Help me with my feeding schedule!! + LOTS of feeding questions!!

purplngldkitty · May 2011

OK! Just got back from the Pedi and I need to REVAMP my feeding schedule!

I need to give 3-4 bottles/ day (instead of 6)

and

Double the amt of solids he is eating! (to 2 Gerber cubes per meal)

So I have lots of Questions!

1. Should I do something like:

(sample schedule A--- Alternating solids with bottles)

6:00 Bottle (Every 3 hours)

9:00 Breakfast

12:00 Bottle

3:00 Lunch ETC. ETC.....

OR

(sample schedule B--- Feeding solids WITH bottle)

6:00 Bottle

9:00 Breakfast WITH Bottle (Every 4 hours)

12:00 Lunch with bottle ETC. ETC......

2. Some things I read say to offer the formula first, before the solids, but others things say the opposite. WHAT DO YOU DO? Solids first? or Milk first?

3. How long does your LO go between feedings?

4. RANDOM-- What kind of cheese do you feed LO?

5. Can you show me your feeding schedule?

I know most of this I will need to figure out on my own by trial and error, but I just wanted to see what y'all did with your LOs. Any advice would be great, because I am obviously way off with his eating schedule!!! Thanks in advance!!

Shoshi10 · May 2011

I alternate bottles and solids. DD gets a bottle at about 6:30am, breakfast at 8am, bottle around 11am, lunch about 12:30pm, bottle around 3pm, dinner about 5:30pm, bottle at 7pm. Sorry for format, I'm on an iPad.

Masonismylove · May 2011

Wake up 630-730 8oz bottle

8am breakfast (either pancakes, bagel, cereal bar, or muffins with a fruit cup)

10-11 4 oz bottle and sometimes a snack if he is still hungry

12 lunch

2-3 4oz bottle/snack

5-530 dinner

630-730 4oz bottle

I get the mickey mouse cheese shapes and feed them to DS

Sami519 · May 2011

Here's what we do (hope this helps)....

We feed a bottle with each meal. At 9months we were aiming for 21oz (some days it was like 18, some days it was 25) and we were down to three bottles (per our pedi) a day just after each meal. At that point we were trying to focus on upping his intake of solids. He would eat about 4oz for breakfast, 6 oz for lunch and dinner and a snack of puffs/cheerios/banana/whatever.

At almost 12 months he's at about 16oz for the day in three bottles. I don't measure his food anymore because he is eating finger foods for everything but breakfast. For breakfast he eats three heaping tablespoons of wholefat yogurt with a fruit mixed in. Usually some sort of berry, apples or pears. (chunks, not pureed).

I started to rely more on DS to tell me when he's done with solids... he figured out very quickly that he needs to eat more solids because he's only getting 6oz of bottle AFTER he eats (or now he's drinking his formula during his meals because he's moving to a sippy).

Our schedule has been the same for the past few months.

7:30 breakfast
8:00 bottle (usually right after breakfast) - 6oz
12:00 lunch (finger foods) with a sippy of 6oz of formula
(before he was taking a sippy, we'd do a bottle right after lunch)
3:30-4 (when he wakes up from a nap) snack (finger foods)
5:30 dinner with a sippy of 6oz of formula. (same as lunch)

He's usually done at 6, then he's done eating for the night.

My advice, trust your gut and listen to your LO's cues... I don't think there's a right or wrong way to do things. I think the goal for the first year is to be ready for cows milk and eating completely solid food.

ETA: oops... he eats all kinds of cheese. His fav is string cheese. But he'll eat any kind (even just a plain piece of american cheese).

Mrs.Cford · May 2011

I am still BF'ing but the schedule is the same as it would be with bottles;

DD used to be on a fairly strict feeding schedule; every 3 hrs and then every 4hrs, but now the times are much more flexible but she pretty much follows the same daily schedule but if she has a long nap or we go out.... I just re-vamp the day a bit, but this is it for the most part -

8am - wake up - nurse

9am - breakfast

11:30am - wake up from nap - nurse

12:30/1pm - lunch

3:30pm - wake up from nap - nurse

5:30/6pm - dinner

7pm - bedtime - nurse

4am - nurse (only night feeding left, goes right back to sleep - going to wean off this one soon)

until about 11+ months their main source of calories is still the milk/formula so most pedi's recommend that they take the bottle first and then wait a bit so they have room for the solids

we feed DD full fat, organic, mild cheddar cheese - GL!

Jessys_Girl · May 2011

purplngldkitty:

2. Some things I read say to offer the formula first, before the solids, but others things say the opposite. WHAT DO YOU DO? Solids first? or Milk first?

We are past this stage now (we're on to sippy cups and such) but we used to do Bottle first and then a little while later we'd do solids. Now, we do solids and offer the sippy cup as a "drink" to go with the meal.

purplngldkitty:

3. How long does your LO go between feedings?

it's been about the same for a while: she'll usually go 3ish hours. But sometimes it's not a full "meal" but more of a snack....(see below in my "feeding schedule" answer)

purplngldkitty:

4. RANDOM-- What kind of cheese do you feed LO?

Motzarella, cheddar, american, colby, anything that comes in a brick or a string cheese stick, that I can cut up for her.

purplngldkitty:

5. Can you show me your feeding schedule?

It's a tad different now that she's older so I'll give you the old feeding schedule AND the new one so you can look at/try both:

OLD:

5:30/6am--bottle

7/7:30am--breakfast

8:30-10ish--nap

10ish--bottle and small snack (a couple crackers or some cheerios or something)

12ish--Lunch

2ish--bottle and then nap

3:30ish--small snack

5ish--bottle

6ish--dinner

7:30ish--bed

NEW:

5:30/6am--a little milk out of a sippy

7/7:30am--breakfast and a sippy of milk

8:30-10ish--nap

10ish--sippy of milk and small snack (a couple crackers or some cheerios or something)

12ish--Lunch and a sippy of milk

2ish--sippy offered, but she only drinks a little to quench thirst

3:30ish--small snack and sippy offered

5:30/6ish--dinner with a sippy

7:30ish--bed

NicoleR524 · May 2011

purplngldkitty:

2. Some things I read say to offer the formula first, before the solids, but others things say the opposite. WHAT DO YOU DO? Solids first? or Milk first?

I do not offer the two together, I BF but when he's at day care 2days a week I have them alternate bottles and food more similar to your first schedule sample

3. How long does your LO go between feedings?

it varies, depends on mood, schedule, how much he ate at the last sitting

4. RANDOM-- What kind of cheese do you feed LO?

whatever we have in the house. but I do try to get organic cheese whenever I can find it and it's not ridic $$$

5. Can you show me your feeding schedule?

like I said, our schedule varies.

nurses around 5 or 6 am then back to sleep for an hour or two

breakfast 7:30/8:30 (whole oats, cream of wheat, waffles, pancakes and a fruit)

nurse before nap around 10

snack at wake up (banana usually, it's his fave)

lunch around 1:30/2 (yogurt, soynut butter/hummus/cream cheese sandwich, fruit, leftover dinner)

nurse before 2nd nap around 3

snack at wake up (cheerios, rice cake, cheezits, gold fish)

dinner around 6/6:30 (whatever we are having)

nurse before bed around 8

I know most of this I will need to figure out on my own by trial and error, but I just wanted to see what y'all did with your LOs. Any advice would be great, because I am obviously way off with his eating schedule!!! Thanks in advance!!

Roxpup · May 2011

purplngldkitty:

OK! Just got back from the Pedi and I need to REVAMP my feeding schedule!

I need to give 3-4 bottles/ day (instead of 6)

and

Double the amt of solids he is eating! (to 2 Gerber cubes per meal)

So I have lots of Questions!

1. Should I do something like:

(sample schedule A--- Alternating solids with bottles)

6:00 Bottle (Every 3 hours)

9:00 Breakfast

12:00 Bottle

3:00 Lunch ETC. ETC.....

Personally, I would not do this, however, your baby may be different than mine and you might have to.

OR

(sample schedule B--- Feeding solids WITH bottle)

6:00 Bottle

9:00 Breakfast WITH Bottle (Every 4 hours)

12:00 Lunch with bottle ETC. ETC......

I would do this schedule, personally. We aim for 4-6oz bottles 4x a day, see schedule below

2. Some things I read say to offer the formula first, before the solids, but others things say the opposite. WHAT DO YOU DO? Solids first? or Milk first?

at first we did milk first then solids. now that he's older, we feed him solids first then milk. every time he eats a meal, he expects a drink after, haha

4. RANDOM-- What kind of cheese do you feed LO?

he's had mozarella, swiss, cheddar and american so far

5. Can you show me your feeding schedule?

I think this will help answer your other questions that I deleted, not because I didn't want to answer them but because I thought this would cover them...
8:30 - wake up, 3ish tablespoons of oatmeal mixed with 4oz of fruit and a 5oz bottle
12ish - 5oz formula bottle and a nap
3-4ish - sippy with 4oz of water and about 1oz of juice, a gerber wheel or two and 3ish tablespoons of whole wheat or some other grain mixed with 2oz of veggies and 2oz of fruit (he wont eat pureed veggies by themselves any more)
5-6ish (depending on when he got up from nap) - 2oz veggies and 2oz fruit mixed with another grain, sippy with 4oz of formula
8-9ish - 5oz formula bottle and bed.

Some days he has a 4oz yogurt cup in lieu of one of the other meals... I can't imagine him eating 2 gerber tubs of baby food in one sitting. We also give him puffs, mum mums, banana cookies (rarely), breads, cheeses, anything really, if he seems interested. Most often it's mum mum's in the stroller or puffs while we're out to eat or something.

I know most of this I will need to figure out on my own by trial and error, but I just wanted to see what y'all did with your LOs. Any advice would be great, because I am obviously way off with his eating schedule!!! Thanks in advance!!

JMB22 · May 2011

I'm still figuring this out too, so please take my "schedule" with a grain of salt.

5:30am to 6:00am - wake up and nurse
7am breakfast - fruit, pancakes, baby cereal (my DS isn't a big fan of breakfast, so he barely eats anything)
8:30am nap
9:30am brunch - chicken, fruit, puffs, water (all in small amounts; he likes a tiny bit of everything) (by this point, he wants solid food because he would rather play than eat much of a breakfast!)
11:30am snack - fruit, vegetables, cheese (this is when I eat my lunch too, so I tend to share what he can have to "taste"; this is the only time he will willingly try new foods ... simply because it's mine; I jokingly say he will only try what I'm eating until he likes it, haha.)
12:00pm to 2:00pm - nap (the time always varies depending on how tired he is)
2:00pm - nurse
4:00pm - dinner (chicken, fruit, vegetable, water) (again, small amounts or he gets bored with just a few things and refuses to eat)
5:30pm to 6:00pm - bedtime

So, I'm not sure if this is "typical", but it's how it works for him. No matter what I do, I cannot change his 5:30am to 6:00am wake up time. It's insane!
I used to nurse him before bed time too, but he doesn't want that anymore.
His pediatrician said he is very healthy, so I just try to follow his lead. He used to be such a PICKY eater, so now I'm just thrilled he will eat a variety of foods.

Roxpup · May 2011

and P.S. why did your doctor reccomend a new feeding schedule? Your LO is only 9 months old, my (almost) 11 month old only eats one tub of the gerber stage 2 purees at a time and drinks between 16 and 24ish ounces of formula a day (4 bottles). He's also very large. I can't imagine it would have been easy to get him to 3 bottles a day at 9 months old.

BelleIsa · May 2011

Masonismylove:
Wake up 630-730 8oz bottle

8am breakfast (either pancakes, bagel, cereal bar, or muffins with a fruit cup)

10-11 4 oz bottle and sometimes a snack if he is still hungry

12 lunch

2-3 4oz bottle/snack

5-530 dinner

630-730 4oz bottle

I get the mickey mouse cheese shapes and feed them to DS

We have this schedule almost exactly! Works great! I guess eventually for the two day time bottles (the one at 11, and the one at 3) I'll offer a snack instead, and only give a bottle if she's still really hungry, but I think the goal is to eliminate these bottles soon?