confused about mealtimes

[whiby]

Hi everyone - can anyone tell me what they do with mealtimes when weaning? Do you do set times? Do you still demand feed?

I know they still need milk to be their main food source until they are one, so how does this work? Do you give some milk, stop midway then give a meal, then give the bottle again? Or do you give an entire bottle and then see if they want more solids immediately after? Or do you give an entire bottle, wait say half an hour then give food?

I'm so confused!

 

[faille]

I've found the way that works for us is give her a bottle first, wait at least half an hour (but usually it's an hour) then give food.

If I give her food straight after a bottle then she's not interested really. And I'm not giving it to her before a bottle (as we're BLW) in case she gets too frustrated because she's hungry plus I want milk filling her up, not food.

As for meal times, it goes by her bottle. We're quite lucky in that she's always been extremely predictable with feeding times so she gets fed the same time every day. But her nap times aren't so predictable so sometimes that interfers but at the moment, milk and naps are more important than food so sometimes she will miss a 'meal time' but I'm not worried as she doesn't "need" food yet.

That's what works for us and what I feel comfortable with.. I'm sure there are others who are the complete opposite tho! I think you just need to find what works for you x

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Yeah, we're the same as Faille.
It's also worth knowing that babies don't start to realise that solids can fill them up until they are much older, so giving solids (whether BLW or puree) when they're hungry is not a good idea as they'll just want their milk.

 

[moomin_troll]

when zane was being weaned he was having bottles around every 3 hours but id always do meal times at a set times and it worked out cuz the time he got up to have breakfast ect.

the first meal i started wirth was dinner time and then i started with breakfast afew weeks later then introduced lunch.

go with what u feel is right for ur lo as what worked for zane wudnt work for others

good luck x

 

[kirsten1985]

We do pretty much the same as faille and claire, except I don't time her mealtimes to be half an hour (or however long) after her bottle. I just feed her milk (on demand) whenever she wants it and she has her mealtimes with us. Yesterday she was having a milk feed at the same time as our dinner, then I sat her in her highchair and she had her actual food.

I don't want to be stressing any of us out by timing stuff as Freya naps and eats at different times every day.

 

[x-Rainbow-x]

i give alex his milk first then food anwhere from straight away to an hour later

 

[Kimboowee]

Josh has his milk first at breakfast and lunchtime, at tea time (5ish) he'll eat then have his bottle about 7pm. i found if I did it that way he took a bit more milk and slept longer

 

[whiby]

I've found the way that works for us is give her a bottle first, wait at least half an hour (but usually it's an hour) then give food.

If I give her food straight after a bottle then she's not interested really. And I'm not giving it to her before a bottle (as we're BLW) in case she gets too frustrated because she's hungry plus I want milk filling her up, not food.

As for meal times, it goes by her bottle. We're quite lucky in that she's always been extremely predictable with feeding times so she gets fed the same time every day. But her nap times aren't so predictable so sometimes that interfers but at the moment, milk and naps are more important than food so sometimes she will miss a 'meal time' but I'm not worried as she doesn't "need" food yet.

This is great, this is what I started to do, for the same reasons, but I was just wondering whether I was doing it wrong because I am feeding him so much more often than when he was just on milk! But I couldn't see another way to do it so as long as I'm not the only one doing it that way that's fine.

Thanks for your replies everyone x

 

[faille]

This is great, this is what I started to do, for the same reasons, but I was just wondering whether I was doing it wrong because I am feeding him so much more often than when he was just on milk! But I couldn't see another way to do it so as long as I'm not the only one doing it that way that's fine.

Thanks for your replies everyone x

Haha it does feel that way! Every couple of hours it's feeding, whether milk or food whereas before it was every 4hrs if not longer!

But imo it's worth it because she's full enough to not get frustrated but hungry enough to be interested

 

[Blah11]

It takes awhile until they start dropping feeds. We've been weaning 5 and a bit months now and she's on 3 meals a day, and 3 snacks LOL. She takes a morning feed, a late afternoon feed and a bedtime feed.

 

[Lulu]

Oh now this is interesting. I've been weaning 2 weeks now and have been giving food at the same time as milk, i.e. give half the bottle, then food, then finish the bottle. It's worked so far but I have been wondering how I start to introduce other meals (only been doing lunch so far).

I'll need to try this out and see if it works for us. Might help get us into a better routine before I go back to work in January.

 

[Abz1982]

I have been wondering this to.
We are trying to kinda roughly follow the CLB book way of weaning, but we are only on 2 meals a day as if I give her breakfast she wont eat a lunch, but will have a dinner but she is grumpier, so we just do lunch at about 12 and dinner at about 5-6. She gets 240ml bottle in the morning, then 100ml water in a trainer cup with lunch and 150 for a bottle. Then at about 3pm she has 210ml of a bottle. then her dinner with another 100ml from a trainer cup, and another bottle about 7pm - usually 210ml, then off to bed and she will without fail wake for a 210ml bottle at 11:30pm. We have started giving her goodnight milk to see if it makes a difference - not sure its working as she has just become hyper as hell!!

At her meals she doesn't get milk first. She can have a drink from her cup then she has about 3/5ths her food then more juice and more food.