At what age does a baby eat a proper meal in the evening?

At 6 to 8 months, the usual pattern is two to three meals a day alongside milk feeds, and milk is still the main source of nutrition. Many families run one solid meal at lunch for weeks before anything happens in the evening. That is not being behind.

By 9 to 12 months, Italian guidance describes the day as two main meals - lunch and dinner - plus one or two snacks, on top of milk. This is the point at which the evening becomes a meal in its own right.

There is no date on which you must switch. Meal frequency is a range in every source we follow, not a schedule, and it moves with your baby’s appetite rather than the calendar.

What this looks like in practice

• Start the evening meal smaller than lunch. It often stays smaller for months.
• Keep the milk feed. Dinner is added alongside it, not in place of it.
• A baby who eats little in the evening and well at lunch is doing something extremely ordinary. Appetite is unevenly distributed across the day at this age.

We do not print how much a portion should be. The ministry declines to publish fixed portions and defers to your own paediatrician, and we follow that.