Solids

Yep and "baby should be dropping milk feeds" but also milk is the main source of nutrition until 1 so make sure they're getting enough milk.

Exactly the conversation I had today at a baby session! There was a lactation consultant there and she was reiterating that even if baby isn't taking to foods but is fine with milk - since its their main source of nutrition not to drop a feed. And take baby's lead. She also said "but don't tell your HV!" Cos from a HV perspective they believe a child should be on 3 meals etc by now and you should drop a feed! I just think if baby is actively enjoying and eating food then it makes sense but to intentionally withold milk so they eat more doesn't sit right with me. They have their whole lives to eat food! For now it should actually just be fun and exploration - not the pressure to have full meals.

I said the exact same thing to my partner. I think the term ‘food is fun until they’re one’ isn’t necessarily the right term in my opinion, while they’re exploring textures/taste’s/ learning to feed themselves, it’s still a really important part of their development. The main thing is the milk so we don’t have to stress so much about how much they’re eating at this stage. With cutting the bottles it’s a slow process and every baby is different xx

My daughter always has 2 meals and 3 bottles 8oz I’ve tried dropping but I just can’t get them down but will sometimes have a third meal she’s just turned 9 months but my health visitor asked if she was on 3 meals but if she isn’t showing signs of hunger I’m not going to force her to eat 🤦‍♀️ she always has breakfast and dinner lunch is just a hit or a miss I try to offer snacks in the afternoon

I know, I don’t understand this one. “Food before one is just for fun but at 9 months you should be offering 3 meals a day”. I’m not going to force my 9 month old breakfast when he’s screaming because he’s not hungry as he’s had milk and he gets very agitated when I try and give him solids in the morning. There’s nothing “fun” about that. I’ve also been told “food before 1 is just for fun but finger foods are needed to help with their speech and language development” 🤷‍♀️

I always find this confusing too. My baby girl is/was EBF on demand. She still feeds a lot at night but in daytime less since solids. Yet she only really eats breakfast properly. Lunch and dinner as others have said are very hit and miss. I was worried she wasn’t getting enough as like you mentioned I keep seeing they say by 12 months they should be on 3 meals a day. She got weighed today however and had gone from 50th to 95th centile. So she’s obviously getting enough lol.