Feeding Schedule for 8-Month Old

Hi M.. This was always one area where I wish the answer was black & white, but I have discovered that every mom/baby does things just a little differently. I have a 10 month old and here is his schedule. Like previous responders have said, formula is where infants should get most of their nutrition from up to age 1.

6:00 7 oz bottle
8:30 Rice Creal & Jar of fruit
12:00 Jar of fruit or vege
3:00 7 oz bottle
5:30 Jar of vege or what ever we are having diced up
7:30 7 oz bottle before bed

Hope this is helpful to you. Good luck!

Hi M.,

I have 2 answers for you...LOL.

First answer: If she has no issues with food (such as someone trying to force her to eat when she's refusing or witholding food as punishment---which I'm sure you're doing neither of those), then she will most likely eat the right amount for her needs. Is she at a good weight? That will tell you if she's getting enough.

Second answer: I'm a child care provide and have nutritional guidelines that are set by the food reimbursement program. This is what I am required to offer to infants between the ages of 8 and 12 months. They may eat more or less...it just depends on the child and what kind of day he/she is having.

Breakfast:
6-8 ounces breast milk or formula,
2-4 T infant cereal,
1-4 T fruit and/or vegetable.

Lunch and Dinner:
6-8 ounces breast milk or formula,
2-4 T infant cereal and/or 1-4 T meat, fish, poultry, egg yolk, or cooked dry beans or peas, or 1/2 to 2 ounces cheese, or 1-4 ounces cottage cheese or cheese spread,
1-4 T fruit and/or vegetable

Snacks:
2-4 ounces breast milk or formula or fruit juice
0-1/2 slice bread or 0-2 crackers

Hope this helps. I can also let you know the guidelines for older children as well.

K.
www.joyfulconnections.net

P.S. I enjoyed the site mentioned by Annette.

Our ped told us that formula should be the main source of nutrition until one year old. We did do solids, cereal for breakfast sometimes fruit, too. Veggie and or fruit for lunch and dinner was veggie and fruit. If we had something that she was able to eat, then she got some of that too.

I also NEVER gave juice. I don't to this day and she'll be two this month. I gave water with meals.

I am very curious as to the responses you get, I just asked the same for our 4 month old.

There is a book what to expect the first year, however it doenst give specific amounts of each.

M.,
I have an 8 mo. old daughter also. She's been on 3 solid meals for a about a month now. Her schedule is: wake up around 7 and nurse. 8:30 am - Eat fruit and oatmeal (one whole container of #2 fruits mixed with enough Gerber oatmeal to make it an actual oatmeal consistency. She gets either a 4 oz. bottle of formula or 2-3 oz. of fruit juice about 2 hours later (10:00-10:30). #2 fruit around noon for lunch but she doesn't always finish it, usually about half of the container. Another full bottle around 2pm, and again around 4-5pm. At 6:00 she gets dinner which is a full containers worth of veggies and/or meat (sometimes half of one and half of another). She sometimes gets half a bottle around 7:00pm or so then a full bottle at bedtime (9:00). Of course, you shouldn't follow this just because we do...but hope it helps. It's always nice to know what other people are doing. You should also know that I think my little one is going through a growth spurt or something...as she's only been taking this much formula for the past 2 weeks or so.

i like this website. http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/babymenu.htm

my son is 8 months as well his feeding schedule is as follows: (keep in mind... this is a good eating day)
-7am - 6-8 oz bottle when he wakes up in the morning

-10am - fruit(1st stage) mixed with some type of cereal (rice or oatmeal) and a 4oz bottle

-1 ish - he'll have his veges (2nd stage) and a 4oz. bottle

-3or4ish - 6-8oz bottle

-6:30pm veges (2nd stage) a meat (1st stage) and i will mix in cereal with both then i give him 1-2oz. formula in a sippy cup (which i don't count toward daily ounces since he isn't a professional sippy cup drinker yet.)

-7:30pm i give him a 6oz. bottle. before bed.

(occasionally he will wake up through the night for a bottle, and i will give him 6 ounces but thats rare and usually the days that he didn't get all the formula that he should have gotten)

This is basically what we do but every feeding of course varies depending on the feeding before. i was told the formula is the most important part of his diet so i try my hardest to give him the daily recommended ounces. it's hard when they start to fill up on those new fun solid foods.

happy feeding,
S.

Oh, boy, this made me crazy a few months ago! I couldn't find answers anywhere. Only types of food and never how much. I had started on food at six months (if that other mom is reading: medical community seems to agree there is point until then). Samantha never ate much of any one food at a time, and we moved into things slowly. I just tried to do my best and made sure she wasn't hungry. At our nine month check-up I asked the nurse practitioner. Here are the basics of her response. Three meals a day, food always comes first. Then supplement with a bottle. From 9-12 months is when the baby's body starts changing over to taking nutrients more from the food. Sure enough, only a few weeks later the formula started leaving her unsatisfied. I started with a 1/4 cup of oatmeal and added applesauce, which I didn't really measure. Lunch was a jar of veggies for starters, then maybe fruit depending on how hungry she was. Dinner was a jar of protein and a jar of veggies. Her 4:00 bottle stayed that way for a little while longer then slowly became a snack, like cheerios and fruit. I took it day by day. Sometimes there was a small bottle between breakfast and lunch. Sometimes one before bedtime. Then there was a week when she wanted to drink all her meals.I say roll with it, and listen to your baby. This might be really ignorant, but when I didn't know what to do I let the size of the baby food jars be my starting guide. As for times, I started with our 4 bottle a day schedule and adapted it. She just turned a year. We are off the bottle and almost off baby food. I keep squash and sweet potatoes around for convenience. Now that it is table food, I'm worrying about portions all over again!
Good luck,
Martha B.

Hi M.! Thank you so much for asking this question. I also have an 8-month old and wondering how much he should be eating as well. Sorry I can't be of any help but wanted to thank you for posting this question!

My son is now 10 months old. He eats 3 meals a day. He usually has 3-4 bottles of formula a day (usually 8 ounces but sometimes 4-6 in the middle of the day). Your baby at that age will probably be wanting to eat about 24-28 ounces of formula a day. It is around 10 months that they switch that to about 16-24 ounces a day (I believe). I double checked this with an earlier message I had posted and I found the information in an article on iVillage.com (it was a pretty good article on called Guidelines for Babies and included suggestions for what types of foods to offer at each age/stage). I had also found the information in some parenting books which pretty much said the same thing. The article said a 7-9 month old should have between 24-32 ounces of formula a day. They say a 10-12 month old should have between 16-24 ounces a day.

Good luck. Hope this helps.

Hi M., Well my daughter is 81/2 months and she has been on solids for about 2 1/2 mo. she gets 4 btls a day about 7oz each about 3-4 hours apart. and i start when she gets up in the morning (the Ped said she needs to have at least 24oz of formula a day) then cereal and fruit mixed or yogurt about 40min later for breakfast. at lunch time she has some sort of mixed veggies about 40min after her second btl and then she has her third bt about 5pm and dinner about 6:30-7 and her final btl about 8:30 and bed about 9. I hope this helps. I have also been giving her some new foods to try like some plain cooked pasta, fruit (bananas, peaches, watermelon) buy some of those little teething bags that hold food they are great. she eats crackers and gerber makes these little star puffs and wheels that she really like.they melt in her mouth. Have fun with it.

M.
I use this site a lot for advice as well as recipes and food ideas for both of my boys. Good Luck!!
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/solidfood8to10montholdba...

Hi M.! I feel like my daughter was 8 months old just yesterday... but she is going on 17 months already. Around 8 months we had also gotten into the three meals a day schedule, along with breast milk three times a day. We did milk in the morning when she woke up and breakfast shortly after (half hour or so). Breakfast was usually some fruit, oatmeal/cereal/ half a bagel/some type of bread, and 1/3 of a baby yogurt/cottage cheese. She still eats similar things for breakfast, the amount has just increased. Before her nap (usually 3 hours from waking up) she would have another breastfeeding (but a short one so less milk than the other feedings). After her nap we did lunch which is when I introduced a lot of vegetables into her diet, some baby food but also some steamed and pureed/cut/mushed. I also started adding chicken/meat (like ground turkey) into some of her veggies to get her used to the flavors. Sometimes we had a small portion of left overs from dinner (maybe chicken and rice/ pasta pureed just a little bit so it is still chunky but easier to eat). I used potatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli, peas, and cauliflower a lot during that time. Between lunch and dinner she usually had a small snack(fruit/crackers/cereal like cheerios)with a drink. For dinner we tried to give her some of whatever we would normally eat, which is possible on most nights... we just had to do a little less with spices or separate her portion before adding something (like tomato sauce) until she was old enough to have it. She drank water with her meals and then had one last feeding before bed (which started out being up to eight ounces of milk but gradually went down to 4 or 5). The main things we tried to do were offer healthy foods and allow her to eat when she was hungry but also keep a schedule and we always ate at the table. We also introduced her (over time) to a variety of foods and flavors and now she is not a very picky eater. With changes in sleep patterns, teething, and any colds, the routine will get thrown off. Around 9 months my daughters appetite really increased and she started eating sometimes twice the amount she had been. Now she has started eating a little less, but she still has a very similar schedule to the one we started when she was younger. I hope this helps a little! Best of luck to you :)

I probably feed my almost one year old about every 3.5 to four hours. I know his cues when he is hungry and i go by that. i usually feed him baby oatmeal with yogurt in the morning. i usually do a baby bowl with the yogurt. i feed him table food also. the baby will let you know if she is still hungry or full. they usually turn their face away when they are full. feed her oatmeal,rice and multigrain cereals. i usually do a cereal mixed with fruit,like peaches,pears,mangoes. i also try to give him some veggies also. try a little pasta also. i make my baby food. i do not like the baby food they have out there because it is too expensive and i do not like all of the preservatives.