6-Month-old Feeding Schedule?

When my oldest (now 5yrs) was starting solids we started slow. He was a formula fed baby and we started him with rice cereal once a day. Once he got used to that we added another cereal feeding about mid day. After he got eating cereal down we added veggies and fruits. After he got accustom to eating 'solids' his day-to-day menu went something like this:
4oz Formula, cereal mixed with fruit and 2oz fruit juice for breakfast
4oz Formula, veggie, 2oz fruit juice for lunch
4oz Formula, fruit, veggie and 2 oz fruit juice for dinner
If he needed a snack in between meals I would give him fruit mixed with cereal or cereal mixed with formula.

Hope this helps!

The single biggest myth on the planet is that women do not have enough milk to keep up with their child. Did you know in 16th century Europe, wetnurses were allowed to nurse SEVEN babies at once? Many moms in our Breastfeeding Club tandem nurse newborns and toddlers! The more you nurse, the more you make. Try to build in a schedule or "supplement with formula" and your milk will drop.

Nurse him ALOT - before food, after food, at night, etc. Within a couple of days, you will produce enough to feed twins his size!

Remember that UNICEF and the WHO say babies should be nursed a minimum of 2 years. Remember too that humans are infants in the mammalian world until they are EIGHT YEARS OLD. We crazy Americans tend to forget that.

:)

My son will be 6 months on the 15th! He is a healthy little boy, and growing so fast! What makes you think that you are not able to keep up with him? My son is only breast feeding- but is starting to follow my spoon/fork to my mouth so I am considering starting him with a little to eat while we are eating. But he is about 25 lbs, so I would have to say that he is gettign enough nutrition from me. And I would have to say he only nurses about every 3-4 hrs, and sleeps thru the nite most of the time. I feed on demand so whenever he seems hungry, starts rooting, or if my milk comes in, we eat.

well, basically, its a good idea to feed him when hes hungry, instead of putting him on a "schedule". he and you listen to his hunger cues; this makes a healthy attitude about food.

always do the nursing FIRST.
its probably not that you cant keep up - remember that breastmilk is demand and supply. so the more he nurses, the more milk you will make. if you dont let him nurse often or long enough, your body wont know to make more milk. hes 6 months old; its growth spurt time. its likely that he does need to nurse VERY often just to up the milk supply. do what you can to nurse first, and nurse often. if you want to continue breastfeeding, dont suppliment unless and until there is a serious issue with his weight gain, or energy levels. you will know if hes not getting enough because he will not look healthy. just listen to his needs and your instincts. dont let anyone else tell you that your milk isnt good enough; its likely that it is you just need some support!
its a good idea, if you are wanting to continue nursing, to contact a local or nearby la leche league leader. www.llli.org. they will be able to help you specifically, directly, and give you real, mom experience.

with my son i literally nursed on demand night and day, and never had a problem. so i believe that is the best way to do it; but it doesnt work for everyone, and i dont have enough details about you to know if its a true milk supply issue (but its not as common as people think it is).

anyway, la leche league is the place to go.

OTHERWISE: if you dont care, you've still done a great job nursing this far! nurse when you want, your body will make the amount of milk that your nursing demand tells it to. you can nurse once or twice a day, and your body will make that amount, as long as you do it every day at those times. ;)

but yeah, really, you arent limited to rice cereal, especially if you are doing nursing, because breastmilk gives your baby EVERYTHING he needs through age one without needing any of the cereal. but feed him whatever you want to feed him, even soft tiny portions of what the rest of the family eats at meals or whatever. :) anything you give him he will at least play with, which is just as good of an experience as eating it.

but like i said, dont worry as much about a routine, as you do feeding him when hes hungry, nursing/bottle first, solids after. and stop when he shows signs of being full. :) thats the best you can do!

As Beth M asked: what makes you think you are not producing enough milk? After the first six weeks when nursing is established, your breasts don't feel as "full," but you are still producing a lot. My daughter only nursed until 6 months when we started solids (and she was BIG), probably every 2-3 hours during the day, but she slept 12 hours at night. When we started solids, we started at dinner only and then added in lunch. Every child is different, but if we also offered breakfast, then she wouldn't eat lunch. I'd make sure to nurse more in the morning, leave solids for later in the day when your milk supply is naturally lowest. If you're worried about your milk, you can always pump to help your supply.

So i have always formula fed. I lost my milk right away with both kids, and am fine with formula. Every baby is different. Mine is a snacker with the bottle and always has been, and loves her food!! She will have a 4oz bottle when she wakes up. Then baby oatmeal (about an oz or so mixed with oatmeal) with a 3 oz bottle. another 2-3oz bottle before morning nap around 8:30. Then 4oz after she wakes up. a whole thing of stage 2 baby food for lunch with a 2 oz bottle. then about another 3oz before afternoon nap. Another few oz when she wakes up and another whole thing of stage 2 baby food for supper with a couple oz. then another 6-7oz bottle before bed at night, and 4-5oz in the middle of the night. She has a lot of bottles, but she dont eat much at a time and never has. she is very active and burns her food off quickly. just take cues from your baby. he will let you know. my daughter is almost 7 months, and eats the 3 meals a day with between 25 and 30 oz of formula. dr said she is doing just great. Congrats, and keep doing what your doing! if he likes the food i say keep giving it to him. he is ready.

My kids both continued to nurse every 3-4 hours after I introduced solids (My first went longer at night; my second was so distracted by the outside world by that point that he didn't have the patience to nurse in the daytime very long, so he still ate at night).

At six months, we were doing just one jar of baby food and some rice cereal. My doc cautioned us against using too much solid food, since that would decrease my milk supply, and milk (or formula) is what babies really need the first year. You can see what your doc recommends.

FYI -- my milk supply decreased around six months. Two factors that I know of: the introduction of solids does decrease the demand (thus the supply); and your milk changes as the baby grows. Most women I've talked to have said that their milk supply decreases at six months (mine did again at nine), but their babies continued to grow even without the addition of formula. It will save on your pocket book if you don't really need to supplement, but I'm not trying to lecture -- just let you know that you may just be experiencing a normal and non-detrimental decrease in milk supply:)

Good luck. It can be so hard to figure out how to feed one sweet little baby! I asked a question very similar to this when my first was 8 mos old:)

I really struggled with this too with my first. I did some research and asked around as well. This is what I found other moms did too. Prior to introducing foods, my babies drank a bottle every 3-4 hours. Once they started food, I continued this, but also offered solids in between. Our schedules looked like this:
7 am - wake up and 8 oz bottle
8/8:30 - 1 - 4 tbsp. of cereal (you start small and build up or add a fruit)
9-11 - Nap
11:30 - 6-8 oz bottle
12:30/1:00 - Lunch - #1 or eventually a #2 Fruit
1:30-3:30 - Nap
4:00/4:30 - 6 oz bottle
6:00 - Dinner - #1 or eventually #2 veggie
8:00 - 6-8oz bottle, then bed

So, basically you are feeding them approx every 2 hours, bottle, food, bottle, food, etc. This worked wonderful for both of my babies. Obviously you will know how often your baby wants to eat and how much. Some people say to offer food first, then the bottle, but mine never wanted to drink much of the bottle if I did that and formula or breastmilk is still supposed to be a large portion of their nutrician the 1st year. So, I always offered the bottle first, then food. My little boy was a bigger eater then my daughter. He would eat 2 containers of baby food at a time, my daughter never did that. :) I hope this helps! Good luck!