4 hour EASY schedule with solids

[jessicav]

My LO is almost 5 months old and I just introduced rice cereal mixed with breastmilk. Does anyone have a typical feeding schedule for breatmilk and cereal? I am very confused when to give what.

[PaulsMom]

Hi,

I started to give solids approximately 1 hr after the milk feed.  So if DS woke at 7 am, he got his milk feed and then solids at around 8 am.  Gradually I started to introduce lunch and dinner and by 7 mo, DS was having 3 meals each day.  Others may transition to 3 meals faster or slower - it all depends on your LO. 

DS's current schedule is:

7 am:  milk feed
8 am:  breakfast

11 am:  milk feed
noon:  Lunch

3 pm:  milk feed
4 pm:  dinner

7 pm:  milk feed

Hope that this helps,

Karen

[jessicav]

That sounds perfect...however my LO gets up at 7-7:30 and she doesn't want to eat until 9:30 and then is ready for her morning nap. Then I feel like the whole eating schedule is thrown off bc by the time she's up its lunch time already. She goes to bed around 7:30-8:00 pm and wakes at 12:00am  to eat then again at 4:00 am and then doesn't want to eat until 9:30 am. Any ideas on how to tweak this schedule so that she wants to nurse first thing in the morning. Thanks for the help.

[PaulsMom]

Hi,

Please post your typical routine and perhaps there is something that can be tweaked.  Is the midnight feed a dream feed or is your LO waking up hungry?  You might want to try a dream feed some time between 10 and 11 pm.  This may mean that the early morning feed occurs even earlier however your LO may want to eat sooner in the morning.

[jessicav]

I was giving her a dreamfeed for awhile but then she started automatically waking up at that time before I even woke her and still waking 3 hrs later...so I dropped it. Our typical schedule:
7:00-7:30 wakes
9:00-9:30 breastfeed (not eating much it seems)
9:30-10:00 NAP until 11:30

12:30 breastfeed

2:00 NAP until 3:00

4:30 breastfeed

8:00 breastfeed and bed

12:00 wakes to eat

4:00 wakes to eat

[PaulsMom]

All LO's are so different so it's hard to say what will work but I would try to get her to take more milk feeds during the day by cluster feeding her in the evening before bed (e.g. 6:30 pm and before bed AND doing a dream feed some time between 10 and 11 pm).  If she wakes around 2 am, feed her but try not to feed her after that so that she will be hungry at around 6 to 7 am when she wakes.  She is currently going from 4 am to 9:30 am between her morning feeds so she should be able to last this long. 

Making this change will probably mean a rough night but she needs to be hungry in the morning to take her milk.  Then feed her every 4 hrs during the day (11 am, 3 pm), do the cluster feed in the evening and the dream feed.  Since this is a change from her usual routine, I would start to make the change at the start of a week-end or when you can get help.

I had to cluster feed and do the dream feed until my LO was on 3 solid meals a day.  Even now, some times, his last feed is sooner than 4 hrs from his previous feed.

hang in there!

[Zacsmom]

I was in the same boat as my son was getting the dreamfeed around 10:30, another feed around 5:30, but wouldn't take very much at 7:30 when he woke up which threw our EASY routine off during the day.  Here's what helped.  I got rid of the DF (in your case midnight) using pick up/put down and the soother.  He now takes a larger feed b/w 4-6 and then is hungrier at his morning feed.  Your lo is probably getting too much milk at night.  I also do a cluster feed b/w his after p.m. nap and bedtime.  My next goal is to get rid of the 4-6a.m. feed but he's not really interested in solids yet so needs the extra milk calories.  godd luck!