Doesn't seem to be interested in evening meal

Just wondered if anyone has any ideas on how I can get my 9.5 month old to be more interested in his evening or teatime meal. He used to be quite good but over the last few weeks doesn't seem to be that interested in having this meal. Am not sure if it is something I'm doing wrong - like whether his lunch was too late.

Currently he has brekkie at about 8-8.30 and lunch at about 1.30ish and was offering him tea at 5.30pm. He is having BF at 7-7.30 when he wakes, he was having bottle at about 11am and another bottle at 2.30-3.00 before he would go down for afternoon nap. (He has another BF then before bed at 7pm following his tea and bath). Probably wouldn't be that bothered if it wasn't for fact that he has now started waking in middle of night again - which I think is because he is hungry as he is not eating solids at teatime.

I am confused as to whether I should be moving him to 3 milk feeds per day as I seem to get opposing opinions on whether it should be 3 or 4 and whether this will make any difference.

Today I reduced down the amount of milk he got at 11am and gave him his lunch at 12.30 and also reduced his afternoon bottle as well. I also put him down for his afternoon nap earlier as I though if he was up for longer before he had his tea he might be hungrier.

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on what might work. Our previous routine was working perfectly but isn't working any more as he is awake for longer (which is perfectly normal) and am finding it bit difficult to work out a new routine that works. Any ideas?

Thanks

ah hun, no baby ever lets you settle into a good routine for long...drives you crazy ;)
He might be going through a rest period where he just isn't as hungry, or he might be too tired at dinner time to eat. Sometimes my 4yo still does this. Often i make sure they have a proper meal at lunch so they only have a light dinner.
I have learnt over the years that for us solids have nothing to do with the quantity or quality of sleep (or lessens the wakeups) - but hey that might be just us.
FWIW my 17monther has only just gone to 3 feeds per day - previous to this (like 2 weeks ago) he was still having up to 8. Solids still aren't their main source of nutrition at that age either, the milk should still be.
For us an earlier sleep definitely works better. DS goes to bed anywhere from 10ish to midday - like I said he is older. We have been doing this for some months though.

Hun, my first DS was never great at evening meals, and TBH it is still not his best time of the day for eating. I think some kids don't feel like eating at the end of a day, whether it's because they've already had enough, or are too tired. When DS wasn't eating much at all for dinner, we used to give him "lunch" food for dinner so it didn't matter if he didn't eat a lot, save some of what we ate, and then give it to him for lunch the next day. This seemed to work better as he was still getting a good balance of foods but he was able to eat when he wanted to.

It is worth noting that eating most of your food earlier in the day is actually healthier - eating the "fuel" before you burn it up during the day. So maybe these kids are doing what comes naturally!

My kids have all been least interested in eating in the evening. They eat so much during the rest of the day that I am not worried though. Your bub is only 9 months old so don't stress too much - give him as much BM/formula (sorry you said BF and bottle so I wasn't sure what you are doing) as he wants. Babies when they teeth often slow down on eating solids and revert back to drinking milk so it might also be a teething issue. What you are experiencing is perfectly normal. If he was hungry, he would eat so it's okay if he isn't :hug:

Thanks ladies. Has got a little bit better over the last few days as I moved his afternoon nap to earlier so it may have been a tiredness issue that was causing the problem. Good to be reassured that they won't starve themselves though. Its difficult to believe when you're sitting there and they've only eaten a small amount and don't want any more. I was begining to think there was something wrong with my cooking! (JM am slowing weaning so doing combo of breast and bottle, 2 of each at the moment, which is why I mentioned both sorry if it was confusing). Thanks again