Regular Feeding Habits for 8 Month Old

At 8 months he should be having 3 meals a day and breastfeeding at least 5 times not including night. As far as how much to send is hard to say because every baby is different. It is important the he feels he has enough to eat so I would error on the side of sending too much.

Often kids eat better at daycare because daycare doesn't get emotionally involved. Their job is to feed the kids and they don't care if they eat or not. Sometimes kids eat better when the person feeding them doesn't care because they aren't being pushed to eat and there is less distraction. I don't know if this helps but it's what I know to be true.

My son is 9 months old, but here's what he ate at your son's age:

6 a.m. - nursing
8 a.m. - rice cereal or oatmeal mixed with fruit
9 a.m. - 6-7 oz. bottle at daycare
11:30 a.m. - one veggie and one fruit, puffs
1 p.m. - 6-7 oz. bottle
4 p.m. - 5-6 oz. bottle
5:45 p.m. - one veggie, yogurt, puffs
6:30 p.m. - nursing

Now at 9 months he's getting more table food at day care during the day - mixed veggies, pasta, bits of toast. He also recently dropped the second afternoon bottle, which is good because my milk production has dropped, too. It seems like he eats a lot, but we never force him to eat and let him tell us when he's done.

I think the important thing is that your son doesn't replace the breastmilk with the solid foods yet - the solids should be in addition to the milk. Babies still need adequate amounts of breastmilk or formula in their diets until 1 year. I've read that at this age, babies should still nurse 3-4 times/day or have 20-30 oz. of pumped milk or formula.

Hi Lauri,
I am a mom of 3 and a daycare provider. I have a five month old son, who nurses 8times a day. Eats 1 cup of baby food 2 a day. Takes a 1-1 1/2 nap in the morning then takes the same in the afternoon. He then takes a cat nap around dinner time and falls asleep 8or9ish! He wakes sometimes at night but will sleep for 10-12hrs at night. I would hope that your daycare provider has a routine for the children and that they are using it daily. Your Son should sleep 2 a day at least and be able to sleep 10-12hrs at night.....I hope this helps any other ??? Feel free to ask:) Shelly.k

congrats for breastfeeding! its hard work, but so rewarding!

this is a tough one.
i guess i dont know for sure how much he should eat, that varies a lot, depending on child, and mood, etc. so its different. i would tell your day care to try other things before feeding him, like a nap - as you say hes sleeping less there for some reason. probably because of the unusual environment. its probably much more 'exciting' there with other kids around.

i wouldnt send more food that YOU feel he needs. hes only there part time, they cant possibly be the expert on your child the way you are. remember always, you are mom, you know your child more intimatly and perfectly than anyone else. no one else's opinion really matters if it doesnt agree with what you know about your son.

keep up the good work mom - and dont let someone who seems to think they know better tell you how to raise your son! :D

All I can say is that I know how you feel about the daycare issue. When my son was about your son's age, my daycare center director threatened to call child protection on me because she thought I was starving my son. Like you, I felt that he was eating just fine and that maybe he needed to sleep a bit more. Needless to say we ended up switching daycares, but we had an extreme case I think.

Anyway, from my experience with my son (now 21 months) and in my experience working in a childcare center for 10 years before my son was born, this is what we did: Breakfast: 1/2 jar fruit and rice cereal
Bottle: 5-6 oz. breast milk
Lunch: 1/2 jar veggie and rice cereal
Bottle: 5-6 oz. breast milk
Snack: (introduced about 8-9 months and not always used) a bit of finger food
And, of course, it goes without say that kids vary so much in what they eat. My son was on the small side but he's always been a big fan of food! Hope that helps! Good luck with the daycare issue, I really do know what you're feeling. Just stick to it and ask that they at least try your suggestions. If he still seems hungry after that, tell them you will discuss it again.

My 8 month old eats like crazy, though not in the quantity my first son did. He has to nurse on one side, and have cereal in the morning (I usually add a fruit to it), and then he gets a veggie and fruit for lunch, and veggie/fruit at dinner, in between all those, he nurses. If he doesn't get solids at those times, he does get a bit cranky. I do notice if I feed him formula at his mealtime, along with the solids, he'll usually drink 4-5 oz. I'm not sure how much to tell you I give him. I blend up fresh fruits and veggies for less expense/more variety and store them frozen into cubes in baggies. That way I can mix and match and pop them in the microwave for a min. If you want to know what foods he can have at 8 months, let me know and I'll send ya a list!
Good Luck!

Lauri,

I have an 8 month old daughter. She is currently eating cereal with 1/2 jar of fruit for breakfast, 1/2 jar of fruit or veggies with cereal for lunch and than 1/2 jar fruit and 1/2 jar of veggies for dinner.

I have read that at this age they are suppose to be eating 2 1/2 jars of food a day. I can only get 2 jars in her - I don't want to over feed her, although she would probably eat it.

As far as bottles, she has a 6oz breakfast, 6oz lunch, 6oz dinner and 8oz before bed.

From what you wrote, he should/could be eating more food than what he currently is. When breastfeeding, you don't know how much is is getting, unless you are pumping and you can see what he eats.

I really suggest the book Babywise II by Gary Ezzo. It has tons of great information on this topic!

My daughter is 8 months old and her feeding schedule looks like this:
6:00am 6-8 oz of formula, cereal with fruit
11:30am - 6oz formula, veggies
4:30pm - 6oz formula, veggies and cereal with fruit
8:30pm - 6-8oz formula then bedtime (she sleeps through the night until 6am)

You want to try and avoid ''snacking'' meaning you don't want to give milk and 2 hours later give solids and a couple hours later give milk and so on...this can decrease your supply because you son is probably not very hungry when you nurse if he's just eaten a jar of veggies 2 hours earlier. The key is whole meals 4-5 hours apart, this will reagulate his metabolism and get him on a consistant schedule!

I really do recommend the Babywise book, it shed so much light on this topic when I was so clueless on what to do with my first daughter.

I send 12-14 oz of breastmilk to daycare (or with dad) when I have to work (approx. 10 hrs). I nurse him before I go to work, and twice in the eve/night. Usually he nurses about 6x/day when I'm at home with him.
He also likes to "go, go, go" and when there is a lot of activity, it's hard to get him to slow down and even think about napping even when you can see he is tired! I have my daycare provider take him into a "quiet" area and sing/read when he starts rubbing his eyes, yawning,etc.

Hi Lauri,
My youngest daughter is 8 mos. old also... We started giving her rice cereal or oatmeal mixed with gerber foods, now for basically 3 meals a day. (Breakfast, lunch, dinner...) She slowed her nursing habits a lot with just one meal of baby food, then would get frustrated easily throughout the day when nursing. We started including lunch and dinner in her routine and she nursed even less. My husband bottle feeds her usually once in the evening, and then I nurse her the rest of the time, which is only about 3 times over a 24 hour period. It sounds like your daycare might be right, especially once they've tasted/eaten baby food, all 3 of my kids were quickly eating it 3 times a day after being introduced to it. Try mixing cereal (rice/ oatmeal) with a container of 2nd foods. It seems like a lot (and may be at first) but he will most likely be satisfied, and it might even help him take a nap (full bellies = happy babies). Then nurse as you normally would, which may be "snacks" for him, hopefully you'll notice a difference... Good luck...
J.

When my son was in daycare, around 8 months, I'd send four 6-8 oz bottles a day. I'd nurse him in the morning before we left (around 6 am), he'd get breakfast at daycare (whatever they were eating--my son was a very good eater and ate a wide variety of foods very quickly), a bottle before morning nap, bottle when he woke up, lunch (again, what they were eating), bottle before afternoon nap, bottle when he woke up, and then snack and we'd feed him dinner at home. My boys (I now have a 9 month old at home in addition to my first, who's now 4) both have really been into eating real foods. My first preferred the bottle of pumped breastmilk to nursing, so he mostly nursed overnight and got the bulk of his milk at daycare--he was there about 7 hours and had 24-30 oz there. But--at around 8 months, both my boys were eating regular meals with the family, minus the food concerns--nuts, honey, dairy, seafood. We force the cereal on them for iron, but they both prefer meat to the cereal. We sneak it in other foods, but basically do baby cereal once a day. I KNOW we give our children more foods more readily than a lot of people. We didn't start our boys on food until 6 months, but once they got exposed, they really took off and our doctors have been fine with that. I also second what one mom said--your child might eat more at daycare. Mine did, partially because daycare made (healthy) child friendly foods--lots of fruits and spaghetti and things kids like, whereas we ate what we liked at home and tried to convince our kid to eat it. I'm rambling now, so I'm done. Good luck!

Oh--and if he's only napping a half hour there, that seems like not enough. Of course, all children are different (for both eating and sleeping) so going with what you believe for your child is probably going to be best!

I would arrange a meeting with the lead daycare teacher and discuss your concerns about the tiredness vs. hunger and let them talk about what they observe. When I read your post, the info about the extremely short nap was a HUGE red flag. Something needs to change in regards to that or I suggest you find a different daycare. We had that problem at my son's daycare and it resulted in big behavior changes for him that were NOT positive.

My son is almost 8 months old and has always been on a great feeding schedule - usually every 3-4 hours. I also have in-home day care,so I have a lot of experience feeding infants. My son is still eating 1st foods - a fruit with cereal and about 5 ounces of breastmilk for breakfast, then a 5 1/2 ounce bottle mid-morning, a veggie with cereal and about 5 ounces of milk for lunch, then 5 1/2 ounce bottle mid-afternoon, another veggie at dinner time plus 5 ounces, and finally a 5 1/2 ounce bottle before bed. We have not yet introduced meats, but this schedule seems to work for us. My son is also a great sleeper - usually 4 naps throughout the entire day - not usually too long - except during growth spurts. Your infant may just be on a different schedule there and in a different environment usually makes a difference. Some of my families can't believe how well their child eats at day care because they see the other kids eating and want to follow. As long as your baby is gaining weight and thriving - I wouldn't be too concerned - I know it's hard not too though! Hopefully this was helpful for you - good luck!

I have 4 children and have been running an in home daycare for 15 years. In my opinion a 8 month old child should be eating infant cereal and fruit for breakfast. Lunch should consist of infant meat or cereal and fruit or vegetable. Supper should be the same. Most daycares are on a state funded food program that have guidelines that you can check out. I use providers choice. Check out the website it will tell you how much your child should be offered at meals. www.providerschoice.com. Not all children will eat this, but I have found that most do once they are offered it and get use to it. Hope this helps.....Feel free to email me if you would like to chat!