How many meals a day should my baby have?

6 to 8 months: two to three meals a day, plus milk feeds. Milk is still the main source of nutrition, and solid food is being added around it rather than replacing it.

9 to 12 months: three to four meals a day plus one or two snacks. Italian guidance describes this as two main meals - lunch and dinner - plus a snack or two, on top of milk.

12 to 24 months and beyond: three to four meals plus one or two snacks. The shape stops changing much; what changes is texture and how much of the family’s food your baby shares.

What the ranges are telling you

Every one of these is a range, in every source. That is deliberate. A baby who eats two meals at eight months and a baby who eats three are both inside the guidance, and appetite varies day to day far more than any schedule implies.

What we do not publish

How much to put in each of those meals. The ministry explicitly declines to give fixed portions and defers to your treating paediatrician, and we hold to that - you will not find gram weights per age band anywhere on Primi Bocconi. What we do give you is what a whole day tends to look like at each age, as a pattern to compare against rather than a target to hit.