Overthinking and stressing about meals!

[Jade9494]

I’m having one of those moments where I get all stressed and irritable trying to work out how to plan family meals around baby weaning.

My son is 8 months old, has 2 meals a day alongside his formula. He is intolerant to dairy AND gluten, so that’s fun.

The first thing I’m overthinking is when is the correct time to give him 3 meals a day? How does this work in regards to how much milk he has etc? Can I leave it as late as possible before introducing 3 meals?
(We are due to start the milk ladder in October so if he is able to tolerate cooked dairy then that could make this process a bit easier)

If people could show me their daily meal/milk plans that may be helpful!

My partner actually does all the cooking, always has done. He gets home from work usually around 5.30pm, but is 6pm onwards too late for a baby to have dinner? (He usually has his last milk bottle around 7/7.30 before bed)

I keep stressing about meal ideas we can all eat because of his intolerances plus I have a pretty fussy 9 year old.
At the minute he usually has baby rice with fruit puree for his first meal of the day, and lunch is mostly stuff I’ve batch cooked and frozen such as a wide range of vegetables, mince, chicken etc.

Just want a meal/day plan going forward! 😅

I tried to split up the meals when my little ones were that age. I would do a bottle first thing in the morning and then about an hour later I would do a breakfast. I would do their usual midday bottles but drop the late afternoon/ dinner time bottle and instead feed them a small meal. Then a bottle for bedtime.

The last meal I introduced was lunch. My health visitor said they should be on 3 meals a day when they turn one so it’s something for you to work towards.

I know it’s easier said than done but try not stress too much about it all. I know it’s a lot to get your head around but you need to be flexible for what works for you and what works for your little one. So if you find they are too tired for a dinner, then move it to lunch.

Yes you can leave it later if you want to introduce a third meal. The guidelines are between 8 and 9 months, taking baby’s lead on this but if he’s not showing an interest, then you can leave it.

I personally do think that’s a bit late for the third meal but that doesn’t mean he can’t have anything.

Could he have leftovers from the night before or things that you could prepare like hummus and vegetables, GF bread with smashed avocado or a one egg omelette cut into strips and served with halved cherry tomatoes?

Thank you both for your responses! I think I will wait until 9-10 months to introduce dinner. He still coughs a lot when eating anything that isn’t very very smooth, is that normal?!

I had that with my first and it turned out to be Tongue Tie.

Does he have any of these symptoms?