Starting 3 Meals a Day

Updated on April 01, 2009
B.A. asks from West Harrison, NY
11 answers

My daughter is almost 7 months old and we've been feeding her oatmeal for lunch and adding fruits and vegetables for dinner. We wanted to start her eating 3 meals a day (in addition to bottles, of course) and our daycare lady mentioned something about her not eating oatmeal for all three meals, which makes sense. But we're not sure exactly how to space it out. Does anyone have some advice about what to feed at each meal?

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So What Happened?

Thanks for all the responses! We're trying cereal and fruit in the morning, fruit and veggies for lunch and cereal and veggies for dinner - until we start meat or pasta/potato. So far so good!

Featured Answers

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D.M.

answers from New York on

Hi B.
My daughter is 7 1/2 months and we started 3 meals a day at 7 months.
Here is her schedule
she gets up at 6:15
7am breastfeed
9am breakfast - cereal, 2tablespoons and fruit mixed with formula
11am bottle
1pm fruit or veggie etc - no cereal
3-3:30 - bottle or breastfeed
6pm veggie and cereal plus formula
7:30 breastfeed
Hope that helps.
D.

1 mom found this helpful

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A.D.

answers from New York on

I have a daughter as well who is turning 8 months next week. My schedule is as follows:
7:30 am - 8 oz bottle, which she may or may not finish
11:00 am - Oatmeal & Fruit or Yogurt
11:30 / 12:00 - 4-5 oz bottle
3:00 - Vegetable
3:30 / 4:00 - 4 - 5 oz bottle
7:00 - Meat / Vegetable
7:30 / 8:00 - 8 oz Bottle - I prepare a bottle at around 7:30 / 8:00 & she usually stops drinking the bottle & then finishes it around 9:00 before she goes to bed.
Hope that helps. Good luck!!

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K.K.

answers from New York on

B. -

I have an 8 month old son. My typical schedule is as follows:

8:30 am - Cereal (usually oatmeal) and fruit mixed in
9:30 am - Bottle
12:00 pm - Vegetable and fruit
1:00 pm - Bottle
4:00 pm - Bottle (small amount)
6:00 pm - Either cereal or vegetable and fruit

I'll alternate days and give him cereal twice a day sometimes and then the next day only once. My son loves the cereal with fruit mixed in, so he loves when he gets to eat it. I am just starting some table food now though, so he'll likely move to only getting the cereal once a day for breakfast.

Good luck!!

- K. :)

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H.G.

answers from New York on

No rules here. Just mix it up, so she develops a taste for lots of different foods! Fruits, veggies, cereals, etc. Mix them together (my son LOVED apples and sweet potatoes, for example) to keep her guessing. :)

As long as you introduce the new foods safely, she'll be fine! She's still getting breastmilk or formula to take care of her nutritional needs. So the solids are just for practice.

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W.K.

answers from New York on

Hi B.,

I have 7 month old twin girls and they are n 3 meals a day. this is how it works for us.

I nurse them when they ____@____.com get cereal and fruit (each baby gets about 3 to 4 tbsp and 1/2 a stage 2 jar) for breakfast. breakfast is anywhere from 8 to 8:30am

they nurse again after their morning nap ( usually around 11am)

then lunch @ 12:30. for lunch they each get one jar of stage 2 foods. usually a veggie or a meat and veggie combo.

they nurse again in the late afternoon @ 2:30 or 3pm

then dinner @ 5pm. ( cearal and a veggie or fruit) same quantities as we did for breakfast.

I nurse them one more time before bed.

I hope this helps

W.

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T.Q.

answers from Albany on

At this age my kids ate 2 meals per day... usually Oatmeal and some fruit in the AM and rice cereal and a veggie in the evening. Around 8 mos or so, I introduced YO Baby yogurts for lunch (yogurt can be started earlier than one year because the dairy enzymes are broken down already unlike milk which is harder for a baby to digest)... along with the bottle feeds throughout the day. If they were still hungry at lunch, I would give them some more baby food, and maybe some little finger foods such as the Gerber Puffs, cheerios etc.

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M.C.

answers from Rochester on

B.,
This is how I feed my 8 mo old (plus breastfeeding):
In the morning I give him a small bowl of fruit (apples and pears) with oatmeal. It ends up being about 3-4 ounces of food.
At midday, I give him veggies, some fruit, and maybe half a Yo Baby if he is still hungry.
For dinner, I give him rice cereal with veggies and some fruit for dessert.

I too try to space out the oatmeal and rice cereal. I also try to feed him veggies at the beginning of the meal to get him used to eating them vs the sweet fruit. He will take the veggies but he much prefers the fruit!
I hope this helps!

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R.O.

answers from New York on

Start with the single grain rice cereal, & go less with the oatmeal. The rice cereal can be mixed with any baby foods, fruits, veggies, meat dishes. And most important, it's easier on their digestive system. You can even just serve the cereal mixed with whatever formula or breast milk you are giving her.

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G.T.

answers from Rochester on

Oatmeal is fine, but I've always thought of it as a breakfast food. And maybe for a snack before bedtime if needed.

I always fed my kids the following.

For breakfast: some fruit, and cereal (oatmeal, rice etc)

For lunch: fruit and a vegetable sometimes a little pasta.

For dinner: a vegetable, fruit, meat, pasta or potato (starchy food).

And try some of the foods you eat. Cut it up small. If he can pick it up with 2 fingers he is probably ready to eat it without choking. If not, get a grinder or chopper and make your own foods. I found an inexpensive mini food processor (I think I paid about $4 for it) that works great and is just the right size for a single serving.

I had 5 kids and all of them were very healthy, and enjoyed all their meals. I also babysat and fed all 6 of my grandchildren everyday and fed them the same way. All of them are healthy and enjoy mealtime as well. And not a picky eater in the bunch. All of them love meats, vegetables and fruits.

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S.G.

answers from Rochester on

My baby girl started two meals a day at 5.5 months, and around 7 we started giving three meals. I started out giving oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, veggies and fruit for lunch, and cereal, a dinner (meat/veggies usually), and a fruit for dinner.

Now she's almost 10 months and she eats everything and anything. She has fruit with breakfast (cereal and/or pancakes/eggs-n-toast/waffles), lunch she'll have no-salt canned veggies (green beans or carrots), some fruit, some carbs and a drink, and for dinner she'll eat what we'll have, if its not a lot of salt, or cereal/veggies/fruits/pasta/bread/etc. Its SO much fun at this stage with them eating everything.

Have fun with it, just make sure you space them out a couple days to watch for allergies.

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T.M.

answers from Utica on

there was just an article of a baby that ate mostly oatmeal and was lacking in a lot of other nutrients that they needed. I would get the sbaby food for older children, if that is not an option, do you have a blender or food processor. You can put what you eat in it and mince it up or puree it and then little one can eat what everyone else is eatting. This says you are in Ilion, are you really in Ilion?

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