There is a rough progression here, and it is worth knowing so you have something to aim towards. But it is genuinely individual, and it depends a lot on when you started weaning.

The general progression

• Around 6 months: maybe one meal a day, assuming you started weaning around this point.
• 6 to 8 months: moving on to two meals a day.
• 7 to 10 months: up to three meals a day.

On average, most babies are on around three meals a day by 7 months. But it is really fine if your baby is not, and being slightly behind that is not a problem to solve.

Towards the one year mark

By the time you approach one, you should be expecting your child to be on more family foods and textures.

The thing to be careful with there is sugar and salt content, since family food is not automatically appropriate for a baby without some thought about seasoning.

When to move faster than the average

There is one situation where I would encourage moving through the stages more quickly, and that is if your baby is not particularly interested in food.

It sounds counterintuitive, but you may need to increase from two to three meals a day a bit sooner than you otherwise would. The reason is opportunity. More meals means more chances to learn, and learning is what is actually happening at this stage.

A baby who is offered food twice a day gets fewer opportunities than a baby offered food three times, and at this age exposure is what drives progress.

What routine does for a baby

Consistency is genuinely useful here. A good routine at roughly the same times every day, so breakfast, lunch and an evening meal, helps your baby learn when milk time is and when food time is.

Babies like to know what to expect, and that predictability makes mealtimes easier for everyone.

Timing around milk

Try to avoid offering milk feeds too close to mealtimes, so there is appetite for solids.

As your weaning journey progresses, this often means switching to offering breakfast first rather than milk, with the milk afterwards. That one change makes a noticeable difference for a lot of families.

Babies eat at odd times

Worth knowing: your baby's mealtimes may be really out of sync with adult mealtimes, and that is fine.

Babies often want lunch around 11:30 or 12, which feels early, because they do not like long gaps between meals. Working with that rather than against it usually goes better.

Do not stretch mealtimes out

Longer mealtimes do not produce more eating. Extended mealtimes are one of the things that tends to happen when parents are anxious a baby has not eaten enough, and it does not help.

Keep them a sensible length and end them when your baby has had enough.

What can disrupt the pattern

Several things will throw the routine off, all of them normal:

• Teething.
• Being unwell or picking up little bugs.
• Being overtired around mealtimes.
• Hot weather.
• Starting childcare, which is unsettling and can lead to a temporary food strike.

These are temporary. Keep calm, keep the routine, and keep offering.

A note on snacks

You will notice snacks are not in the progression above. We do not recommend snacks in the under ones, because snacking can displace milk, and milk is still an important source of nutrition and hydration between meals at this age.