Here is a tried and true (and adaptable) 7 month old feeding schedule that’ll help your little one nap well during the day, sleep well at night, and have peaceful days. 7 month olds have some challenges particularly around food and nutrition. If your 7 month old has nap or nighttime sleep issues, this will help you figure out why and give you tips so your 7 month old’s feeding schedule will make for a happy, content, and well-rested baby.
I have long said that the 6 to 12 month time is one of my absolute favorites.
Baby is sitting up.Â
Smiling.Â
Napping a tad less.Â
And usually sleeping through the night.
It can also be a time of adjustment.Â
Baby is finally eating solids and it’s likely time to drop that third nap and probably drop the dream feed if you haven’t already. Baby is getting a little chunkier and wants more food.
Actually, this is a precious time with baby.
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Before the 7 month old feeding schedule… KNOW THIS
Before I give you what has worked for me as a 7 month old feeding schedule, know this.
Babies at this age need to eat as many solids as they can.
They will be hungry and breast milk alone will no longer be enough. Or, if it is, you’ll be cluster feeding like your 7 month old was a newborn.
➡️ Pediatricians used to recommend introducing purees or solids at 4 months of age. They now suggest 6 months.
➡️ So the 5 to 7 month mark generally means that unless baby is getting a lot of breast milk and whatever solids you offer, they will be hungry.
And this will affect their sleeping and their moods.
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7 Month Old Sample Feeding Schedule
7:00 am – Wake up, milk, solids for breakfast
8:00 am – Free play (floor time, cuddle time with mom, sibling play)
9:00 am – Nap time
10:45 or 11:00 am – Wake up, milk, solids
12:00 pm – Free play (floor time, practicing sitting, standing, pulling up, sibling play)
1:00 pm – Nap time
3:00 pm – Wake up, milk, solids
3:45 pm – Free play (errands, play with siblings, floor time, etc.)
5:00 pm – Short nap
5:30 pm – Wake up, milk, solids
6:15 pm – Bedtime routine habits and ideas (bath, singing, cuddling, putting on lotion, lights, curtains, etc.)
7:00 pm – Quick feed (milk), and down to bed (you may want to add cluster feeding here too if it fits)
And… if baby isn’t sleeping through the night yet.Â
10:00 pm – Dreamfeed
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Note:
- Daily baby logs are a great thing to have on hand if you are noticing a lot of changes you can’t make heads or tails of.
- If your baby wakes up earlier or later than this routine, you can simply adjust based on your baby’s wake time. The wake time is actually very important in a baby’s day to day routine.
- If baby wakes early from a nap, yet is content, don’t push up the feeding. Leave it until normal time unless baby is clearly hungry.
- Get down familiar rhythms and routines throughout your day. These cannot be understated for babies. (here is more on family rhythms and routines)
Easy to implement routines, rhythms and schedules from birth through school-aged kids to help you streamline day-to-day life with kids, including a step-by-step guide for getting started.
Learn More
Get my cheat sheets and find your family’s groove. Chore, independent play, meal, nap, bedtime, and MORE routine ideas!
Weaning From Nighttime Feeds
If your baby is still not sleeping through the night, then this is a great time to start helping them do so.
Solids and milk throughout the day will help them to fill their tummies.
And… get in the necessary nutrients that’ll allow them to sleep peacefully throughout the night.
It is actually one of the best times to begin sleep training since baby is naturally a lot less likely to wake if hunger was their primary reason for waking.
Imagine baby needs 10 cups (to make things even) of milk and/or food a day. We know all babies are different, but go with me here.
If you are currently giving your baby 5 cups of milk and 2 cups of food during the day, that leaves a 3 cup deficit.
This means baby will likely wake up at night to get in the full 10 cups he needs.
The best way to wean?Â
To give them all they need during the day so they don’t need to wake for it at night.
Create sustainable sleep habits for your little lamb so the whole family can sleep peacefully without the stress, drama, and tears.
Learn More
A Dream Feed Might Work For You
If your baby is still feeding a few times per night then you may want to start doing something called a Dream Feed.
Now, we don’t typically add IN a night feed at this age, we are trying to eliminate them, but it may help you get a few more hours in.
Dream Feed: A feed given between 10 and 11 ish at night that should help baby sleep a longer stretch, eventually until the morning wake time.
Try feeding baby as much as possible during this feed and weaning baby from other nighttime feeds until eventually the dream feed is the only feed left.
After baby has slept until the morning with only the dream feed for a few weeks, then it’s safe to drop the dream feed.
At that point, baby should be sleeping all through the night.
Get my cheat sheets and find your family’s groove. Chore, independent play, meal, nap, bedtime, and MORE routine ideas!
7-Month-Old Schedule Interesting Tidbits
Here are some interesting things to note or keep in mind during this 7 month period.
- Babies will likely be able to sleep through the night at this age if they’re eating well enough. Not only are they getting breast milk they are getting solids.
- Here’s where you’ll discover if your baby didn’t sleep through the night out of hunger, or if they have some sleep props you need to work on.
- Baby might act uninterested in solids, that’s fine. Still, continue offering them and be sure to give them veggies or fruits they like so they will get the nutrients needed.
- Introduce solids slowly so you can monitor the baby’s reaction to them. Don’t introduce too many new foods at once.
- Give a top up bedtime snack. Right before bed, give baby milk and some yogurt or applesauce, etc. to help fill baby’s tummy before they go down for the night.
Create sustainable sleep habits for your little lamb so the whole family can sleep peacefully without the stress, drama, and tears.
Learn More
Get my cheat sheets and find your family’s groove. Chore, independent play, meal, nap, bedtime, and MORE routine ideas!
Common issues that affect your 7 month old’s schedule
Let’s dive into some common things that happen to moms and precious 7 month olds that can wreak havoc on a daily routine.
Teething
Around 7 months teething may ramp up. This can lead to discomfort, irritability, and changes in their eating and sleeping patterns. You may find yourself soothing baby a lot and finding ways to alleviate the pain.
Rule of thumb: if you do a pain management method of your choice and it helps your 7-month-old nap and sleep well, it was likely the pain.
Solid food challenges
Around 6 months moms usually introduce solid foods. This may throw off some naps or even introduce some bedtime bowel movements that seem to wake baby up. Protein at dinner will help with this, FYI, but stay the course.
Get my cheat sheets and find your family’s groove. Chore, independent play, meal, nap, bedtime, and MORE routine ideas!
Developmental milestones can mess up naptimes for your 7 month old
7 months old are rolling around and, at times, scooching or crawling. Standing up and sitting down or – in some cases – standing up then getting stuck there! This can mean babies view their crib as a workout arena for their new skills.
This is normal and will pass. Don’t start skipping naptime or assume they don’t need naps. Help your little now have a lot of practice during wake times then they will eventually start sleeping when they’re less impressed with themselves and their new abilities.
How can I encourage my 7 month old baby to sit up, crawl, or reach other developmental milestones appropriate for their age?
To encourage your 7-month-old baby to sit up, crawl, and reach other appropriate developmental milestones you can do a few things. First, provide regular tummy time to strengthen their muscles. Don’t always hold baby, keep him in a wrap or swing, etc.
Use supportive cushions or pillows for seated positions. Allow your baby plenty of opportunities for movement and play with older siblings or you.
Create sustainable sleep habits for your little lamb so the whole family can sleep peacefully without the stress, drama, and tears.
Learn MoreIs there a 7-month-old sleep regression?
Babies can regress at any time. 4 months, 12 months, and 2 years are major regressions that can occur due to biological rhythm maturation and overall developmental milestones that occur.
7 months can result in some babies who previously slept well, now sleeping badly. This can be a variety of things, but you’ll want to rule out:
- teething
- developmental leaps
- nutrition changes (needing more food or calories)
- daily routine needs tweaking
7 months is a great time to do a more formal sleep intervention if you need to as well.
Get my cheat sheets and find your family’s groove. Chore, independent play, meal, nap, bedtime, and MORE routine ideas!
Want Printables to hang up?
If you want routines and schedules for not only the 6 to 9 month age, but for the 12 month, 18 month, and on I’ve got great news. I’ve created a book chock full of routines that work.
Routines that keep babies well rested, happy, and content. Routines that account for all the things you need to do and they are mom tested. The best part?
The book comes with printable routines (3 choices for each age) that you can hang up and use!
So instead of having to reinvent the wheel every few months, you’ll have tried and true mom tested routines right at your fingertips.
Easy to implement routines, rhythms and schedules from birth through school-aged kids to help you streamline day-to-day life with kids, including a step-by-step guide for getting started.
Learn MoreFAQs about 7 month olds
7-month-olds should go to bed by 8 p.m. at the latest, and on average go to bed around 7:00 p.m.
If your baby is still taking a late afternoon or early evening cat nap, this will be easy to manage. Contrary to what you might think, the earlier a baby goes to bed the better they sleep all night.
By 7 months of age babies should no longer be swaddled to sleep. Since they can roll over and move, you want them to be able to do so.
However, you don’t want them to attempting crawling out of the crib, so appropriate to the season layers are good, plus a sleeping bag on top to keep their legs in!
7 months of age can bring about some sleep regressions. One main cause of this is that 7-month-olds are hungry and in need of ample solids to keep their tummies filled.
If they aren’t yet eating enough solids or don’t have enough appropriate protein in their diet, they’ll be genuinely hungry at night. They will need more milk feeds to get them through. Answer? Feed more during the day!
Cry it out is a form of sleep training that quickly helps. Babies learn to self-soothe, settle, and re-settle on their own. It is age appropriate by 7 months if you choose to use it.
Sources:
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Good day ma’am,
5 kids & you still look so beautiful?
You are awesome!!!
You are an inspiration!!!
I’ll chat you up once am through with my e-mail.
I just came on-line to get tips for my 7month baby.
I’m in d middle of a big project presently.
Thanks a lot.
Lovely site for sure I’m staying ??
It’s so nice to see people devoting their time to write articles that help people. I read throughany on this website and they really help. Thank you Rachel!
How do I get my daughter to nap longer? We are mostly doing your schedule but her naps are So short. Often only 45 minutes meaning eat nap is super early! At this point I would be happy with a consistent hour plus! And your schedule would work so well since we leave at 3 to pick up big sisters from school.
Thanks!
Hi, looking at your seven month old baby schedule. When you put “wake, feed, solids” do you mean that you full feed with breastmilk and then right after give baby purées/solids? Or do you leave time between the two and give solids right before it’s time for nap?
marcelle, you could do either. Some give milk and then in a bit offer solids and then milk again, and then some do full milk and then full solids. Whatever works for baby!
Hi! I exclusively breastfeed and baby has been sleeping through the night (7:45PM to 5:30/6:00 AM) but I am hoping to take out the 5:30 AM feed and start setting wake time to 7:00 AM and follow this schedule more closely– will switching to 4 hour gaps between feeds reduce supply? I am worried supply will dip an dshe won’t get the needed 24-30 oz of breastmilk. Thanks for all your help in advance. Your writing and advice is incredibly helpful!
Is your little one eating solids? Solids will help your little one sleep longer (protein at dinner helps) so you can continue to feed regularly throughout the day to keep your supply up
Someone I know feeds her 7 month old baby 4 oz of breast milk every 2 hours, no baby food at all. He screams when she takes his bottle out of his mouth, she says he will stop crying in a little bit. I feel so sorry so him. He acts like he’s starving. I’m afraid it’s affecting his growth. The father says he doesn’t want the baby’s stomach to get big. The babies stomach is flat.
I think the baby should be crawling and sitting and he’s not. I have a feeling he stays in his bed all day.
I have made suggestions but neither parent seems concerned. Should I just mind my own business.
Good evening
Our little girl is sleeping generally quite well and we have no issues putting her down for her first and second nap, nor do we struggle getting her to sleep at 7:30pm. She does wake up at 4/5am for a feed even though we do a dream feed, though we’re working on that.
Getting her to nap around 5pm though is completely impossible. Any drowsiness leaves her the moment she is laid down in her crib and we don’t really know what to do to change this. We’ve tried putting her down for her nap a little earlier as well as a little later with zero success. She just won’t do her third nap. We often have to adjust her bed time because of this, which affects her wake up time. Do you have any tips or any advice on what we could change to make this work?
You can drop that nap and bring up bedtime slightly and see what happens!
Thanks for this detailed schedule. Since introducing solids, my 7 month old now refuses milk and wakes up multiple times at night to eat. How can I get him to eat enough calories from milk but also introduce solids?
Kayla, great question! So will he willingly take tons of solids but refuse milk? Do you offer milk first?
He willingly eats a large portion of solids and then can go 6 or 7 without wanting milk. Sometimes I offer milk first, but then he won’t take solids.
He may not be super hungry. I’d work on ONE meal with solids and then go from there.
He does willingly take lots of solids IF I offer solids first, but then doesn’t want milk. If I offer milk first, he doesn’t take much solids.
For some reason my reply isn’t working! He willing eats solids IF I offer them before milk. If I offer milk first, then he won’t eat solids.
I know many sleep consultants suggest feeding starting at lunch first (solids), then at dinner, THEN at breakfast. You could try that!
Hi,
Our 7th month baby is waking up every hour to 1,5 hour at night. He hates sleeping in his crib and it can take a while to settle him back to sleep. However, I feel he is getting enough solids/milk during the day. How can we help him sleep longer periods of time? Do we have to sleep train (ferber?).
He started eating solids around 5 months so is really enjoying food now. I still breastfeed him several times a day, in addition he will eat porridge for breakfast and dinner. During the day I typically serve fruit/veggie puree with bread and sometimes the veggie puree contains meat. He is a really content (and big!) baby, napping 3 times. Thanks for your advice! We are shattered.
I’d say it’s probably time to simply elminitate night feeds by consolidating them and then settling instead of feeding at night!
My 7 month old is still not sleeping through the night. She is breastfed and we are currently offering 2 meals a day. She will only sleep for naps whilst being held otherwise she cat naps. When she wakes through the night she will only resettle if we rock her or I nurse her. We have tried cry it out and pick up put down method but nothing works.
Do you think she has a feed to sleep or hold to sleep association? The way forward is to choose a settling approach that will help her learn to go to sleep (and stay asleep) without you. I’d recommend this free opt in of mine. https://amotherfarfromhome.com/amffh_optin/babies-need-r-e-s-t/
Hi Rachel,
What to do if the baby (currently 29 weeks, but was two weeks late so developmentally is closer to 31 weeks) was in a good routine, but is now only sleeping 30-35 minute naps, waking up multiple times in the night, and waking super early (5:30-6:00 am)? I leave her extended amounts of time to give her the opportunity to go back to sleep on her own and she simply escalates her crying. For example, last night she was awake from about 12:30 am to 1:45 am. At 1:20 am I went in and fed her. She’s had a good fill up at 7:00 pm and in the past was making it to 4:00 am with a 7:00 am wake-up. I’ve worked to get her back to the “regularly scheduled program” for naps and night but no tweaks I’ve made seem to make an impact. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Emily
How are his solids? Around this age honestly the biggest thing is THEY ARE STARVING! Definitely rule that out before thinking it’s sleeping. If hes’ slept well for 6 months and is now not, it seems it’s likely hunger or if it’s only very short term, maybe even ear ache type thing, etc. If he’s eating good amount of solids I’d be thinking it was time to tweak the daily routine. Maybe he is taking shorter naps because he can take a bit less day sleep.
Hello, I’m wanting to try and set up a schedule for a 7-month-old and a 2 1/2-year-old. What’s the best way to do this? My 7-month-old wakes up between 6-9 am and my 2 1/2-year-old wakes up between 6-8. My 2 1/2-year-old also wakes up at night and will be up for 10 minutes to 2 hours.
‘d definitely choose a morning time, say 7am and start the day that way. That’s really the only way to have a consistent daily routine if the morning time is consistent when they can both sleep until!
Hello, i am desperate for help with our second baby. He is 7 months old, exclusively breastfed (he refuses bottle, started taking sippy cup at meals however). He takes solids great, at least 3 times a day. He only naps 45 min to 1 hour at the most, how can I extend his naps? Or should I just let it be? He wakes up at least 3-4 times at night as well, I’m so tired! Also, will his shorter naps during the day mess him up at night? Our first son was super easy, fell into the schedule quickly, slept all night and took 2 hour naps so it’s been hard to figure out where we’re going wrong with number 2! Thanks!
Yes, it’s hard when the second doesn’t go as easy as the first! Or even third, ha. So if he isn’t overtired I wouldn’t worry too much about short naps. Is he on 2 naps a day? If he’s doing 3 I’d shroten it to 2 and that will often lengthen it. Also, I’d drop some night feeds using a settling method of your choice.
Hi Rachel,
How much solids do I give my 7 month old
I’d follow what your pediatrician recommends, but most babies are eating 3 meals a day at this point unless they’re fighting solids.