supply, we recommend that you do not let your baby sleep longer than
nine hours at night during this phase. Bedtime will be adjusted closer to
the early-evening feeding. By the end of the thirteenth week, your baby
can average five to seven feedings a day, but never less than four.
Phase Three: Extended Day
Weeks Sixteen through Twenty-four
Usually between the sixteenth and twenty-fourth week, you will introduce
your baby to solid foods. Your pediatrician will direct you in that area.
Along with solid foods, continue with four to six liquid feedings. During
phase three, most babies are sleeping ten to eleven hours at night. Again,
breast-feeding mothers must continually monitor their milk supply. If
you feel you need to add an additional feeding during the day, do it.
By the twenty-fourth week your baby’s main mealtimes should begin
to line up with the rest of the family’s: breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with
a fourth, fifth, and for some, a sixth liquid feeding offered. One feeding
can come at bedtime. The other additional feedings might come in the
late morning or late afternoon.
As you begin introducing solids to your baby’s diet, please note that
you are not adding more feeding periods, just additional food at
breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If you are breast-feeding, nurse first and
then offer some cereal. If you are bottle-feeding, offer some formula,
then offer cereal, followed by formula. Do not offer cereal alone with a
supplemental liquid feeding two hours later. That would mean you’re
back to snacking, feeding every two hours, which is not a healthy habit.
Introducing solid foods is a topic discussed in detail in On Becoming
Babywise II: Parenting Your Pretoddler. As a breast-feeding mother, try
to maintain four to six feeding periods as long as you are nursing. Any
less may decrease your milk supply.