6 month BF and solids schedule?

I was looking at the 6 month schedules in the FY handbook, but I only saw one that said nurse instead of bottle. I'm having a hard time fitting everything in at night...nurse, wait, solids, wait to digest, bath, and then wait so they're hungry to nurse again before bed...that's a lot to fit in! Can any of you BFing mamas let me know how you were doing it at 6 months? I think it's probably different than the FFing mamas because with nursing you're supposed to nurse first before the solids (not sure, but I guess with formula you can make sure their still getting enough no matter how you space it since you can measure ounces).

If anyone has a schedule to share for 6 months nursing and giving early solids (especially for the dinner meal!), I'd appreciate the advice as we're trying to work it out!

 

I was doing it at dinner, but I gave up and let the daycare do it at lunch. I wante to keep it at dinner because daycare tends to feed food FIRST then bottle (I used to go in everyday at lunch and nurse him, I watched what they did with other babies)

I don't think it really matters FF or BF, I think you're just supposed to do Bottle/nurse first then food, becuase at this point in their live's food is not for nutritional value, just for experimentation, texture, etc...

The dinner time was to hard,and I don't give baths every day (for him it's still every 3rd day, he doesn't need bathed every day) But just the routine of getting dinner for my older kids, trying to feed myself, then feed him food - he'd end up getting frustrated and wanting to nurse anyways. Then if I waited to try to feed food after nursing, he'd have fallen asleep.

I have just given very specific instructions for daycare to feed one jar of food after his lunch time bottle, so far it's been working with just a couple times of him eating food first due to a nap or something...

GL figuring it out, hope you find a solution that works for you!

 

right now my girls nurse after their 3rd nap (usually around 4:30pm) & then again at 6:15pm just before bed. we haven't started dinner yet, but will do next week. i was told that it would be safe to drop the 4:30pm nursing session if they're getting solids instead, especially since they'll then get another nursing session just before bed. so that's what we're going to do.

i also found this on kellymom.com: "There seems to be considerable worry when a child is starting solids about whether to give the breast first or give solid food first. If breastfeeding and the introduction of solid foods both are going well, it probably does not matter much. Indeed, there is no reason that a baby needs both breast and solids every time he eats." http://www.kellymom.com/newman/16starting_solid_foods.html (it's at the bottom of the page).

HTH!

 

We are having the exact same problem!! We have about an hour once we get home from daycare to: nurse, have naked time (trying to heal a diaper rash!), bath, nurse, read a book and bed.

Right now, we are doing a single meal of solids at daycare...I finally gave in and let them feed them. I was trying to do solids after the first nursing session upon arriving home, but the babies were NOT enjoying it as they were not hungry!

I still don't know how we will ever fit in dinner...I hope others have good suggestions!

 

We've been trying to do dinner so dh can help when he gets home from work, but you're right, breakfast goes much easier (on weekends!). Plus I know at some point soon I'll want to do more meals a day...so I'm hoping to get a few more schedules! I guess I can drop baths from the bedtime routine. I don't always give them, and when I do every day, it's not always even with soap, just for the routine. Maybe we need a new routine for now?

 

My guys started solids at 5 mo 1 wk and are EBF. In the begining, we did one meal. I slowly did another when it appeared they would happily eat -- from the start they were very into solids

At 7 mos. here's our "general" schedule:

6:30 -7 am up and nurse
8:30 -- breakfast -- rice cereal & fruit
9:30 -10 -- nurse and down for naps
12:30 lunch -- one veggie, one fruit
1:30ish -- nurse and down for naps
4:30 -- nurse
5:30 -- dinner -- cereal & veggies
7:00-7:30 nurse and down for night

 

My six month schedule for Evan was this: (just started solids at 6 months)

up 8amish
Nurse
play
10am nurse
nap
1-2 up & nurse
play
3ish nurse/nap
5 up
5:30 nurse
6pm solids (with everyone else)
7:30 nurse/bed

I know that with the twins I would feed them right after they got up from thier afternoon nap. (within 1/2 hour of nursing) After you nurse, you don't have to wait to feed solids. Solids are just practice at this point and they should eat some, even when solids are offered immediately after nursing.

 

We just started an evening solid feeding. I just fed them once a day until 6 months--I started too early at 4.5 months. Then at 6.5 months we went up to two meals, and now at 7.5 months we do three solids. The evening was the last I introduced.

Our "schedule" at 7.5 months is something like this:
6-7 AM wake bottle from Daddy
8-9 1st solids breakfast (extra bottle if needed)
1st Nap
10:30-11 BF
11:30 3st solids
2nd Nap
1:30-2:30 BF
3:30-4 BF
3rd Nap
5-5:30 3nd solids
6-7 bottle EBM
Bed

Then, of course, they wake 2-3 times in the night usually sometime between 10-11:30 and then again between 2:30-4, and they are breastfed or given a bottle if they both start screaming simultaneously and refuse to nurse.

ETA: At 6 months the only difference was the first solid feeding was a bottle of BF depending on whether or not I was up, and by the end of 6 months we had added the 2nd solid feeding. We fed them once a day in the beginning and twice a day in the end.

 

Evenings were always hectic at that age. I think it's recommended to bf or bottle feed before meals but everyone does it their own way.

Around 6 months we did:

5:20 get home
5:30 bf
6:30 dinner (solids)
7:00 bathtime
7:30 bedtime

Of course, mine weren't sleeping through the night at that age so I did have to feed at night...still two feedings at night at 6 months.

 

How many "meals" a day are you doing? It would be fine to do one solids "meal" a day, since it's only for practice. And it doesn't have to be late in the day either - you could do lunch or breakfast if evenings are too hectic. As pps said, you can offer solids 30 min after nursing, or immediately after. If they only nibble, it totally doesn't matter - it's just for fun at this point.

 

QUOTE(fuchsiagroan @ Feb 2 2009, 07:47 PM) [snapback]1173500[/snapback]
How many "meals" a day are you doing? It would be fine to do one solids "meal" a day, since it's only for practice. And it doesn't have to be late in the day either - you could do lunch or breakfast if evenings are too hectic. As pps said, you can offer solids 30 min after nursing, or immediately after. If they only nibble, it totally doesn't matter - it's just for fun at this point.


We were just doing dinner because DH wanted to help and he's at work all day...so I switched to breakfast to try to see if it would be easier to fit it in (it was), but then they were staring at our forks when we were eating dinner, so we tried giving a small dinner, too...and they really seemed to want it. Do you think it's too soon to have two meals? They actually really love eating even if I nurse right before...after some of the advice here, I tried that the past two days and they still ate the solids about half an hour after they had nursed...and then actually still seemed hungry when it was time to nurse before bed about an hour later. I think the solids are making them nurse more! They're going to sleep much more easily, too...even though I've read that it shouldn't make a difference. I think they were definitely ready for food!

 

QUOTE(mamabee718 @ Feb 2 2009, 09:06 PM) [snapback]1173598[/snapback]
We were just doing dinner because DH wanted to help and he's at work all day...so I switched to breakfast to try to see if it would be easier to fit it in (it was), but then they were staring at our forks when we were eating dinner, so we tried giving a small dinner, too...and they really seemed to want it. Do you think it's too soon to have two meals? They actually really love eating even if I nurse right before...after some of the advice here, I tried that the past two days and they still ate the solids about half an hour after they had nursed...and then actually still seemed hungry when it was time to nurse before bed about an hour later. I think the solids are making them nurse more! They're going to sleep much more easily, too...even though I've read that it shouldn't make a difference. I think they were definitely ready for food!

I started 2 meals at that time. I did afternoon and morning, but if their Daddy wants to get involved, I'd pull them up to the dinner table while you're eating. Heck, you should try putting a sippy cup on their chair and see what happens. It's not like you have to force it on them, but if they want to model their parents eating dinner, I think they are clearly ready.

If you're worried about their systems getting shocked with too many solids, you can give them two meals but smaller amounts. My guys started getting some constipation at that point--first time ever. I rarely give them rice cereal, carrots, or bananas and when I do I try to mixed it with something that acts as a stool softener--peas, prunes, peaches, pears. I've found rice is the worst constipator.

 

My guys are having a "meal" 2x a day now (6month adj in 2 days), and I think its ok (I hope), my two have always been terrible drinkers.....they would lOVE to just snack all day have a sip here, a sip there, (you can see why I had to give up on nursing) but they still seem to take almost the same amount of bottle eventhough I added another meal. Our schedule is something like this:

(around give or take a 1/2 hour)7:00 Wake up-bottle
Play
8:30 Nap
11:00 Bottle
Play
12:00 Cereal-Oat (2tbl) fruit (1tbl)
12:30/1:00 Nap
3:00 Bottle
Play
4:15 Cereal-rice (2-3 tbl) veg (1tbl)
4:45/5:00 Nap (I make our dinner DH and I)
6:00 Play (We eat, they play)
7:30 Bottle
in bed sleeping by 8:00

 

As long as they're still nursing plenty - and it definitely sounds like they are! - then it's fine to do 2 meals. Sounds like you have some big eaters!