Hi, everyone! So glad that you’re joining me today to talk about sleeping and feeding schedules for babies at 12 months to 18 months. At this age, there are two major transitions happening:

1) For women feeding their babies formula, doctors usually recommend introducing cow’s milk at 12 months of age.  If you are breastfeeding, your doctor likely will recommend that you also start to introduce cow’s milk at this time.  Check with him or her to make sure.

2) Babies in this stage will now transition from two naps to one nap. This switch happens around 15-18 months, and sometimes as late as 20 months. If you want to learn more about napping at this stage, check out this video.

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What should a daily schedule for 12- to 18-month-olds look like?

First of all, at this age, doctors recommend that babies sleep approximately three hours during the day, and approximately 11 hours during the night for a total of around 12-15 hours of sleep over a 24-hour period.  Let’s take a look at what the basic sleep for babies at this age might look like.  Keep in mind that this is just a guideline, and every day and every baby is different.

• 9:30 — 11 a.m. – nap
• 2-3:30 p.m. – nap
• 7 p.m. — bedtime. This varies because your baby may have a longer morning or afternoon nap, so this would result in a later bedtime.

Second, how about milk feedings? Here’s an idea of what your milk feeding schedule might look like:

• 7 a.m. — milk feeding (right when baby wakes up)
• 11 a.m. — milk feeding after morning nap
• 3:30 p.m. — milk feeding after afternoon nap
• 6:30 p.m. — milk feeding right before bedtime

Let’s move on to solids. Now that your baby is a little bit older, they should be consuming solids regularly three times per day. Here’s an idea of when they should be eating their meals:

• 7:30 a.m. — solids breakfast after milk feeding
• 11:30-12 p.m. solids lunch after baby’s second milk feeding
• 5 p.m. — solids dinner before final milk feeding

You can always offer a healthy morning snack and an afternoon — check with your doctor and see what he or she recommends.  It’s also never a bad idea to offer water throughout the day.

This is a very important stage of development for your baby, so good luck with these transitions! I know that it gets tough sometimes, but hang in there!

Parents, what has your own experience been with daily schedules for babies at this age?  Have advice of your own? Share your stories and thoughts below!