Feeding Nap Schedules for 9 Month Old..

Well, Ben is just her age, so I’ll tell you what we do with him… however, he is NOT the best sleeper, so that varies a bit.

1. I do feed him three meals a day. I’ve never heard that about not feeding them due to the risk of obesity. I wonder if that’s a new thing because of the obesity rates going up so much? Anyway, at what age did your ped. suggest moving to three meals??? I did three with Claire and Ben from about 7-8 months or so. I figure eating with the family will help him learn to eat, feed himself, etc. better. There’s no way that Ben is eating 32 oz. nor was he before we started the solids. I would do whatever you feel you need to do though, especially if she doesn’t seem to mind either way.

2. Ben is down to two naps a day.. and, sometimes only one! I know, I hate it, but the boy is a horrible napper. Anyway, he usually wakes up around 7 or so and then goes down for naps around 10 and 2. Seems like he will only nap for about a total of 2 1/2 hours a day, no matter which way we work it. Depending on how he napped that afternoon, he is usually in bed asleep by 8 or, like tonight (a bad nap day, he was out by 7:20).

As for the teeth. We are still all gums here, but what I did with Claire was to skip the toothpaste thing and after the bottle, just gently rub a soft cloth over her teeth. This way I didn’t wake her up too much if she was already nice and drowsy, but I still got them cleaned. Then I would always brush them better in the morning.

i follow the baby led approach. we do not spoon feed i let him self feed, that way he controls his food intake. he loves avacodo, sweet potato, bread with almond butter, lima beans, pasta, etc. i find this more beneficial than spoon feeding. i do not follow any sort of schedule. i do not think it is best for my son to be fit into a schedule of when he “should” eat or how much he “should” be eating.

baby led approach:

http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/ rapley_guidelines.html

as for sleeping, he sleeps when he gets tired

i am not a fan of forcing him on a schedule, since so many things can mess up our days plans.

nataliachick72007-6-14 9:4:30

Oh, boy. I’m so terrible in introducing new foods to Ariella. She doesn’t finger feed herself b/c I’m TERRIFIED of her chocking on the food (I know, I know, I’m paranoid). She eats around 30-35 oz of milk and gets 1 (sometimes 2) veggies and 1 fruit a day. As far as the sleeping goes, she’s a terrible napper. She wakes up at 6 am (no matter how late she goes down for the night). First nap is around 9-10 am, second nap is around 12 pm and third nap is around 4 pm. She’s still on three naps a day but she naps 30-40 minutes. I know it’s not enough for her b/c she wakes up cranky. Then we put her to bed for the night around 8 or so. We put her down earlier one day (at 7pm) and she woke up at 2 am all rested!

I have one of those finger brushes also. I would not use the toothpaste so early on. As far as I remember (from my dental hygience days, RDH-registered dental hygienist we did not recommend toothpaste until the child can spit out on their own (so they don’t ingest the toothpaste). I guess he thinks that it’s safe since you’re the one controling the amount that goes into her mouth. Using just the brush is really enough. As long as the plaque is mechanically removed, there is no need for the paste.

mariannardh wrote:

Oh, boy. I’m so terrible in introducing new foods to Ariella. She doesn’t finger feed herself b/c I’m TERRIFIED of her chocking on the food (I know, I know, I’m paranoid). She eats around 30-35 oz of milk and gets 1 (sometimes 2) veggies and 1 fruit a day. As far as the sleeping goes, she’s a terrible napper. She wakes up at 6 am (no matter how late she goes down for the night). First nap is around 9-10 am, second nap is around 12 pm and third nap is around 4 pm. She’s still on three naps a day but she naps 30-40 minutes. I know it’s not enough for her b/c she wakes up cranky. Then we put her to bed for the night around 8 or so. We put her down earlier one day (at 7pm) and she woke up at 2 am all rested!

I have one of those finger brushes also. I would not use the toothpaste so early on. As far as I remember (from my dental hygience days, RDH-registered dental hygienist we did not recommend toothpaste until the child can spit out on their own (so they don’t ingest the toothpaste). I guess he thinks that it’s safe since you’re the one controling the amount that goes into her mouth. Using just the brush is really enough. As long as the plaque is mechanically removed, there is no need for the paste.

oh yeah, just wanted to give you some info about baby led approach and choking

Won’t he choke?

Many parents worry about babies choking. However, there is good reason to believe that babies are at less risk of choking if they are in control of what goes into their mouth than if they are spoon fed. This is because babies are not capable of intentionally moving food to the back of their throats until after they have learnt to chew. And they do not develop the ability to chew until after they have developed the ability to reach out and grab things. Thus, a very young baby cannot easily put himself at risk because he cannot get the food into his mouth in the first place. On the other hand, the action used to suck food off a spoon tends to take the food straight to the back of the mouth, causing the baby to gag. This means that spoon feeding has its own potential to lead to choking – and makes the giving of lumpy food with a spoon especially dangerous.

It appears that a babies general development keeps pace with the development of his ability to manage food in his mouth, and to digest it. A baby who is struggling to get food into his mouth is probably not quite ready to eat it. It is important to resist the temptation to ‘help’ the baby in these circumstances since his own developmental abilities are what ensure that the transition to solid feeding takes place at the right pace for him. This process is also what keeps him safe from choking on small pieces of food, since, if he is not yet able to pick up small objects using his finger and thumb, he will not be able to get, for example, a pea or a raisin into his mouth. Once he is able to do this, he will have developed the necessary oral skills to deal with it. Putting food into a babies mouth for him overrides this natural protection and increases the risk of choking.

Tipping a baby backwards or lying him down to feed him solid food is dangerous. A baby who is handling food should always be supported in an upright position. In this way, food which he is not yet able to swallow, or does not wish to swallow, will fall forward out of his mouth, not backwards into his throat.

Adopting a baby-led approach doesn’t mean abandoning all the common sense rules of safety. While it is very unlikely that a young baby would succeed in picking up a peanut, for example, accidents can and will happen on rare occasions – however the baby is fed. Rules of safety which apply in other play situations should therefore be adhered to when eating is in progress.

http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/ rapley_guidelines.html