If you’re looking to get your 6 month old on a schedule, today I’m sharing our daily routine with you! If you have a younger baby, be sure to read our 4 month schedule. We gradually went from this schedule to the 6 month schedule so it was an easy transition. You’ll find your baby will give you cues and you’ll know when it’s time to adjust. So now to get to our 6 month old feeding schedule!
Wake time for us is around 7:30 am so if your baby wakes up earlier or later, just adjust the time slots below.
6 Month Old Feeding Schedule
Wake – 7:30 AM – NURSE/BOTTLE
Breakfast 8:00 AM – Serve Oatmeal or Rice Cereal. I prefer oatmeal and mix it with pumped breastmilk.
Note: I always offered breastmilk or formula first. This is because breastmilk or formula is still the #1 source of nutrition for your baby still and food is still for practice at this age.
9:30 AM – Nap #1 (I do 2 hour wake times at this age)
10:30 AM – NURSE/BOTTLE once up from the nap (naps usually range from 30 mins to 1 hour at this age). This schedule follows the EASY schedule (eat, activity, sleep, you) and is helpful in ensuring your baby doesn’t rely on you to fall asleep by nursing to sleep. If you can, always try to nurse or bottle feed after your baby gets up from their nap. Sometimes this doesn’t work out due to timing, etc but I did my best to try to stick to this. If you are having trouble with your baby sleeping at night read our 5 ways to help your baby sleep through the night.
12:00 PM – Lunch – offer a veggie/fruit/meat option
12:30 PM – Nap #2
1:30 PM – NURSE/BOTTLE
3:30 PM – Nap #3
4:30 PM – NURSE/BOTTLE
6:00 PM – Dinner – offer a veggie/fruit/meat option
7:30 PM – BED with NURSE/BOTTLE (Start bed time routine between 6:30 – 7PM so baby is asleep by 7:30PM. This gives a 12 hour nighttime)
Note – I kept my schedule to offer nursing every 3 hours. As mentioned above, breastmilk or formula at this age should still be your baby’s #1 nutrition source. That’s why I did not extend the time between the sessions. If you find your baby is not accepting the sessions you can cut back and extend the time between sessions. I noticed my baby was not taking as much during some of the sessions but this is completely normal as he is was getting additional calories from his solid feedings.
Know that every baby is different. So if you find your baby needs to eat or sleep more or less often just adjust the time in between the schedule. At this age when you slowly introduce solids, you work your way up to 3 meals a day. We did 1 meal to start for a few days, then added lunch then slowly added dinner. This allows time for your baby to adjust.
If you’re getting into solid feeding, one of the best feeding tools we used was a Num Num Dip Spoon.
Finally, if your baby is still not sleeping through the night – see our 5 tips for getting your baby to sleep through the night.
Hi Kim,
What a useful and helpful article. Thank you.
What if your baby won’t go down for a third late afternoon nap and there is more than 4 hrs. between projected bedtime and the last nap? Do you scoot up bedtime?
Thanks!
Yes if they drop their last nap you’ll need to bump up their bedtime because they won’t be able to stay up for such a long stretch.
Hi! At this age do you have set wake up times or do you let baby sleep and adjust schedule accordingly?
I always let my babies sleep and adjusted if needed. But usually once you get into a set schedule they tend to wake up around the same time every day.
I pretty much follow this schedule times for food and naps but I can’t figure out how you drop our cat nap from 6:30-7. I feed mine at 7:30, that would make them be awake for 3 hours 4:30-7:30. Mine get cranky after 1.5-2 hour wake times
Instead of a cat nap, do an earlier dinner and bedtime.
So glad I found this!!! This is exactly what I already follow almost exactly except we just started doing solids a little over a week ago- so I had just been doing a tbsp of solids along with his one pumped bottle around 5. What amount of solids did you do per feeding at this age? 1 or 2 tbsp per feeding? Work way up to more than that? I think people totally underestimate the value of a schedule for baby because mine has been sleeping through the night too! Since he was 3 mos old. Thank you for the article <3
If your baby doesn’t nap for the full hour do you take the 2 hours to the next nap from the time they wake up or do you stick to the scheduled time above whatever time they wake up?
You can stick to the schedule but if baby is rubbing eyes and showing signs of tiredness then you can put down earlier.
Hi! When do you nurse during the bedtime routine? Let’s say I feed dinner at 6pm, start the bath at 6:30.. so you give the bottle right after the bath or after story time?
Thank you! 🙂
We always did it as the last step in the routine, so right after story.
How long are your babes nap 2 and 3 usually??Â
The last nap is usually a short one, 30-45 minutes (one sleep cycle). The first two are usually longer, 1 hour – 1.5 hours (typically 2 sleep cycles).
How many times does your baby wake up to feed at night ?Â
By this age both of my babies were sleeping through the night and would only wake up if sick or teething or sometimes for the odd earlier morning feed. All babies are different though and some may still not be sleeping through the night at this age.
You say this is a 3 nap schedule for 2 hour wake times, but between your last nap and bedtime is 3-3.5 hours…. can you explain how this works for you?Â
Thanks for pointing that out Rebecca, I’ll be sure to add a note about this last stretch being 3 hours. Typically the time between the last nap and bed time is longer. But you can follow your baby’s cues, if you find they are rubbing eyes and acting tired earlier you can definitely do an earlier bed time.
What are the measurements for the food and cereal?
With the last feed how do you get bubs to take the full bottle only hours after the last one
Only offer water with dinner or baby will get full and may not eat the solids or take the bottle for bed. Depending how much they eat for dinner they may not want a full bottle for bed and that’s fine if they had a lot for dinner. Baby will usually tell you at this age if they want more or if they’ve had enough so following their cues is the best way to go. 🙂
how many ounces of formula are you suggesting we offer in each bottle feeding?
Victoria that will depend on the baby and how much they drink for their age. You should consult your doctor on how much would be appropriate for your baby and size of baby.
How did you incorporate tummy time into your day?
At 6 months old most babies are learning to sit up on their own or are sitting up on their own. I would encourage that more than doing tummy time as tummy time is to help with the baby not always being on their backs. So if your baby is already practicing to sit up or is sitting up you don’t need to worry about tummy time anymore. 🙂