When starting out it’s very much about going at your baby’s pace. You may want to go slowly in the early days and offer your baby just one or two foods a day. We’ve given, as examples, quite a bit of variety in this meal plan just so you have some ideas of different foods you can offer your baby. However, there’s no need to worry if your baby is eating very little in the early days as they will still be getting the majority of their nutrition from their usual milk feeds.
From 7 months onwards most babies are getting the hang of eating and are happy to try lots of new foods so this is a good time to introduce plenty of new foods and flavours. By 8 months your baby should ideally be having three meals a day (with preferably two courses at lunch time). You can also start to offer one or two snacks at around 8 months but don’t worry if your little one isn’t yet interested in snacks at this stage. You will also most likely notice that your little one is drinking less milk from 7-9 months of age.
By this age baby-led babies will already be in charge of how much they eat and they may now get quite excited around meal-times (especially if their favourite food is on the menu!). By this stage your baby will be having three meals and two healthy snacks a day. It’s advisable that both lunch and dinner include a main course and pudding especially now that milk feeds will be reducing.
For formula fed babies, they should be consuming around 500ml of milk in 24 hours. By one, this amount should reduce down to 400ml of cow’s milk offered in a cup (and not in a bottle). Breastfed babies will be having approximately three breastfeeds over 24 hours.