HELP! - WHEN TO FEED SOLIDS TO A CATNAPPER!!

[AndreaGoodwin]

My 6mth old little catnapper started solids back at 5mths ( in a bid to help the short naps!) so we are now on 3 x meals a day. I used to have some luck resettling the first sleep and have tried EVERYTHING including PUPD for the naps and have finally accepted it now he can at least stay up a couple of hours on a short nap. He very occasionally will do a longer sleep but those days are very very rare now !!

Anyway my query relates to the lunch meal - as he only does 30 - 40 min sleeps, this is a rough idea on his routine.

We had been doing roughly 4hrly breastfeeds but SO confused if it should go to three feeds a day like the health nurse has suggested.  I don't want to feed solids right before 2nd nap  but also don't want the little guy to go to bed hungry so have been doing the below

A  - Between 6.45am/ 7.30am
E  Breastfeed , then breakfast as soon as he gets up
S - 2hrs after wake time so today it was 8.45am
A- 9.20am
E - 11am Breastfeed
S- About 2.15hrs after wake time so today will be around 11.40am
Will sleep for about 35mins
E- SOLIDS - 1pm
    Breastfeed - 3pm
S - Will be around 2.30am/ 3pm - He is fighting this nap though even though he really needs it. I'm sure I am overstimulating as we get out as much as possible as there's much more of the day to fill with a catnapper!!

Bath at 6pm and feed/bed soon after.

So should I be feeding solids at 11am instead of 1pm ?

Apologies for the layout - I am new to the forum!

Thanks in advance!

[Erin M]

First off, try to stick with the 4 breast feeds until as close to a year as you can manage -- breast milk is still the most important source of nutrition until a year. 

Do you feel like the 1 PM solids are causing him to not be as hungry at his PM feeding?  If so, I'd go for an earlier solids feeding -- otherwise, just go with whatever works best.  To be honest, as long as his milk feeds are good, you really can't get it "wrong".

[AndreaGoodwin]

Thanks so much Erin for your input. Yes it's so hard with all the conflicting advice about when to feed solids / breastfeeds etc etc etc - particularly tricky when you have a catnapping baby!

The 1pm lunch didn't effect his mid afternoon feed but I have changed to have an earlier lunch as eventually this will get pushed out when he increases his A time. Just need to stop worrying about the 'right' way as babies are so damn random I don't think anyone really knows!

Thanks again for your reply.
:-)

[Erin M]

Yes, you are so right!!  If it works, it's the "right" thing.