz for that one in about a week.

You can definitely offer a ‘top up’ of milk straight after. I did that with breakfast and dinner for a while whilst he was getting used to solids and eventually he stopped needing it.

His water intake has only really increased in the last few week. I actually think it’s the novelty factor because he’s learnt to use a sippy cup on his own so it drinking for the sake of it. He’s only really interested in drinking with meals though.

@dementedpixie I have offered finger food here and there in the past, but I'm a right nervous nelly about it! I'll start making up more of my own meals instead of gravitating towards pouches.

Should I also perhaps leave less of a gap between milk and solids?

Sorry for asking so many questions, I'm just unsure how this weaning works and what I'm to expect and to do to help it along. I'm sure it'll all become clear, I'm just a right worrier that I'm not doing what I should be for the little one.