Baby Feeding Schedule: A Month-by-Month Guide for the First Year
A baby feeding schedule is the rough shape of what a baby eats, how often and how much, across the first year. Nutrition in that first year sets the foundation for lifelong health, and as your baby grows their feeding needs change significantly. This guide walks month by month, from two-hourly milk feeds to three meals and a snack, and it says at the top what it repeats at the bottom: these are general guidelines, and the doctor who knows your baby knows things a guide cannot. LifeWell records what happened. It does not tell you whether it was enough.
Feeding in the First Year
Nutrition in the first year of life sets the foundation for lifelong health. As your baby grows, their feeding needs change significantly. This guide provides general guidelines, but always follow your pediatrician's specific recommendations.
Newborn to 3 Months
What: Breast milk or formula exclusively.
How much: 2-3 ounces per feeding for newborns, increasing to 4-5 ounces by 3 months.
How often: Every 2-3 hours (8-12 feedings per day).
Watch for hunger cues: rooting, sucking on hands, fussiness. Do not wait for crying, which is a late hunger signal.
4 to 6 Months
What: Continue breast milk or formula. Around 4-6 months, your pediatrician may recommend starting single-ingredient purees.
How much: 1-2 tablespoons of puree once or twice daily, plus regular milk feedings.
First foods: Iron-fortified rice cereal, pureed sweet potato, banana, avocado, or peas.
Signs of readiness for solids:
- Can hold head up steadily
- Sits with support
- Shows interest in food
- Has lost the tongue-thrust reflex
6 to 8 Months
What: Breast milk or formula plus a wider variety of purees and soft foods.
How much: 2-4 tablespoons per meal, 2-3 meals per day.
New foods: Pureed meats, beans, yogurt, cheese, soft fruits, and cooked vegetables.
Introduce one new food at a time, waiting 3-5 days between new introductions to watch for allergic reactions.
9 to 12 Months
What: Breast milk or formula plus finger foods and table foods cut into small pieces.
How much: 3 meals plus 1-2 snacks daily.
Foods: Soft pasta, small pieces of cheese, scrambled eggs, soft-cooked vegetables, ripe fruit pieces.
By 12 months, your baby can transition to whole cow's milk and should be eating a variety of foods from all food groups.
Tracking With LifeWell
The baby tracker in LifeWell records:
- Feeding type (breast, bottle, or solid food)
- Amount and duration for each feeding
- Time stamps to maintain consistent schedules
- Food diary to track new food introductions
- Notes for recording reactions or preferences
Review weekly feeding summaries to ensure your baby is getting adequate nutrition across all categories.
Important Reminders
- Avoid honey before age 1 due to botulism risk
- No whole nuts or hard foods that pose choking hazards
- Limit juice to 4 ounces per day maximum after 6 months
- Follow the baby's lead on how much they want to eat at each sitting
Elsewhere on LifeWell
- Privacy — What LifeWell stores, where it sits, and who can read it back.
- Plans — What the free plan includes, and what each paid one adds.
- Export everything — Your whole record leaves in one file, on any plan, without giving a reason.
What people use it for
Log every feed
Log every feed at `/baby/feeding` with one tap. The side alternates for you. You do not have to remember which came last.
Read the day back
Read the day back at `/baby` as one stream of feeds, nappies and sleep, newest first, when somebody asks how the night went.
Write each new food and the days between introductions…
Write each new food and the days between introductions into a note at `/notes`, so a reaction has a date beside it.
Add weights and lengths
Add weights and lengths at `/baby/growth`, read against the WHO Child Growth Standards, which LifeWell plots and does not interpret.
Take a PDF from `/health/export` to an appointment: a…
Take a PDF from `/health/export` to an appointment: a readable summary to hand someone, with your journal left out of it.
Questions
How often should a newborn feed?
Every two to three hours, eight to twelve times a day, at two to three ounces a feed for a newborn and four to five ounces by three months. Those are general figures. They are not a rule about your baby. Rooting, sucking on hands and fussiness come first, and the post asks you not to wait for crying, which it calls a late hunger signal.
When do solids start, and with what?
Around four to six months, on your doctor's advice, with one or two tablespoons of a single-ingredient puree once or twice a day. The post names iron-fortified rice cereal, pureed sweet potato, banana, avocado or peas as first foods, and lists the readiness signs: head held up steadily, sitting with support, interest in food, and the tongue-thrust reflex gone.
How long should I wait between new foods?
Three to five days, one new food at a time, so that a reaction has something to point at. From six to eight months the post moves to two to four tablespoons a meal, two or three meals a day, adding pureed meats, beans, soft dairy, fruit and cooked vegetables to the milk feeds.
What should a baby never have in the first year?
Honey, because of the botulism risk. Whole nuts too, or any hard food that could choke. The post also caps juice at four ounces a day after six months and asks you to follow the baby's lead on how much they want at a sitting. At twelve months a baby can move to whole cow's milk.
I forgot to log two days of feeds. Does that matter?
No. Gaps are not failures, and the feeding page says exactly that in its own words. LifeWell shows what you told it and never fills in what you did not, so a day with nothing in it stays a day with nothing in it. Add what you remember if you want to, or leave it. Carry on from today.
What does LifeWell do with the feeding record?
It keeps it and shows it back. Feeds, nappies and sleep appear in one stream, newest first, and you can correct any of them whenever you like. Nothing is scored and nothing is compared with another baby. Growth measurements are read against the WHO Child Growth Standards, plotted and left uninterpreted.
When should I call someone instead of writing it down?
If feeding hurts, if a baby seems jaundiced, or if nappies suddenly stop, that is a call to a midwife or health visitor rather than a note in an app. LifeWell says the same sentence on its own breastfeeding page. Nothing here is a diagnosis, and nothing in this post replaces the person who knows your baby.
By The LifeWell team · updated 2025-08-17
Open Baby Feeding Schedule: A Month-by-Month Guide for the First Year on LifeWell