Feeding Schedule for 6 1/2 Month-Old

At 6 months, I fed my daughter 3 solid meals a day. After eating, I would give her 8 ounces of milk. Also, I gave her a snack in between lunch and dinner.

I recomend getting the Super Baby Foods book. It has quick chapters ( 2 pages ) on what to feed your baby at each month till a year. After a year it explains how to feed your toddler. It takes moments to read for each month, what foods to introduce, and how much. Hope this helps. Good luck and congrats on your baby girl.

Hi L.,

I also have a 6 1/2 month old and he is eating 2 solid meals a day, breakfast and lunch, I was just about to when we can introduce a dinner solid. With our son we introduced the solids and he went from having 5 7 ounce bottles a day to having only 4. So, it's really whenever you are ready to introduce the solids, you will then cut back a bit on the milk. But remember as long as their getting I think its 23 to 32 ounces of breasmilk or formula a day you are good to go. Below is a summary of our son's feeding schedule if this helps.

6 or 6:30 am -- 7 ounce bottle
8:30 am -- (breakfast)2 tblspn rice cereal and 1 jar fruit
11:00 am-- 7 ounce bottle
2:00 pm- (lunch)1 jar of vegetables (baby food)
4:00 pm- 7 ounce bottle
7:30 or 8:00 pm-7 ounce bottle and to bed

I found wholesomebaby.com/solids very helpful.

I highly recommend the book "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron, though of course you should always do what your pediatrician tells you is best. I started my daughter on solids at 5 months and she is now 6 1/2 months old and eats 3 "meals" a day. She has at least 4oz of formula with each meal and has 2 other bottles during the day. Her meals consist of oatmeal or brown rice and either a veggie or fruit. She is thriving.

My pediatrician had my son starting baby food (vegetable or fruit) by 6 months. Cereal for breakfast and then you can do a "food" for lunch. She told me by 12 months you want them to have 3 solid meals a day. Also at 6 months we were doing 4 to 6 oz of juice/water a day. When we go for check ups the papers they send home with what your child should be doing at that age and what they should be doing by the next time you come say every time that they still need 20 to 24 oz of breast milk/formula a day. Plus when you introduce baby vegetables or fruits you want to try one for 2 to 3 days to see if she is allergic to that certain one. I hope I helped a little. I know how it is, you always wonder if you are feeding them enough or too much.

I just started feeding my baby and I found this web-site http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com and book very helpful Super Baby Foods.

Hi L.,

Like other moms have said, wholesomebabyfood.com is an excellent site, even if you don't want to make your own baby food. Also, "Super Baby Foods" is an excellent book with a lot of charts about when to introduce what foods. After rice cereal, I did oatmeal, bananas, and then avocadoes. Remember to do the 4 day wait period - introduce a new food for 4 days to make sure your child is not allergic to it and then start a new food. Good luck! I know it is overwhelming at first, but it will start to get fun!

My daughter is two years old now, and maybe I'm not remembering correctly, but it seems she told me that by 1 year old they should be getting most of there nutrients from food with the milk or formula just supplementing. By 8 months old my daughters schedule was, wake up with fruit and cereal and about an ounce of milk in a cup. Then by 10:00 she would have a bottle. Lunch she would have a veggie or something with 1 once milk in a cup, 3:00 another bottle. 5:30 or 6:00 dinner, 8:30 another bottle before bed. The time spent between 6 months and 8 months was just kind of working toward that schedule. By 10 months she was eating most of the table food that we were eating, just bite sized. I also made my own baby food so that it would have some texture. Most baby's who only have that watery baby food have a hard time switching to table food. If you don't want to make your own you can always add some cereal to thicken it up.
Good luck

When I had my girl and was premature, the pediatrician gave me this advice, start you baby early on solids, my daughter started with vegggies and fruits but from gerber for a month, She was 5 months when I did this. Then when she was not allergic to fruits and veggies , then I started her at 6 months with fresh veggies and fruits. bananas, apples sauce,pear,cantelope, veggies like squash,potatoe carrots,brocoli,cauliflower, and I would also make soups and use the veggies for her, I would feed her 3 times a day and this means maybe 3 to 5 spoonfuls of this , you also need to give her milk as you say. Then I started with the meats around 8 months, chicken breast only and ground turkey but not the gerber ones, she was eating egg,fish,rice,noddlees by the year. Remember to blend the food, I know some pediatricians tell you to wait on egg and fish, but you can try and just watch out for allergy symptoms. My daughter is a good eater, she eats what I cook for her. always try veggies and vegetables with your meals and babies will learn to eat that , don't introdude Mcdonals and other fast food early on other wise that is all they will like, french fries, nuggets, ttry to make your own food and they will like it. -

At 6 months old mine were eating breakfast and dinner, (cereal and fruit for breakfast, cereal and veggie for dinner). this helped with getting them to sleep through the night as well. When they get that big and start moving around those little bellies get hungry!!

D. mattern-muck
moms helping moms work from home:)
http://www.formyrugrats.com

We started "practice" feeding our daughter a little earlier than 6 months. (Hubby was too eager to wait.) But now at 7 1/2 months she eats 3 solid meals a day with a formula bottle in between. We were told at her 6 month check up to get her used to one meal then as soon as that was done add another. Then once she was comfortable to go ahead and move her to three meals a day. Now she is up to that. She took to food easily and I know not all babies do that. I think if your daughter is eating her one meal easily than you should go ahead and try another some other time of day. Always try when they are hungry and not tired. For us we started with breakfast since our daughter is always starving then. Lunch comes when she is ready. She usually gets a meal or bottle at around noon and somewhere around 3:00. Some days she is just too fussy for solids at noon so I will give her the bottle. Then she will get her solids around the 3:00 time. And, while she will eat her solid dinner most of the time, she will still fight it off sometimes. We don't force it. If she seems too fussy, and I'm talking cranky not temper tantrum, then we will just skip that one and give her a bottle.

Babies survive on their milk or formula for the first year. Solid food, no matter how good of an eater they are at this age, is just all for "practice" for both you and your baby. But it can never hurt to feed them good foods. Try sweet potatoes as next on the menu. It's a nutritious veggie and it's not so shocking as peas. Breast milk and formula are sweet tasting. That's why it's hard for babies to get used to the not so sweet foods. That's more of an acquired tastes.

Good luck!
Jen
http://www.mommysjoy.com

My daughter just turned 7 months. At our 6 month appt. we were told to start the 2nd serving. I don't give her the whole container full at a sitting. I usually mix it with cereal. At 7 months I was told to start on stage 2 foods. Like you said, they're supposed to be getting their nutrition from milk/formula.