Food Schedule for 7 Month Baby

You might try giving her the food all at the same time so you're not constantly feeding baby. I used to give baby 1 jar of food along with about 4 oz of milk or 2 jars of food. That should tide baby over for 3-4 hours until the next meal. It sounds as if you are feeding baby every two hours and that's a lot of work. It's not necessary to feed baby that often when on solid foods. The heavier foods will carry baby over more hours. You can try mixing a jar of fruit baby food along with baby cereal for a meal. This is rather heavy meal and tasty for baby. For my children, the cereal mix always lasted a good 4 hours.

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Here the what I fed Ali when she was that age (she is 10 months now)
She got cereal and milk for breakfast
veggie and fruit for lunch
a meat, veggie, and fruit for supper.
and then I gave her milk when she wanted something in between. It works GREAT for us.

8:00 am- 6oz bottle
9:00 am- 1/2 jar Stage 2 fruit
12:00 pm- 1 jar Stage 2 veggie followed by 4oz bottle
3:00pm- 6oz bottle
5:30pm- 1 jar Stage 2 meat plus around 2 spoonfulls of rice cereal mixed with 1oz formula, followed by 4oz bottle
8:30pm- 6oz bottle

I've recently tried to introduce a sippy cup with water during her food meals, but so far she just wants to chew on the spout...

My son is also 7 months old and nursing.

Here is what he is doing now based in our pediatrition's advice

breakfast - nurses and then about 1/2 hour later eats 2 Tbsp cereal w/3 Tbsp formula mixed in and 1/4 jar of fruit

lunch - nurses and about 1/2 hour later has 1/2 cup or so veggies and 1/4 cup of fruit

around 3P - nurses

dinner - 3 Tbsp cereal w/4 Tbsp formula mixed in and 1/2 - 1 jar veggies and then nurses before bed

We have been working up to this for the past month and just recetly added food for lunch insead of just nursing.
Hope you find this helpful!

Hi M.,
I also have a 7 month old baby (boy) and am still nursing and pumping when at work, and I have a 3 year old that also was breast fed until he was 7 months. I am not sure if there is a "typical" feeding schedule for 7 month olds. I have found that we are constantly changing our routine and will continue to keep changing until he is completely weaned and eating solid foods only. However, it seems like your current feeding schedule is very similar to ours, with him taking about 4 bottles during the day with cereal and fruit/veggies mixed in and then fruit and cereal for dinner. I usually nurse him right after work and then again before bed... that is during the week. Our weekends are completely messed up, and I usually just go with the flow. I have to say, as long as they are growing normally and still getting breast milk (the best for baby) you are doing great! Keep up with the hard but important work! M.

You've actually got a pretty good schedule going. With Eli, his day went like this at that age:
Wake up, nurse, then food a bit later
play for a while
nap
wake up, nurse, then food a bit later
play for a while
nap
wake up, nurse, then dinner when we ate dinner
play for a bit longer
bed time

There's no reason for cereal at her age, finish whatever box(es) you have and don't get anymore. They don't ever really need it, but as soon as they take other foods, it's just a waste of time a money for you :)

I have a little girl who is 7 and a half months! She eats breakfast, lunch and dinner with the rest of the family. Each meal is 1-2 jars of food, or the equivalent in homemade stuff. Breakfast and lunch are baby cereal mixed with fruit or veggies and dinner is whatever we're eating. I either cut up dinner into tiny pieces (she has two teeth) or I puree it in a food processor. I nurse her with every meal, before or after - whenever I have time. I nurse her between meals too, 10am and 2pm and she naps after nursing.
Your schedule sounds perfect! Although you may save a little time by nursing and offering food right after.

Mine little girl ate every 4 hours...so breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime bottle. Nurse her first each time (as she will get the nutrients and things that she needs from you) and then offer food. I did cereal for breakfast (sometimes mixed with fruit), veggie for lunch, fruit for dinner. Sometimes for lunch and dinner, I would give a jar and a half.

For my oldest son, I would nurse first thing in the morning, 6:30am. For my daughter and youngest son, their teeth prohibited their nursing by 5 months.
For breakfast about 8:00-8:30am, they would get a bowl of cereal (1/4 cup of cereal with water) and a 6oz bottle. I usually made my cereal fairly thick at this age.
For lunch about noon, they would get a jar of stage 2 veggie and a 6oz bottle or 4oz of juice.
For snack when she woke up, a 6oz bottle and finger foods.
For dinner about 6:00pm, a jar of stage 2 fruit and a jar of stage 2 dinner and a 6oz bottle.
As she needed more food, I went up to stage three on the dinners and veggies. I stayed at stage 2 for the fruits and introduced regular applesauce and bannanas. I never went above a 6oz bottle, because they were getting food with the bottle.

I actually have a 7 month old right now as well. I also have a 3 year old and we did this with her also and it worked well for us. I got the info from On Becoming Babywise and On Becoming Babywise II. They suggest starting to line up the baby's feeding schedule with the rest of the family around this age. For example: my daughter gets 4 feedings a day, 3 of them include solids. So breakfast (7AM) she gets a liquid feeding then cereal after her liquid feeding, then around 11:30 another liquid feeding and cereal and fruit or cereal and veggie, then at 4PM another liquid feeding offering cereal and fruit and/or veggie after the liquid feeding. Then another liquid feeding at bedtime (7PM). Basically the important part is to remember that the liquid feeding is more important than solids at this point, but that it is good to get them used to a schedule similar to your eating schedule so they aren't wanting to eat all the time once those liquid feedings go away at a year. The philosophy in the books is to not have them "snacking" all day (liquid feeding, then 2 hours later cereal, then 2 hours later liquid feeding again, then later another solid feeding and so on.) Hope this helps! It worked for us the first time and so far it's going well this time too!

M., my son is the same age. I try to nurse him in the morning before work but he has recently not wanted to eat. He goes to day care and I send 3 5oz bottles. for breakfast he has a bottle and oatmeal, lunch bottle then 1-2 5oz containers of fruit and veggies, bottle in the afternoon, breatfeed when we get home about 6-7pm then 2 5oz baby food containers and gerber puffs. I usually feed him all at once and do not delay giving him solid foods. Hope this helps! On the weekend he breastfeeds instead of bottle feeding. J. Hickey

Hi M.-I am in the same boat and was wanting to see the responses you have gotten so that is why I am responding because I know they will pop up after I send this. My son is getting breast milk every 2 1/2 to 3 hours and is only eating half jar of veggies at dinner and half jar of fruit. Now I am worried about underfeeding him. Good Luck to you and me on figuring it out:) jd

My youngest will be 7 months old next week! She's following the eating pattern my other children had. She nurses for 10-15 minutes within 30 minutes of waking up at 7:30. For breakfast, she sits at the table with me and the 2 year old (big brother eats earlier because he's out the door to the bus at 7:30). She gets a small plastic 'gerber' bowl of baby cereal - usually oatmeal or barley. She also gets some fruit sliced into thin, small pieces (pea-sized) -- banana, avacado, ripe pear, apple, nectarine, etc. She nurses mid-morning for a 'snack'. Lunch is more fruit, a vegetable and bread/cereal. The vegetables are usually steamed (so they're soft) and cut into small pieces - beans, peas, corn, potatoes, carrots, etc. The 'bread' is either dry toast, french toast (no butter/syrup!) or cereal like Kix or Cheerios. She nurses about 30 minutes after lunch, just before naptime. She nurses again when she wakes up from nap 2-3 hours later. Dinner is whatever the family is eating, just cut up into small pea-size bites. She then nurses again for 5-10 minutes after dinner and again (for 20-30 minutes) just before bedtime.

I have to cut everything up into pea-sized bits because she doesn't have any teeth yet. Those front teeth are what they use to bite stuff off. Babies can gum anything. None of my children got their first tooth until after their 1st birthday. And the others were all 100% self-feeding with fingers by 7-9 months.

hi M.,
I just read your request and the responses you have gotten i was just wondering the same as you my 7mo DD is now just in the last cpl days went from eating solids 2x's to 3x's a day she has 6 teeth but dont like stage 3 foods she gets cereal and fruit for bkfst stage 2 veggie/or meal for lunch and supper this along with nursing she nurses 1st thing in the morning and a cpl hrs later eats bkfst i try to nurse her a cpl hrs after that but she is showing little interest in nursing she nurses fine at night and nurses usually to go to sleep in the day. i have a cpl sippy and have seen her actually drink from it right a cpl times it has had juice and or water in it. now wondering if i should pump and see how she does with BM in a cup.
good luck sounds like your lil one is doing good..L.

My 7 month old son, has cereal mixed with fruit for breakfast about 7am, then after an hour or when he gets hungry he gets 6oz milk, for lunch around 12pm he gets a veggie and a fruit, then another 6 oz milk when he wants it. Then late afternoon he gets another 6 oz milk. For dinner around 6pm he gets a meat and veggie. At bedtime he gets 6 oz milk. This schedule works for my son since he has a demanding appetite. He just fell into it, and it works for everyone. Good Luck!

She should still be eatnig on demand, nursing or food, whenever she wants. Keep up the nursing--great stuff!!