Feeding Schedules: How Often Should I Feed My Baby?

Hungry Root (0s):

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Katie Ferraro (2m 27s):

Very early on when you start solid foods in phase one, those first eight weeks of Baby-Led Weaning, you are doing the breastfeeding or the bottle feeding that infant milk your baby is getting prior to the solid foods. Okay? And that's in order to help your baby feel comforted and calm and full enough to be able to start participating at meal times 'cause they weren't starving. But as you transition into phase two, the second eight weeks, your baby's more proficient at self-feeding. Okay? Or they're gonna be really soon if it hasn't happened yet. We're going to switch things up here and this is where we move the milk feeds behind the solid food. And this ideally is what your schedule will start to look like. Hey there, I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in Baby-Led Weaning.

Katie Ferraro (3m 10s):

Here on the Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro podcast. I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, giving you the confidence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using Baby-Led Weaning. So how often should babies eat solid foods? And when do you fit the solid food in? Do you do it before their milk feed? Do you do it after breastfeeding? Do you do it in the middle of a bottle? Are they full? Are they hungry? Finding a schedule for starting solid foods can be tricky, but in this episode I wanna share my exact feeding schedule for babies in three different ages and phases of Baby-Led Weaning.

Katie Ferraro (3m 53s):

So today we'll cover how to schedule solid foods so that most of your baby's nutrition can be coming from food by age one. I'll talk about how often you can be offering solid foods in phase one, which is the first eight weeks of Baby-Led Weaning. That's generally for six and seven month olds. We'll contrast that with how the schedule changes in phase two, which is the second eight weeks when your baby is eight or nine months of age. And then as we start phase three, which generally begins around the 10-month mark, we'll look at how the schedule changes once again. And lastly, I'll cover when to move your baby's milk feeds behind solid foods because spoiler alert, it's a little bit sooner than you'd think. I like to start each of these solo Baby-Led Weaning training episodes with a Baby-Led Weaning tip of the day.

Katie Ferraro (4m 39s):

And today's tip is a general rule of thumb for how often to offer solid foods is that in phase one. So again, the first eight weeks, when your baby's six and seven months of age, try to do solid foods one to two times per day. As you move into phase two, which is the second eight weeks of Baby-Led Weaning when your baby's usually eight or nine months of age, bump that up to two to three times per day. And then in phase three from the period starting a little bit after your baby turns 10 months of age, we like to see babies eating three times per day. And we're moving your baby towards a goal here that when they turn one year of age, a hundred percent of their nutrition can be coming from food and hang tight. 'Cause in this episode I'll share the exact solid food feeding schedule that I teach in phase one, phase two, and phase three of Baby-Led Weaning of excerpted these parts from my full online program, which is called Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro.

Katie Ferraro (5m 32s):

If you like to learn what foods your babies can eat when you offer them and how to prepare them safely, that's all inside of the program, which you can check it out at babyledweaning.co/program. I also have a 100 First Foods Daily Meal Plan in there. So if you want 20 full weeks of Baby-Led Weaning meal plans that are already done for you, it's all inside that program at babyledweaning.co/program. So I wanna tell you a quick story about a mom who recently joined our program. So when parents join the program, there's a quick survey that I asked them to fill out to give me some more detail and information about their baby so I can get a better picture of you know, what we're dealing with. Is there any medical history or is there intolerances? Did you struggle with breastfeeding?

Katie Ferraro (6m 12s):

So this mom came to the program saying that she'd actually tried two different programs previously. So one had complicated food prep that was just like way over the top. And she's like, this is not realistic. And I totally feel her. Another program was so overwhelming that the mom said she had no clear place to start. So she was getting a little bit of a late start in her opinion. Her baby was eight months of age and had never tried anything other than purees. And she did the program for a few days. She started following my feeding schedule and already a few days in her baby finally started showing interest in food. And she said she'd failed with these other two programs. And so she quote, she said, "Our son had not had any interest in Baby-Led Weaning or starting solid foods. He just loves his bottle.

Katie Ferraro (6m 53s):

We tried and failed with other programs. One of them, the food preparation was way too complicated. The other one was an app. We were so overwhelming I didn't know where to start. But since starting your program, we've made immense strides and now he's finally showing interest and we're weaning off of the formula". And I love to hear this because that's Baby-Led Weaning in action, right? Your baby gradually getting more nutrition from food, gradually getting less nutrition from infant milk. But babies don't wake up on their first birthday and magically know how to eat a hundred different foods. And that's why I put the whole 100 First Foods approach together to help parents have a plan. And so as you move through the a hundred different foods, your baby is going to get more proficient at eating, but how often you eat and how much to feed, those are the little nuances that change.

Katie Ferraro (7m 42s):

So I wanna share just real high level what the feeding schedule is from my program for phase one, from phase two and phase three. So when we're starting out in phase one of Baby-Led Weaning, here's a typical solid food feeding schedule that will work for a six month old. So your baby wakes up and has their infant milk, do your regular nursing session or bottle feed and pretend like everything is normal, okay? Play the baby, digest that food, give it at least an hour rest if you bottle feed and then attempt some solid foods, okay? Most babies can sit in their highchair for about 20 minutes for a feed you maybe might not be there yet, but work towards it. It's a good goal to work towards. And then after the meal and heads up, your baby is not going to eat very much early on.

Katie Ferraro (8m 22s):

Do your thing until nap time. If that usually includes nursing or having another bottle, go for it after nap one. If that's in the morning, you can attempt meal two. Or if you're not up for that yet, do your regular infant milk, feed your playtime and then go down for nap two. Okay? We wake up, have a regular infant milk And if you didn't do solid food meal number two yet, and some of you might not be up for a second one, But if you are, do that about an hour or so after you do the bottle feed. I keep mentioning this hour after a bottle feed for babies who are particularly have a very sensitive gag reflux or if your baby's vomiting when they're gagging, you do wanna build in about an hour pad between the end of the milk feed and the start of the solid food feed because a little bit of vomiting is typical when you start solid foods.

Katie Ferraro (9m 3s):

But if your baby's vomiting like every single meal, that's not ideal. They'll start to have food aversions and negative associations with food and feeding and we don't want that. So I want you to play, and I want you to go back down for nap three if there is such a thing, okay? Do your infant milk and then if you haven't done the second meal, you can try that after the third nap. But here's a key, we just don't do any potentially allergenic foods less than two hours before bedtime at nighttime, okay? And that's because if your baby's going to have an allergic reaction to food, the vast majority of reactions will occur within minutes and up to no more than two hours following ingestion. So you don't wanna do a new food and put your baby right to bed 'cause you do need to observe them for about two hours.

Katie Ferraro (9m 45s):

So to summarize that, a typical six month schedule might look like this, okay? After waking up in the morning or after your baby naps, find one to two times each day where you can fit solid foods in about an hour after a bottle feed. Or if your baby is nursing, your baby is snacking if they're nursing. So they don't really need that pad, right? Because breastfed babies are gonna consume volume wise less at each feed than a bottle fed baby is. So the schedule can look like this. And this is kind of like a bulleted outline. Wake up in the morning, do your infant milk feed. That's a bottle. Wait an hour. Do solid food meal number one play. Go down for the first nap. Wake up infant milk feed. Wait an hour, do solid food meal number two, that's optional. Play nap two infant milk feed.

Katie Ferraro (10m 26s):

Wait an hour. If you didn't do the second meal and you're up for it, do that after that play. Take a nap, wake up, do the infant milk feed. Okay? You can just put this second meal if you wanna do the second one after the second or the third nap, depending upon what works for your schedule. Some days you might be up for doing two meals at six and seven months of age and some days you may not, but you play. You do your regular bedtime milk feed in your regular bedtime. The kicker for phase one of Baby-Led Weaning those first eight weeks is you do not have to alter your milk schedule. So your infant milk schedule or your nap schedule, your baby is eating so little, hardly anything that you don't need to change that nap or that milk schedule.

Katie Ferraro (11m 6s):

Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back.

KiwiCo (11m 15s):

Learning how to eat is a full sensory experience and we spend a lot of time on this podcast talking about the sensory aspects of starting solid foods and the importance of sensory experiences. Now as your baby is growing and becoming more curious, you might be interested in expanding those experiences. And KiwiCo Clubs is the perfect gift for curious minds. KiwiCo develops hands-on projects and activities for kids of all ages. I recently received their Grow With Me sensory play map for my friend's baby. So we've been doing Baby-Led Weaning together and it was just so cool to watch him explore sensory play with all of the different textured shapes that encourage fine motor movements. Plus it was a way cleaner than sensory play with finger foods. KiwiCo Panda Crate is the program for babies age zero to three. So for your baby and your toddler. And you can join KiwiCo's, Panda Crate Plus and get deliveries every other month. They're thoughtfully designed for your child's age and their developmental milestones. So if you're ready to tinker, create and innovate, let's get started with some awesome gifts from KiwiCo. You can get up to 50% off your first crate at kiwico.com with the promo code WEANING. That's 50% off your first crate at kiwico.com promo code WEANING.

Katie Ferraro (12m 44s):

Now in the second phase of Baby-Led Weaning, how do things change? Well, the second phase is the second eight weeks of Baby-Led Weaning. Your baby is now eight, nine months of age. You're starting to get more comfortable. We're gonna move into the trickier textures and the combination foods. In phase one, which I just mentioned, you were breastfeeding or bottle feeding your baby before the meals. 'Cause we wanted the baby to feel comforted and calm and full enough to be able to participate at mealtime 'cause we don't want them to be starving. Okay? Now as you move into phase two, your baby's got a little more proficient at self-feeding, okay? And they're gonna get proficient really soon if that hasn't happened yet, okay? And we're gonna start switching things up by moving that milk feed behind the meals.

Katie Ferraro (13m 25s):

So ideally the schedule's gonna look like this. Wake up in the morning, the baby will eat breakfast. You notice that there's no milk feed, okay? You can take that baby in phase two, right to the table for solid food. We then practice drinking out of the open cup for five minutes after breakfast play or take a break, do a breast or bottle feeding session if needed, and then go down for the first nap. The baby wakes up, eats lunch again, starting with solid foods after the nap or after waking up after lunch, drink out of the open cup for five minutes. Play take a break, then breastfeed or bottle feed if needed, and then go down for this second nap. Okay, wake up, eat dinner. Okay? If you are already on three meals a day, some families are like, hey, in phase two I'm cool with two meals a day.

Katie Ferraro (14m 9s):

But somewhere in phase two we generally bump it towards three meals a day. So you can do that dinner if the family wants to eat together or your baby's finally by that point, they're going to be able to eat some modified foods that You guys are eating and you're gonna be having a lot more fun with this. So you're gonna want them to eat some of the same foods you're doing. We drink outta the open cup for five minutes, practice after dinner, play, do your bedtime routine, do your bedtime bottle or your breastfeeding session and then bedtime. So do you see how in phase two the milk kind of starts becoming an afterthought? Infant milk is still important, but we're giving your baby the opportunity to start learning how to fill up on food at mealtime, and then we're satisfying thirst with the open cup practice after meals. Okay, this leads to a natural tapering of infant milk intake.

Katie Ferraro (14m 49s):

Usually we're gonna get you down to about three milk feeds per day.Somewhere in phase two of Baby-Led Weaning your baby might be doing more frequent feeds and that's fine. It's just helpful to jumpstart interest in food. I have a separate episode all about how to drop a milk feed that I'll link. There's also a lot of videos inside of our program about how to schedule that because transitioning that milk feed out and those milk feeds out as you taper the milk can be a little bit challenging for parents. So I'll link to that in the episode description as well. When you move to phase three, which is after you've been doing solid foods for about two months, you are gonna feel so confident your baby's around 10 months of age, you're eating three times a day, there's gonna be less milk, okay? There's more meals and your baby's eating patterns starts to almost mimic your own.

Katie Ferraro (15m 31s):

If your family eats three times a day, you're working your baby towards that. So in phase three of Baby-Led Weaning at this point, babies are generally having two naps and three solid food meals a day. So your schedule might look like this. Wake up in the morning, the baby eats breakfast. You do the open cup practice after breakfast for five minutes. That's with breast milk or formula. For older babies, it's safer to move on to thinner liquids like water. So maybe you're doing that as well. You play take a break, breast or bottle feed if needed, and the baby will go down for that first nap. Then the baby wakes up and eats lunch after lunch, do the open cup for five minutes, play or take a break, breastfeed or bottle feed if needed. Then the baby goes down for the second nap. By this point, families are totally loving eating dinner with their baby.

Katie Ferraro (16m 12s):

So have dinner together, drink outta the open cup for five minutes after that meal. We're practicing that open cup if you've noticed, five minutes after every meal play, do your bedtime routine and that usually includes a bedtime bottle or a breastfeeding session. And then do your regular bedtime. Please note that through all of these schedules, there's no snacks. Babies don't need snacks. The infant milk that you're offering in between the solid food feeds, serves as your baby snack that tides them over to the next meal. If you're gonna be off your schedule, like if you're gonna someone's house and you're not sure when the baby will eat or you're traveling and you don't have meals prepared, snacks certainly can play a role. But my strongest recommendation for older babies is that you as the parent strongly try to resist the urge or the temptation to offer snacks to your baby throughout the day.

Katie Ferraro (16m 54s):

Your baby's stomach is still very small and frequent snacks or too much milk will sabotage intake at mealtimes. So it's perfectly fine for your older baby to be allowed to feel what I call casual hunger at the start of a mealtime. We're not saying to starve your baby out, but it is perfectly fine. It's acceptable. It's even desirable for your baby to feel some hunger when they come to the meal so that they're using that food to make that feeling go away. So don't starve your baby out, but babies and children thrive on schedules and I hope the feeding schedules in this episode work for you whether you're in phase one, phase two, or phase three of starting solid foods. So a quick win for you is to write down your current schedule right now where you're at. What time does your baby wake up? What time are you doing your milk feeds?

Katie Ferraro (17m 35s):

What time is your baby napping? Now if you're breastfeeding exclusively, you might not be on a very strict schedule. Some of you are, some of you are like insane schedules. If you're bottle feeding or the baby goes to daycare, the schedule drives your life and it's driving your life right now today. But it's crazy that in a few weeks and months from now, you will like completely forget exactly what, what your schedule is. So write it down right now so you can take a look at where the milk feeds are coming and as you move into the next phase, whether that's phase one or two or three of starting solid foods, think about where you will incorporate the solid foods.Remembering that generally in phase two is when we start moving the milk behind the meals and we drop a milk feed. In phase three, we're moving your baby towards the point where we're close to 100% of their nutrition will be coming from food.

Katie Ferraro (18m 19s):

But writing the schedule down and then identifying where your next changes are going to be made can help you transition seamlessly through these different phases so that when your baby turns one, they are getting most of their nutrition from food. If you are looking for an exact schedule to follow for when to start incorporating these foods and how to work them into your schedule and how to wean your baby off of milk, along with instructions and videos and recipes that show you how to make all the foods safely, that's all inside of my program, Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro. I've got a 100 First Foods Daily Meal Plan there. If you feel like you're getting a late start and you're like, I just want someone to show me exactly what foods to feed and how to make 'em safely so I don't have to do it. I did it for you.

Katie Ferraro (18m 59s):

It's inside of the program. Check it out at babyledweaning.co/program. Thank you so much for listening, and thank you to our partners at AirWave Media. If you like podcasts that feature food and science and using your brain, check out some of the podcasts from AirWave or online at blwpodcast.com. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you next time.

‎The Past and the Curious (19m 25s):

Hey, it's Mick from the Past and The Curious A History podcast for Kids and Families. I will be live on stage with a bunch of other great kids and family podcasts in Boston at wbu R'S mega awesome, super huge, wicked fun podcast play date in February. The past and the Curious will be live on Sunday, February 16th at wbu City Space in Boston. For tickets, go to www.org/events. I hope to see you there and tune into the past in the Curious.