When to Start Three Meals a Day with an Infant

Is this three meals baby food or three meals table food? Only three meals isn't enough for a baby. Their tummies are smaller so they ingest less food at a sitting. And they are probably on the go and get the energy from what they eat. What worked best for Max at that age was breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack, bed. He's healthy and satisfied.

Here is the perfect resource to find this info out.

http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/baby/babyfeeding/1400680...

Maybe the pedi meant 3 meals of table food a day at 9 months. It's unclear and I don't know whay she would say that since your baby is still really young. It's all about portion and serving size at that age.

And to answer your other question, my son was eating puffs, cheerios and saltine crackers around 7-8 months.

Babies like adults should still be eating 5-6 well portioned meals daily. a good sample is:

breakfast 3-5tbsp cereal
6-8oz bottle milk/formula

Mid morning 2-4oz juice diluted w/ water
dry toast strips

Lunch 3-4tbsp veggies
3-4tbsp meat or beans
6-8 milk/formula

mid afternoon 2-4 oz milk/formula
2-4 svgs fruit
3-5 tbsp cereal

Dinner 3-4 tbsp veggies
3-4 tbsp fruit
3-4 tbsp meat
6-8 oz formula/milk

I have a 6 month old. He is breastfed. He nurses every 3 hours. He has solids twice a day. Morning and evening. He nurses in the morning, an hour later he has rice cereal or bananas. He nurses all day and then nurses in the evening. An hour later he has yams, peas, or cereal. He has been doing this since about 5 1/2 months old. He in the next month will be having 3 meals a day and continue nursing. Definitely by nine months I think your baby should be having 3 meals a day in addition to nusing or the bottle.

I also have an infant-my son was born last Sept. I was told by the doctor since I am nursing to try and hold off until 6 months to start any food. After that do breakfast and dinner of the rice cereal for the first few weeks. After he is used to that, start the veggies @ lunch-going through each one for 5 days or so before starting a new one. Then to hold off till 7 or 8 months for the fruit (they get a sweet tooth early). I think just judge your baby. Mine started to not be so satisfied with his milk and also started to show interest when we were eating (he would get really fussy almost like "give me some!". We have done the cereal and now are on our 2nd veggie week. All doctors are different with what they say-go with your instinct!

the percentage of child hood obesity has skyrocketed in the last few years. they are starting solids later so that it will differ the large meals until they are really moving around, crawling and walking. my dr told me at his 10 month checkup to start the 3 meals a day.... hope this helps.

G.-
Between 4 and 6 months mny kiddos did 4 bottles of 8oz each- breakfast lunch and dinner plus I slowly added baby foods after each bottle. The 4th bottle was at 10PM ish.
By 9-12 months they were totally on table foods and I started phasing out the last bottle.

Hope this helps!

D.

Here's my totally unscientific approach to feeding 9 month old babies - they should be having breakfast, lunch, and dinner for solids. They will continue to need 24-30 oz. formular per day. Schedule a couple of small snacks to carry them between meals. Worked for my kids. There is a lot of cultural bias related to eating. The bottom line is do what makes sense for you and your family.

i have a 5 month old daughter and the doctor told us when she was 3 months old that we could start her on rice baby cereal and the #1 fruit babyfood. we usually just give her the baby cereal in the morning and formula to drink and then for lunch and supper we give her 1 jar of the #1 fruit babyfood with formula. if she still seems hunger after the babyfood we give her some cereal and formula. give her the same babyfood for about 3 days though just to make sure that she isn't allergic to it. that's the advice the doctor gave me. then once she has tried it for 3 days then you can mix different ones for each meal. i hope i was some help to you.

My pedi told me between 9 and 10 months to start my little girl on 3 meals a day. This seemed earlier than what she told me with my son, but I went ahead and did it and we have been on 3 meals a day for almost a month now. About a week after we started was the first time she slept through the night, so that was a plus. She also told me to go ahead and start her on some dairy, Yo-Baby Yogurt, string cheese, and whole milk at 1-2 oz every couple of days...and start her on more solid table foods that we eat like shredded turkey from the deli, chicken breast, and red meat. We have also done this and she is a totally different baby...a lot more active, playful with my 2YO, and happier all around.

I decided to follow the 3 meals a day at 9 months because my little girl was so dependant on bottles of breast milk and/or formula. This has cut the 8-10 bottles down to 4-6 a day and rarely does she finish one where she does not leave an ounce left over. To me this is going to help in weaning her completely from the bottle at the age of 1.

I started my daughter on solids (baby food) at 6 months. As she got used to eating all of the different baby foods, I started giving her 3 small meals a day. I would say that by 7 or 8 months she was eating cereal and a fruit for breakfast (still baby food), a meat, a veggie and a fruit for lunch and the same for dinner. She wouldn't always eat the whole container of each thing, but at least she started getting a balance at every meal. She would nurse in between meals. At 9 months, she started refusing baby food completely, so we had to move on to table food. She still only had 2 teeth, so this was a little tricky, but we made it work. I think it's fine to start 3 meals per day before 9 months as long as your daugher is still drinking enough breastmilk or formula. Just make the meals small and balanced and that will get her on the right track. Good luck and have fun!