6 Month Old Baby Schedule
Posted by Nicole on July 31st, 2008
This article outlines the average 6 month old baby schedule, including feedings, solids, naps and night sleep. If your baby is having trouble napping, you may be interested in how you can get your baby to nap.
6 month old baby’s sleep
At this age, if you are not lucky enough to have a baby who sleeps through the night, many 6 month olds are still waking 1-2 times to eat at night. Anything more and likely you have a sleep association problem (aside from the 6-month growth spurt that should only last a few days to a week).
Obviously, all babies vary, but here are some sample schedules you can use to make your own for your unique baby. Schedules are iffy at this age because many babies simply can not stay up past 2 hours to get to the next scheduled nap-time, so at this age, it’s likely naps are still on the short side, but come frequently. Over the next several weeks, you can work on getting down to just 3 naps to get closer to the 7 month schedule.
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 or 2 big batchs 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.
Amounts per day:
• At least 5-6 breastfeeding sessions per day or 32 ounces formula or combination (decrease solids if your baby is not taking in at least this much)
• Water is unnecessary (breast milk and formula have plenty of water in them). If your baby has any constipation issues, focus on “P” foods (pears, prunes, etc.)
• 1-2 servings baby cereal (1 serving = 1-2 Tablespoons dry)
• 1-2 servings fruit (1 serving = 1-2 Tablespoons)
• 1-2 servings vegetable (1 serving = 1-2 Tablespoons)
Note: If you did not start solids until 6 months (I did not start until 6 months), you will work your way up to the amount of servings above. Don’t worry about feeding this much right away!
Here is a what I call a “staggered” approach. My first son did better with a full feeding and then having solids a bit in between. He was a little hungry but not famished. He just didn’t do well with stopping nursing or his bottle mid-way to eat solids.
Schedule 1
6:30 - Wake and Breast milk or Formula
7:45 - Breakfast
8:30 - Morning Nap (at least 1 hour)
10:00 - Breast milk or Formula
11:30 - Nap (often 30-45 minutes at this age)
1:00 - Breast milk or Formula
2:00 - Nap (often 30-45 minutes at this age)
4:00 - Breast milk or Formula
4:30 - Catnap (30 minutes)
5:00 - Dinner
6:00 - Begin bedtime routine
6:30 - Breast milk or Formula and Bedtime
7:00 - Goal to be asleep
+Plus possibly 1-2 nighttime feedings
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 and Breast milk or Formula, then Breakfast
9:00 - Morning Nap (at least 1 hour)
10:00 - Breast milk or Formula
12:00 - Nap (often 30-45 minutes at this age)
1:00 - Breast milk or Formula
2:30 - Nap (often 30-45 minutes at this age)
4:00 - Breast milk or Formula
5:00 - Catnap (30 minutes)
5:30 - Partial Breast milk or Formula Feeding, then Dinner
6:30 - Begin bedtime routine
7:00 - Bedtime
7:30 - Goal to be asleep
+Plus possibly 1-2 nighttime feedings
Note: Many people prefer to follow an eat-play-sleep routine, which is a good routine to follow, however, sometimes hard to implement at this age when the amount of time between naps is not long enough and your baby wakes too early from his nap because of a feeding. I take all of that into consideration when making my schedules. The most important part is to be careful not to create sleep associations with feedings too close to sleep times, 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 baby software at Babble Soft. 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 6-month old’s schedule?
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July 31st, 2008
My son needed to stagger his food as well. I also think this helped him stay full for his morning and afternood naps. Before I staggered his food, her would sometimes wake up early from nap and have a hard time going back to sleep and I think sometimes it was out of hunger.
My son also really loved his bottles. He hated to have it taken out before he finished the whole things. Six months was a real trying time with naps, but working to get on a schedule really helped alot. Liam knew what to expect and so did I.
August 1st, 2008
@Jana Thank you for your comment!
Nicoles last blog post..6 Month Old Baby Schedule
August 3rd, 2008
My daughter just turned 6 months old and we’ve had to go back to basics with the solids because her stomach wasn’t handling what we had introduced in the past month (apples, sweet potatoes and carrots along with oatmeal cereal). So, her schedule is currently:
Wake at 7
Breastfeed at 8:30
Morning Nap at 9 (1 hour or more)
Breastfeed at 11:30
Catnap at 12 noon (30-45 minutes)
Breastfeed at 2:30
Afternoon Nap at 3 (1 hour or more)
Breastfeed but just a snack really at 5
3 tbsp. Rice Cereal/Oatmeal mixed with 1.5 oz. breastmilk at 6
Bedtime Routine begins
Breastfeed at 7:30
Asleep by 8
Night feeding at 1 or 2
Night feeding at 4 or 5 (this one is currently phasing itself out)
I’ve tried playing around with the bedtime but she just won’t go down before 7:30 at the earliest. She only sleeps 10 hours at night no matter what, nevermind what the sleep books say about infants her age “needing” 15 hours of sleep a day. I’m lucky she gets 12!
Moniques last blog post..Why Not Dad?
August 3rd, 2008
@Monique Thank you for posting your schedule! I did not start solids with either of my boys until 5 1/2 or 6 months old, so we are definitely in the lower solid levels at this age. It sounds like she is going to bed later because her last nap is long. Usually that’s the catnap of the day. And, my 1st son never did more than 11 to 11 1/2 hours in a stretch. 12 1/2 hours in 24 hours is on the lower end of sleep needs, but there is always a range. If she is happy, that’s a good sign.
Nicoles last blog post..6 Month Old Baby Schedule
August 17th, 2008
My daughter is 6 1/2 months old and I am trying to get her to sleep thru the night. We started solids at almost 6 months her schedule is:
6am Wake up/Nursing
back to sleep
8am 3 Tbsp. Cereal with fruit
play time
10am Nursing
Nap 1 hour
Wake up/ Play time
Noon Lunch Vegetable with fruit puffs for snack
play time
2pm Nursing
Nap 1 hour
play time
5pm Nursing
30-45min cat nap
6:30pm Dinner 3 Tbsp cereal with fruit
play time
8:30pm Bed time bottle of 6oz breastmilk
give or take of course …
I had to switch to bottle at night because she seemed to get too relaxed on my breast and would fall asleep before she was full it has really helped my sanity!!
September 26th, 2008
THANK YOU, my daughter has created her own schedule, feed her when shes hungry, go to sleep when shes tired, but recently shes been staying up til 1 or so, and waking uparound 8 or 9, i figured ITS TIME FOR A SCHEDULE. im going to try this out, most definately!
December 8th, 2008
So if they take a nap for about an hour at 1 and wake up at 2, if they don’t take the optional cat nap later, they’re up for five hours before night time. That sounds like a LOT. I would think my baby would be overtired by then. No?
December 11th, 2008
@Iris Thank you for sharing your schedule!
@Crystal Good luck!
@Lainie Yes, they can get overtired. Sometimes getting them on a schedule can be tricky.