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Feeding schedule for a 6-month-old baby
✓ Last verified against the official sources on September 1, 2026.
From tasting to real meals
Solid food now grows into real meals. You build up towards two and then three eating moments a day, with vegetables, fruit, grains and a little meat, fish, egg or beans. Milk stays important, but supplies less and less of the daily intake.
Milk gradually provides less of the daily intake as solids take over.
What changes this month
This is the month: around six months you start solid foods. From now on your baby genuinely needs the nutrients from food alongside milk — iron in particular, as the store built up during pregnancy runs down. Iron-fortified cereal, pureed meat and beans are all good early sources.
An example day
This is what a day could look like. It is an example, not a prescription: your baby tells you when they are hungry, and that shifts from day to day.
From around 8 months food no longer needs to be smooth: small soft lumps are exactly what develops the mouth muscles. Finger food — soft fruit, cooked vegetable sticks — is very welcome alongside.
| Around | What |
|---|---|
| 7am | Milk feed (6–7 oz (180–200 ml)) |
| 11.30am | First real meal: vegetables with potato or rice |
| 1pm | Milk feed (6–7 oz (180–200 ml)) |
| 4pm | Fruit |
| 5.30pm | Milk feed (6–7 oz (180–200 ml)) |
| 7.30pm | Milk feed (6–7 oz (180–200 ml)) and bed |
Introduce common allergens, including peanut and egg, early and one at a time — this lowers the risk of a food allergy (NIAID).
What about breastfeeding?
With breastfeeding you don’t count ounces — feeding on demand is the guidance, and your baby regulates the amount. The volumes above are for formula; the number of feeds a day is still a useful reference point either way.
Working it out for your baby
The rule of thumb is 2.5 oz per pound of body weight a day (150 ml per kilo), spread across the feeds — capped at about 7 oz per bottle. Work it out with your baby’s weight →
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