When to go to three meals a day?

[jswerczek]

My ds has been doing breakfast and lunch now for about a month. He is almost 6.5 months old and I am thinking about adding in a lunch. But I'm afraid that will bring his milk intake down even more and I know he needs the milk more than the solids.

He is taking four 5-8 oz. bottles a day. His "lunch" time bottle which is usually about 11:30 a.m. is the hardest to give him because he just seems full from the milk in the morning and the solids. I am not sure if I should offer him solids before the bottle at lunch or try and offer him solids an hour after that bottle. If I do that, I'm afraid he will not be hungry for the 3:30 p.m. bottle. My doctor said he should be taking in 24-32 oz. of milk and 4-6 oz. of solids per meal (three times a day), but most days he taking just 24 oz. of milk and 4 oz. of solids twice a day. Not sure if he will take in more. When has other moms added the third feeding? What is the balance between milk and solids when you do three meals a day?

Thanks for any advice. By the way, my ds is a big boy, 19 lbs at 6 mo.

Thanks!

[cwolff]

I would stick with the doctor's advice on how much milk he should be having, but as for solids, every baby is different.  I would decrease the amount of solids in the morning, and then add a small lunchtime meal, and decrease the amount of solids for dinner.  I did this for DD because I wanted to go to three meals and get into that habit, but didn't want her to be too full.  And you will end up on a 4 hr + easy schedule.  Here's how our day looks to give you an example.

7:30 am wake
8am bottle 5-8oz
9:00 or 9:15 am solids 1 TBS oatmeal, 2 oz veggie
10 am nap

12:00 or 12:30pm bottle5-8 oz
1:30pm or 2pm solids 1.5-2 oz yogurt, 1.5-2 oz fruit
3:00 or so nap

4:30pm bottle 5-8oz
5:30 or a little after solids meat w/2oz veggie, or same as breakfast
7:00 -7:30 pm bottle 7-8oz bottle
8pm bed

I'd love to say she eats this great everyday, but sometimes she seems fuller than others.  Usually breakfast gets the most bottle and most solids.  If by lunch she doesn't drink a good bottle I will give her a good amount of solids.  Dinner, if she didn't have a good bottle will be small, so that she eats a good bedtime bottle.  She also has sips of water with her meals.

[tylersmommy]

When Tyler was that age, his routine looked a lot like the one cwolff posted. He was a big boy like your DS, but would rarely take the "recommended" amount of solids. I don't think he ate more than 2-3 oz of solids each day until he was nearly 1 yr old. I didn't worry about it, I just made sure he was getting enough formula and didn't seem hungry. When we transitioned to whole milk at 1 yr, he upped his solids intake on his own without a problem.

We didn't offer a solids dinner forever, and even when we did, he rarely ate any of it. I think we started dinner around 7.5 mo, after he'd been on solids for 1.5 mo. HTH!