Posts Tagged ‘feeding schedule 10 month’

This article outlines the average 10 month old baby schedule, including feedings, solids, naps and night sleep.

Skip to the schedule

10 month old’s sleep

At this age, most 10 month olds can sleep through the night, without a feeding, and take two naps. If your baby is having trouble napping, you may be interested in how you can get your baby to nap. A very small percentage transition to one nap as early as 10 months, but not many, so assume 2 naps unless you are certain. Most babies get very very overtired and sleep can spiral out of control, so I always recommend keeping two naps as long as possible. The average age to transition to 1 nap is 15-18 months.

Although many babies can go all night without a single feeding, in my experience, some do better with one feeding after 4 or 5 a.m. and sleep longer than not feed and get an early wake-time. I would need to know your specific situation to make a recommendation, but just recognize that all babies are different. By this age I would not expect more than 1 feeding, typically, if any at all. I would recommend at least an attempt at night-weaning because it is a chicken and egg problem. It’s hard to encourage more eating during the day when he is eating at night and it’s hard to discourage eating at night when he isn’t eating more during the day.

All babies vary, but here are some rough schedules you can use to make your own for your unique baby. I should warn you that I am in the camp that breast milk or formula should be the primary nutrition for the first year and solids come secondary. Below are the amounts recommended from Super Baby Food, the book I use for reference (as a guide, not as the end-all-be-all because I don’t give my kids nuts before a year or follow other things in the book, but it’s a good reference guide). Another useful reference is Wholesome Baby Food. Although I work full time, I did make most of my baby food (I’d make 1 big batch of something each weekend in 1-2 hours), but even if you don’t, the website is useful as a guide when to introduce what food and other meal ideas.

Note: At 10 months, sometimes you notice a sharp increase in appetite (no doubt partially due to activity levels with crawling and possibly cruising), so what’s different about the 9 month schedule is the addition of another snack, some of the serving sizes and the # of servings.

Amounts per day:

• At least 3-4 nursing sessions per day or 24-32 ounces formula or combination of both
• No more than 6-8 oz of water or juice (to ensure they drink enough breast milk or formula)
• 2 servings (1 serving = 1-2 Tablespoons dry) baby cereal
• 2 servings grain (1 serving = 1/2 slice bread, 2 crackers, 1/2 cup Cheerios, or 1/2 cup whole grain pasta)
• 2 servings fruit (1 serving = 3-4 Tablespoons)
• 2-3 servings vegetable (1 serving = 3-4 Tablespoons)
• 2-3 servings protein (1 serving = 1-2 Tablespoons)
• 1 serving Dairy (1 serving = 1/2 cup yogurt, 1/3 cup cottage cheese or 1 oz grated cheese)
• You can also offer cooked egg yolk (but no egg whites until 1 year old due to allergans)

The first schedule is what I call a “staggered” approach. My first son did better nursing fully and then having solids a bit in between nursing sessions. He was a little hungry but not famished. He just didn’t do well with stopping nursing mid-way to eat solids.

Sample 10 month old schedule

7:00 - Wake and Breast milk or Formula
9:00 - Breakfast
10:00 - Morning Nap (at least 1 hour)
11:00 - Breast milk or Formula plus snack
1:00 - Lunch
2:00 - Early Afternoon Nap (at least 1 hour)
3:00 - Breast milk or Formula plus snack
5:00 - Dinner
6:15 - Begin bedtime routine
7:00 - Breast milk or Formula and Bedtime (goal to be asleep at this time)

If your baby doesn’t mind a more “consolidated” approach to eating, like my second son, here is another type of schedule:

Schedule 2

7:00 - Wake
7:15 - Breakfast plus Breast milk / Formula feeding
9:15 - Snack
10:00 - Morning Nap (at least 1 hour)
12:00 - Lunch plus Breast milk / Formula feeding
2:00 - Afternoon Nap (at least 1 hour)
3:30 - Snack
5:00 - Dinner plus Breast milk / Formula feeding
6:15 - Begin bedtime routine
7:00 - Small BM/Formula feeding (possibly) and Bedtime (goal to be asleep at this time)

Note: When giving any feedings during your bedtime routine, be careful not to create sleep associations, which we saw become important at 4 months old.

You may also be interested in tracking your baby’s sleep, feedings, medication doses, immunizations, etc. using online software. You can even install on your mobile device for when you’re on the go!

If you need help with your baby’s schedule or night-weaning, you may be interested in Help Your Baby Sleep, a Step-by-Step Guide, which discusses naps, schedules, and shifting schedules for babies waking too early or going to bed too late (among many other things) or get one-on-one baby sleep advice.

What is your 10-month old’s schedule?