Confused about meal times!

[Laura B]

I just started DS on some baby rice today - although he's only 4.5 months, he was draining 5 9oz bottles a day and was getting hungry before the four hours was up!

The thing I am confused about though is the timings of his solid feeds. I know I should only be starting off on one meal a day, progressing to two, then three, aiming to have breakfast about 8:30am, lunch about 12pm and tea about 5pm with the milk feeds in between and first thing in the morning and last thing at night (plus the dreamfeed for now).

So this morning I gave DS milk at about 7:15am, then waited until about 8:30am to try the baby rice (which he loved!). The problem is, he always wants his morning nap about 8:30am. It doesn't seem to matter whether he's up early at 6am or later like today at 7am and I obviously don't want him having a nap when I've just fed him!

Any advice or thoughts on this? I don't really want to give him the solids at the same time as the morning bottle as he gets really annoyed if you take his bottle off him before he's finished with it! Plus he'll be starting nursery soon and I know they schedule breakfast around 8:30am, which makes sense. Is there any way I can get him to stay awake a little later in the mornings? hmm, maybe I should be posting this on the sleep boards - gah!

Thanks,
Laura
x

[tylersmommy]

Hmm, that's a tough one. You really can't force a baby to stay awake longer until he's developmentally ready. You could try offering solids right after he finishes his bottle, but that won't solve the issue when he starts nursery. Unfortunately, that's one of the challenges of starting solids with a younger baby, it's often difficult to find enough awake time to fit in all the feedings! Could you post his daily routine (feed times, nap times, etc)...maybe that will help us find some room to get it all in there!

EDITED TO ADD: I just thought of one other thing. You mentioned you don't want him going to sleep right after he's had a solid meal. Is there any particular reason why you're trying to avoid that?

[Fiona (Leah & Kians Mom)]

hi there,
When I started dd on solids at just over 3 months (reflux probs) I started with lunch at around 11 with just a tiny amount, this of course eventually moved to a normal lunch time over a period of time, the second meal I introduced was in the evening at around 5 pm and breakfast was the last meal to be introduced. Is there any particular reason you want to start with breakfast? Does he have to have breakfast at the nursery?
Fiona

[Laura B]

Fiona, that's a good point. I decided to start with breakfast since DS is happiest in the mornings, he tends to get grumpy by late afternoon. Maybe an early lunch would be a good idea to start with instead, though did you do it at the same time as a milk feed?

An average day (without solids) for DS is:

6am - 6:30am wake up and have feed about 15mins later
8:30am - nap (only for 45mins usually, grr!)
10:30 - 11am - feed
12pm - 1pmish - nap, sometimes 1.5 hours, sometimes 2 x 45mins if you see what I mean!
2:30pm - 3pmish - feed
late afternoon nap at any point from 4pm onwards, sometimes a long one, sometimes 45 mins
6:30pm - bath, then feed, story and bed

So maybe some solids with the 11am feed would work, but he might be having a nap around a dinner time feed.

This morning I gave hm the solids right after his milk feed, which he seemed happy with.

I guess there is no reason why I have to fit in with the nurserry schedule if he's not ready.

Laura
x

[Jays Mum]

My DS is around the same age and Ive been giving him solids for about 4 weeks now. I started giving him lunch first at around 2 pm ish. He is on 3.5 hours EASY. I give him his solids first and then his bottle. Then I introduced at 4.30 ish a rusk or baby rice/apple puree (no bottle)  so that he'll take a good bottle at bedtime. He has his bath around 6.30pm and story/bottle at 7pm. DF at 10.30-11pm which usually lasts him til 7am.

I too am thinking about nursery and I think its a good idea to do a routine similar to theirs as we can adapt but they can't. This hopefully will make it easier for DS to cope with if we all stick to one plan. Hopefully it will work as I don't want a grumpy baby on my days off because his routine is different on different days. HTH and good luck !

[Sarah O]

Hi Laura B,

Just wanted to say that your LO's routine is EXACTLY like my twins'.  And I have EXACTLY the same questions as you!  Feel free to PM me and maybe we can compare notes.    I'm so confused about what to do in terms of feed times.  All the books seem to talk about brekkie, lunch, dinner, snacks, and bedtime bottle but not really how to get there from 4 hour EASY.  It feels so scary to be 'out of control' or at least out of familiar feed territory.  Anyway, please let me know if you find something that works for your LO cuz I'd be interested to try it too!

Best wishes and happy new year,

Sarah

[NikiB]

Hi. I used to feed my LO at the 10.30/11 feed just before her milk, then after a few days if that suited I moved that to the 6/6.30 feed, then introduced something new at 11 and on it went until she had tried lots of different veggies. Its probably not the right site to mention this on, but I refered to Gina Fords book, just for the timings and some suggestions of what to try. If you're not too rigid about it it helps, and dont get too hung up on times and quantities, this is just about letting your baby try a different way of eating.