Have you been wondering how to establish a feeding schedule for your baby?
In this video I’m going to tell you how many times a day your baby should be taking
solids and milk feeds between 6 and 12 months of age.
And I’ll also give examples of feeding schedules.
If this is our first time meeting, I’m Dr. Belousov.
I’m a board certified pediatrician and I equip parents with knowledge, so they can
care for their children with confidence.
Babies do well with routines, so it’s a great idea for you to establish a feeding
schedule.
Of course be flexible with it.
Sometimes it takes trial and error to find out what works best.
And I’m sure you’ve already noticed that your baby changes so much month to month.
So you may need to make adjustments to the feeding schedule as you go along.
Let's start off talking about how many times a day your baby should be offered solids.
For babies six to seven months of age, I recommend that parents offer solids one to two times
a day.
At this phase, your baby will be new to the concept of eating solids.
Starting off most babies only take a few bites of food each feeding session.
Babies need to learn how to chew and swallow solids safely before they will increase the
amount of food they take.
During this phase, solids will be complementary to the breastmilk or formula that your baby
is already taking, not a replacement.
For babies who are eight to nine months of age, I recommend offering solids two to three
times a day.
This is an age when I typically see babies really start taking to solids and meals start
to feel more like actual meals opposed to mostly exploration.
Even still, realistically many babies are taking around 2 to a little over 4 ounces
of food per meal.
All babies are unique and will increase the amount of solids they eat at their own pace.
Even day to day, your baby may vary the amount of food that he is willing to take.
Watch for the signs that your baby is done with the meal, this includes turning away
from the food, refusing to open the mouth, or showing a disinterest in continuing with
the meal.
Don’t force or try to trick your baby to eat more.
Bad feeding experiences can lead to feeding aversion.
By the time babies are 10 to 12 months of age, most have mastered the ability to take
solids.
I recommend offering three solid meals a day.
Now let's talk about how many times a day your baby should be taking breastmilk or formula
during the 6 to 12 month age range.
By 6 months many babies are taking around 6 to 8 ounces of milk, 4 or 5 times a day,
and about every 4 hours.
Of course there are exceptions to this.
Babies who have been gaining weight appropriately, can go 8 to 12 hours overnight without needing
a feed.
Remember that even after starting solids, breastmilk or formula will continue to be
the baby’s primary source of nutrition.
Therefore we don’t expect that the baby will decrease the amount of milk consumed
during this phase.
That said, I have seen some babies who showed a preference for solid food over milk, and
decreased their milk intake sooner.
If that’s the case for your baby, then it’s okay if your baby decreases the amount of
milk feeds a little sooner.
These are just general guidelines, and you will need to do what works best for your baby.
Around eight months most babies get proficient at taking solids, and are ready to drop a
milk feed.
So around 8 and 9 months many babies are taking 3 to 4 feeds of breastmilk or formula.
Around 10 months of age, the babies who were taking 4 milk feeds per day can be decreased
to 3 times a day.
By 12 months of age, our goal is to have baby eating 3 solid meals a day, as the primary
source of nutrition, and taking milk three times a day as a snack.
Now let’s talk about when it’s the best time of the day to be introducing solids.
When starting solids, I recommend that parents or caregivers figure out a good time in the
morning or afternoon, when the baby is in a good mood, not hungry or tired.
My concern about introducing new foods in the evening time is if the baby has an allergic
reaction to the food, we want to be awake to see it.
Starting off, it’s best to offer solids about an hour or two after a milk feed, so
your baby isn’t starving.
Initially our focus is to teach babies how to eat solids safely and expose them to new
flavors and textures.
When a baby is just learning to take solids, I find that if parents wait to give the food
until the baby is really hungry, they create an unpleasant feeding experience, because
the baby is frustrated and not cooperative.
We also don’t want to do it shortly after a milk feed.
In the event that your baby gags, a lot of the milk might come back up.
So an example of a feeding schedule for a 6 month old just starting on solids could
look something like this.
Let’s say your baby is taking 6 ounces of breastmilk or formula every 4 hours, and they’re
happening at 7 and 11 o’clock in the morning, and at 3 and 7 o’clock in the afternoon.
If you’re starting off with giving solids once a day, you could make the food introductions
at 9 o’clock in the morning or at 1 o’clock in the afternoon.
So in this case they would be 2 hours after a milk feed, and then the next milk feed will
be 2 hours after the solids as well.
This is just a guide.
Of course you will need to figure out what works best for your baby.
Studies show the positive benefits of having family mealtimes.
We want the baby to get to experience being part of the family meals from the beginning.
Babies learn a lot from observing how others do things.
If possible, try to time at least one of your baby’s feedings to occur during a family
mealtime, even if it’s just on the weekends.
Once your baby is eating two or three solid meals per day, it’s perfectly fine to do
the first one in the morning or early afternoon, where you’re introducing the new food of
the day.
And then you can time the second or third meal of the day to happen during the family
dinner.
If you’re finding this information helpful, hit the thumbs up button.
Now let's talk about how to drop a milk feed.
It’s usually around 8 to 9 months that many babies have mastered the ability to take solids.
They are eating more food, and are usually ready to drop a milk feed.
Since your baby got used to the routine of taking 4 to 5 milk feedings a day, it might
be a little rough the first several days of removing a milk feed.
It’s also a process for your baby to learn how to pay attention to hunger and fullness
cues.
Usually after dropping the milk feed, the baby starts realizing that eating more alleviates
hunger, and will start to eat a bit more food at meals.
If you’re able to have breakfast ready to go shortly after your baby wakes up, then
try to remove the morning milk feed and start the day off with solids.
This is a good time to transition your baby’s feeding schedule so that the milk feeds come
after the food, and become the baby’s snack, instead of the main meal.
Let me give you an example of what a feeding schedule could look like for an 8 to 12 month
old baby after the morning feed is dropped.
Let’s say breakfast starts at 7 o’clock and you offer solids for that meal.
Then lunch is at noon and dinner is at 5 o’clock.
So you will have 5 hours between the meals.
After each of the meals, I recommend that you offer 1 to 2 ounces of breastmilk, formula,
or water in an open cup for your baby to practice drinking.
Learning to drink from an open cup is going to take time, so it’s best to get the process
started early, to make it possible for you to wean the baby off the bottle by 12 to 14
months of age.
Drinking from the open cup develops oral motor skills needed for speech development.
It also teaches the baby a more mature swallow pattern.
The ezpz tiny cup has the best design for babies.
I recommend that parents start offering it to the baby after meals even at 6 months of
age, but give a half to 1 ounce of milk in the open cup after meals during the 6 to 8
month age period.
I will do a seperate video coming up on how to teach your baby to drink from an open cup,
and then a straw cup.
Speech language pathologists recommend skipping the sippy cup all together, because it can
impair speech and language development.
You can experiment to see what works best for your baby regarding the timing of the
milk feeds.
At this age most babies are taking between 6 and 8 ounces of milk per feed.
One potential schedule would be to give the milk feeds two or two and a half hours after
the food meals, and the milk feeds would serve as snacks.
I know that there is a lot going on during this age, but as you’re training your baby
a new feeding schedule, it’s also a great time to time the milk feeds to be removed
from the timing of naps.
If the pattern continues, many babies become reliant on milk feeds to put them to sleep,
especially as toddlers.
I will tell you that it’s usually easier to break the habit before the baby turns one
then when they’re a toddler.
So try to time the mid morning, afternoon and evening bottle to happen about 30 minutes
to an hour before the usual nap or bedtime, so the feed is just a snack and not the thing
putting them to sleep.
Like I said, these are just guidelines.
Every baby is different and it may take some trial and error to figure out what will work
best for your baby.
I have a blog post where I go into more detail on variations of feeding schedules during
the age range of 6 and 12 months.
If you would like to check it out, you can find it on my website friendlykiddoc.com.
And I also have it linked in the description below.
See you in the next video.