Is everyone feeding their LO on a regular schedule?

MrsPBNJ0220 · March 2012

Do you give your LO 3 meals a day, or at least 3 eating times a day even if it is to do finger foods, no matter the amount they get? I find that sometimes DS is not interested in it and sometimes we get so busy out and about that we miss a feeding at times.

I am just wondering if this is okay or if I should make sure we are doing 3 meals a day without fail.

waterfall11 · March 2012

DD eats at 7, 12, 5 and then a snack at bedtime. She has 3 solid meals a day. I usually pack something for her when we go out, or eat somewhere that has something for her (avocado, eggs, chicken, etc). I have only given her two solid meals in a day a couple times when it was inconvenient. Our pedi said she only needs to be on 2 solid meals but she naturally went to 3 and I am glad since that's what we aim for at a year anyway. If you're not skipping meals all the time I wouldn't worry about it.

MrsPBNJ0220 · March 2012

waterfall11:
DD eats at 7, 12, 5 and then a snack at bedtime. She has 3 solid meals a day. I usually pack something for her when we go out, or eat somewhere that has something for her (avocado, eggs, chicken, etc). I have only given her two solid meals in a day a couple times when it was inconvenient. Our pedi said she only needs to be on 2 solid meals but she naturally went to 3 and I am glad since that's what we aim for at a year anyway. If you're not skipping meals all the time I wouldn't worry about it.

That is good to know, thank you so much. I will surely try and get into the habit of not skipping any unless it is absolutely necessary. His GI Dr. wants him on a 3 meal schedule but DS just has not always felt interested. He also sleeps until 8:00 and does not seem interested in food until like 10-11 so it's tough to squeeze in 3 meals at times.

Do you do purees or finger foods? I know DS does a little of both at each meal, more of puffs and purees than other finger foods. With his allergies I find we are limited for the finger foods that are quick and available on a short amount of time.

waterfall11 · March 2012

MrsPBNJ0220:

waterfall11:
DD eats at 7, 12, 5 and then a snack at bedtime. She has 3 solid meals a day. I usually pack something for her when we go out, or eat somewhere that has something for her (avocado, eggs, chicken, etc). I have only given her two solid meals in a day a couple times when it was inconvenient. Our pedi said she only needs to be on 2 solid meals but she naturally went to 3 and I am glad since that's what we aim for at a year anyway. If you're not skipping meals all the time I wouldn't worry about it.

That is good to know, thank you so much. I will surely try and get into the habit of not skipping any unless it is absolutely necessary. His GI Dr. wants him on a 3 meal schedule but DS just has not always felt interested. He also sleeps until 8:00 and does not seem interested in food until like 10-11 so it's tough to squeeze in 3 meals at times.

Do you do purees or finger foods? I know DS does a little of both at each meal, more of puffs and purees than other finger foods. With his allergies I find we are limited for the finger foods that are quick and available on a short amount of time.

We mostly do finger foods. I never planned on (or read up on) BLW but never did thin purees- mostly mashed foods- and started DD on finger foods at 6 months. She prefers feeding herself. Some of her favorite finger foods are avocado, banana, sweet potato, blueberries, raspberries, meats (chicken, pork, steak), cheddar cheese, peas, hummus on wheat tortilla, pancakes, Cheerios. I try to keep a few things cooked up in the fridge at a time so I just cut up and take them in a Tupperware container. I made a ton of mini pancakes with this recipe and froze them so I can pull a couple out whenever needed. I also keep apple carrot sauce (from Trader Joe's), Cheerios and yogurt melts in her diaper bag. Not really substantial meals- but it's something if we are out and I didn't bring her food.

MrsPBNJ0220 · March 2012

How small do you cut up the pieces. DS does an amazing job feeding himself but I feel confident with puffs, mum mums, small pieces of banana, I mean small like maybe .25 of an inch in size, so that i is smal enough he will not choke under any circumstance. So I am curious how you do it. Like sweet potato how do you do that? I notice even with mum mums if he has the whole thing he wants to put the whole thing in his mouth so I have to take it away midway through and he gets mad. Also, with avocado and soft foods of that sort, even cottage cheese do you have a problem with your LO mushing it up in their hand beforehand?

Syncronicity09 · March 2012

I think as long as your LO doesn't seem to react to the skipped meals then I don't think it's a problem.

Ash gets 3 meals a day, and if we try to skip one we end up with a cranky maniac on our hands. He eats at 9, 3 and 7. If we are going to be out at a meal time I either feed him early or take a bottle and snacks with us to tide him over until we get home.

MrsPBNJ0220 · March 2012

MrsPrevost:

I think as long as your LO doesn't seem to react to the skipped meals then I don't think it's a problem.

Ash gets 3 meals a day, and if we try to skip one we end up with a cranky maniac on our hands. He eats at 9, 3 and 7. If we are going to be out at a meal time I either feed him early or take a bottle and snacks with us to tide him over until we get home.

How close to bedtime is your last feeding. I was just telling DH that this may be what our schedule is and we would just feed right before bedtime.

Syncronicity09 · March 2012

He used to go to bed around 8:30 and it worked well. Dinner at 7, then a bath, a book and if he was interested nursing. Slowly though my night owl pushed bed bedtime back to 9:30.

MrsPBNJ0220 · March 2012

MrsPrevost:

He used to go to bed around 8:30 and it worked well. Dinner at 7, then a bath, a book and if he was interested nursing. Slowly though my night owl pushed bed bedtime back to 9:30.

Wow 9:30, hopefully he will adjust back. And I am jealous I can not get Liam to stay still at all for book reading. He used to let me feed him and read to him now he wants his bottle and unless I give it to him and leave him be he gets mad and wants to be picked up.

waterfall11 · March 2012

MrsPBNJ0220:
How small do you cut up the pieces. DS does an amazing job feeding himself but I feel confident with puffs, mum mums, small pieces of banana, I mean small like maybe .25 of an inch in size, so that i is smal enough he will not choke under any circumstance. So I am curious how you do it. Like sweet potato how do you do that? I notice even with mum mums if he has the whole thing he wants to put the whole thing in his mouth so I have to take it away midway through and he gets mad. Also, with avocado and soft foods of that sort, even cottage cheese do you have a problem with your LO mushing it up in their hand beforehand?

I read somewhere marble size for mashable foods and pea size for other foods so this is what I follow. I only put a few pieces on her tray at a time because she does tend to stuff as much as she can in her mouth. Sweet potato can be a little messy so I only let her feed herself that when we have time to be messy, otherwise I feed her piece by piece so I don't have to clean up the mess. I just remembered a few more of the finger foods we do- rice cakes, seaweed and pretzel sticks. She does amazingly well biting pieces off and chewing the pretzels and rice cake.

Syncronicity09 · March 2012

MrsPBNJ0220:
MrsPrevost:

He used to go to bed around 8:30 and it worked well. Dinner at 7, then a bath, a book and if he was interested nursing. Slowly though my night owl pushed bed bedtime back to 9:30.

Wow 9:30, hopefully he will adjust back. And I am jealous I can not get Liam to stay still at all for book reading. He used to let me feed him and read to him now he wants his bottle and unless I give it to him and leave him be he gets mad and wants to be picked up.

Lol, I never said he sits still! He tends to want to eat the book, open and close it and flip it around. I either give him one to play with while I read another, or pretend to read it while he plays with it.

I hope he goes back to an earlier bedtime too. But, I'm not counting on it. He went to bed at 8:30 tonight because he skipped his second nap, and he slept until 10. He is currently making a mess out of the living room with all his toys. Apparently he was only taking a nap at 8:30.

MouseInLux · March 2012

DD eats with me, so breakfast around 7:30 or 8, lunch between 11:30 and 12 and dinner around 6:30. She'll have a snack sometimes when I'm getting dinner ready or if we're out of the house (she had some bread while we were grocery shopping the other day)

She's only just started having breakfast this weekend.

On a side note we're doing BLW.

Hallil · March 2012

We have done a very relaxed BLW approach to solids, she eats sometimes once, sometimes 3 times a day. I am still trying to make sure that I'm nursing before any solids meals and she doesn't mind if she misses any or all of them. Maybe I should start a more specific schedule now that my husband is home and we have an actual breakfast, lunch and supper time.

klv · March 2012

Hannah has little desire to eat in the morning, so we still do 2 meals per day. First meal is after her first nap.....10-11 am or so. Other meal is she has dinner when we do. Occasionally she has a snack in between somewhere, but that's not the norm.

RingOfFire11 · March 2012

We're on a very regular schedule. She has 4 bottles per day and has her solids about 1.5 hours later (she feeds herself with us giving her some by spoon occasionally - apple sauce, yogurt, etc). This gives her solids 3x per day and the last bottle is before bath and then bed time. If we're out, we bring food with us (yesterday we brought a whole banana and apple sauce to the mall and mid-shopping, we sat down on a bench to feed her while she was in the stroller). She turns into a monster if she doesn't get her food, lol.

kas80 · March 2012

We don't. I make an effort to give her at least one meal a day and if she gets more great. We are really laid back about all scheduling though.

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