Pregnancy
A Daily Schedule for Feeding a 6-Month-Old
by T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., author of Feeding: The Brazelton WayFor healthy 6-month-olds, I usually recommend a daily schedule that can eventually look like the following example. Exact amounts vary with factors such as a baby's size and activity level.
| 7:00 A.M. | Milk feeding |
| 8:30 A.M. | Fruit, cooked and strained |
| 11:00 A.M. | Diluted fruit juice or water. No more than 3-4 ounces of juice per day. No fruit drinks and no juice at all before 6 months of age. Try serving juice only in a sippie cup so that your baby never gets used to juice in his bottle. Don't let juice take the place of milk and important solid foods. (While limiting juice, there's no need to hold back on water.) |
| Noon | Cooked and strained meat and vegetable, milk feeding |
| 3:00 P.M. | Water or juice, and perhaps a solid food snack |
| 5:00 P.M. | Cereal and fruit (cooked and strained) |
| 6:30 P.M. | Milk again |
| 9:30-10:00 P.M. | Fourth milk feeding, if necessary |
This schedule is a goal, not easily reached with babies who want to be fed more often. If you are breastfeeding, don't rush to eliminate feedings. You want to keep your breasts stimulated often enough to keep the milk coming. When you are feeding solids, watch him reach for your breast or for the bottle. He knows this is still the most important food you give him.
More on: Feeding Your Child
Excerpted from:
Excerpted from Feeding: The Brazelton Way © 2004 by T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., and Joshua D. Sparrow, M.D. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Perseus.
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