Timings - any advice?

[becstar]

Ilana is loving her solids. She now accepts a bottle for her ebm during the day (I work full time and she used to refuse bottles) but it can be a job and can take aaaaaages for husband to get it down her.

At the moment her feeding pattern is roughly like this:

6.30am - bf
9am - nap
10am - bottle of ebm (about 150ml) plus porridge
12.30/1pm - nap
2pm - bottle of ebm (approx 150ml) plus solid feed (at the moment only really vegetables)
4.30/5pm - bf
6.30ish - long bf before bed

I need to fit another solid feed into the day but not sure where? She needs to go to bed at 6.30-7 ish as she always seems tired then and she gets up earlier than 7am as I have to leave for work... I can't decide if we should try a solid feed at 7amish once she's up after her morning boob, or when i get in to give her a solid feed then?

I wasn't sure about the evening one as milk is still her main source of food and I want her to feel hungry enough to take a big milk feed, but then I'm not sure... Any thoughts?

PS We want to try to keep her milk and solid feeds at a similar time because the bottle takes so long that otherwise husband will spend all day doing nothing but feeding her and putting her down for a nap with no playtime for either of them at all in between!

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

I'd go for the evening one. Now she's pretty much 6 months it matters less if she replaces a little milk with solids. She may not, anyway.

 

[Lu28]

I think introducing an evening meal would be a good way to go but it will probably mean altering the times of the other meals unfortunately, otherwise there may not be enough time between lunch and dinner.

If I give you an idea of what we do now:

7am - bf (this takes about 45 mins these days as she keeps coming off and chatting to me )
8am - porridge
9-9.30 am - nap
12pm - lunch
12.30/1pm - nap
2.30pm - bf
5.30pm - dinner
7.15pm - bf

At Ilana's age, she'd also have a bf just before lunch which at that stage was at about 11.30am.

Trying to squeeze in all the milk and solids at this stage is difficult, I remember feeling like all I was doing was feeding in some form or another but it does get easier once they start to cut back on their milk feeds

 

[becstar]

When do they do that, Lu? I am so paranoid about her not getting enough milk!

 

[Lu28]

I'm trying to remember now, I think Aisling started cutting back at about 8 months. I kept offering a bf mid morning and early afternoon and she'd take it but was taking less and less in the morning and a couple of times I forgot to offer in the morning and she didn't demand it. So I experimented with cutting it out and she wasn't at all bothered. I still offer the afternoon one as I don't want her cutting that one out too soon but might see what happens once she reaches a year.