BabyWhispererForums.com
EAT => Bottle Feeding => Topic started by: ethan's mommy on June 19, 2010, 04:16:12 am
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Hi there,
My ds was 6 months old on June 9th and we started solids about a week before that. He's now getting the following:
7:30am - 6oz bottle
8/8:30am - breakfast is usually baby cereal and fruit
11:30am - 6oz bottle
12/12:30pm - lunch is usually veggies and cereal (maybe some protein as well)
3:30pm - 6oz bottle
5/5:30pm - dinner is usually protein, veggies and fruit
7:30pm - 6oz bottle
10:30pm - 6oz dream feed bottle
He sleeps through the night (every now and again wakes once during the night but isn't for hunger...maybe teething but one never knows!) most nights.
My first son was breastfed and I didn't have to gradually wean him from the dream feed. We went cold turkey as it wasn't working well for him and I guess he just adjusted through the day naturally. With baby #2 being bottle fed (he couldn't breastfeed past 3 months), I'm not sure what to do about the dream feed but would LOVE to drop it soon as most nights I'm completely exhausted and want to go to bed before 10:30!!
I know it's usually around 7 months and when solids are firmly established but I'm not sure how to ensure solids are firmly established and how many oz he should be getting by bottle during a 24 hour period. Seems odd to take 20 days to wean a dream feed so just wondering if anyone else has had success with doing it another way?!?!
Thanks!
Jenny :)
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Honestly I can't remember how I did it the first time (was BF), but the second time I was bottle feeding by then and I decreased the oz in the DF over a week or so...really I could have gone cold turkey, it was more my issue finishing it off than hers ::) Does he readily take all of his DF? That was my big hint, she really didn't like being bothered, but would still take it, so I started droppping oz to see if she still slept through. Oh, and I added more formula to her other bottles, so she would get 7-8oz in each of them.
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I would say yes it probably took us somewhere around 20 days, but to me that does not seem odd or strange? Cutting a feed down form 6 ounces and moving those 6 ounces to elsewhere in the day is a big shift in calories for a 6 month old baby - mine did a perfect transition of dropping ounces bit by bit and adding them into his day without there ever being any issues with the swap over and one of the reasons I felt it was successful was because we did it with him gradually. But, every baby is different and so it is a matter of doing what you fee is right for yours.
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I agree with PP - he is taking a good DF so I think cutting it suddenly would probably give you hunger driven night wakings. My two were not any good at the DF so we just stopped doing it well before 6 months but then had to give them a feed at night when they woke for it. I would do a gradual approach - have you seen this sticky http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=54662.0. You may find some useful info in this one too http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=103104.0
From 6 months the recommended amount of milk is a minimum of 20oz - but between 24oz and 30oz is fairly typical with the small amounts of solids they take.
Let us know what you decide and how it goes!
Laura
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I am weaning the DF with my DS who is 8mos (today!) and we are on day 12. I thought the same thing, but I'm doing 3 days of a reduced DF and then dropping another ounce on day 4 for another 3 days. We are down to only having 3oz at the DF now. Probably drop the next ounce in another couple of days and then stop it all together after 3 days on 2oz. It sounded like a long time, but really when you're doing it, the days go by faster than you realize.
my DS does
7oz am bottle
solids hr later
7oz lunch bottle
solids hr later
7oz afternoon "snack" bottle
dinner solids 2hrs later
6oz bed time bottle
3oz dreamfeed.
good luck!
karen
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Karen - are you adding the dropped oz's to the bottles during the day or just dropping the DF oz's altogether?!?!?
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Hi
This is an interesting topic as my husband and I are on currently dropping the dream feed for our 9.5 month old twins. They were on 6oz at 10:30pm and we reduced to 5oz for a week and moved the time to 10:20pm. Then we moved it to 4oz and 10:15pm and now were are on 3oz at 10:10pm. We plan to drop it to 2oz next friday!
We have been doing this for about a month now and am just too scared to just stop it now (we know they don't need it and sleep great through the night).....plus because they are on a good solid diet in the day we haven't been adding the ounces onto their other feeds, just given them calcium rich foods such as spinach, cheese sauces, milk in their porrage for breakfast......
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ethan's mommy. I'm adding the dropped oz to daytime bottles.
:)
how are you doing?
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I still haven't started. He's got a cold now so some days isn't all that interested in solids so I figure I should wait a bit longer until he's really taking to solids 3x/day and then slowly start to drop it? I too am scared to drop it b/c I DO NOT want waking through the night again! I will definitely add the oz to the daytime bottles and work him up to 4x7oz bottles so it's not a big change in how many oz he's getting in a 24 hour period (right now he gets 30oz). I've actually started going to bed early some nights and just setting my alarm to do the dream feed. I'm in and out within 5-10 minutes so that seems better than keeping myself awake till 10/10:30 when I'm exahusted some days!
I'll post again when we start to drop and let you all know how it goes!
Thanks!
Jenny :)
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okay, i've started today. so let's make sure i've got this right!
this morning i added 1 oz to his first bottle. he spat up a bit after so i guess that's why you increase slowly so their tummies can adjust??!
8am - 7oz
12pm - 6oz
4pm - 6oz
8pm - 6oz
dream feed - 5oz (removed 1 oz from d.f. and added to morning feed)
so i would do this for 3 days and then drop another ounce from the d.f and add to the 2nd feed of the day, and so on? until i've added to all feeds and only have 2oz left at the dream feed but then just cut that completely and see if he can go the 24 hours with 2oz less in bottles?!?!?
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i don't totally get the time change of the dream feed. just saw that now. i thought you kept it at the same time each night but just decreased the amount? why would you bring back the time thus doing a dream feed eventually at 8:30 or 8 or even 7:30 if you've just put them to bed at 7?!?!
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I think the time change is to adjust their bodies from expecting to get food at a certain time so they don't start to wake at the time they used to get the DF. If you bring it forward as suggested you should be able to drop it before it gets that close to bedtime as the amount will be so small it's not worth giving IYSWIM!
I'm afraid I can't tell you if it works as my two never took the DF so we just waited for them to wake for a feed.
Laura
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I just wanted to annouce that I think we have successfully weaned the DF. We're on day 4 of no DF. I didnt bother moving the feed to 7:30. We went from 11, to 10:30, to 10, to 9:30 to 9. He usually goes to bed around 7:45, so I figured getting him up only an hour or so after sleeping was a bit redundant. I added those last 2 ounces of the DF to his first and last bottles of the day. So he gets 8oz at 7:15am, 7oz at 11:30 and 4:30, and then 8oz at his 7:15pm bottle. Total of 30 for the day.
I guess our next thing is to move from bottles to cups or switching solids first before bottles...? I have no idea. Glad to have this taken care of, and I think we are just going to chill out right here for a while.
:) Good luck to all the other mommies ditching the DF. It's nice to be able to go to bed at 10 and sleep all night. :) It's been a while.
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Well done you two! That's great - especially the bit about the sleep ;)
Laura
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okay, we're well on our way and now we've got night waking. what might be going on?!?!
he did great with the slow removal up until now. here's where we're at and exactly when he started night waking:
7:30am - 7oz
11:30am - 7oz
3:30pm - 7oz
7:30pm - 6oz
9pm df - 3oz
he was doing great with the 9:30 df of 4oz but as soon as we switched to 3oz at 9pm, he's woken the last 3 nights. i'm supposed to be switching to 2oz or maybe even no dream feed tonight but what should i do?!??!
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What time is he waking? How is he when he wakes - are you able to resettle? To be honest for 2oz I think I would just drop it - I can't see that making a huge difference. Is there anything else going on lke milestones or teething?
Laura
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teething has been ongoing since he was 3 months old but no teeth yet! ARGH!
first night he was babysat but they swear they dream fed him at 9pm so i'm assuming they're telling me the truth! he woke that night at around 1am and wouldn't re-settle so i gave him a 4oz bottle and he downed it.
2nd night he woke at around 1:15/1:30am and my husband got him back to sleep but had to pick him up to settle him. bedtime was in the car on our way home so maybe more to do with disrupted bedtime?
3rd night was at home (last night) and he woke at 11:30pm. i managed to get him back to sleep by rubbing and patting his back. it took a little while but we got there. we heard him again around 4am but he settled himself and we didn't go into his room.
we were away but he was amazing the first 3 nights away in the playpen! it was just the 4th and final night of being away when we switched to the 9pm df that it all broke down. we were in the same time zone so no change there and we stuck to his routine the whole time we were gone.
so should i just top up the last 2 bottles today and skip the dream feed and see what happens?!??!
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Sounds like a plan! If you can get 2 or 3 extra oz in him from the last two bottles that will be the same as the DF so leave it and see what happens!
Let us know how you get on - it's great you can resettle him though!
Laura
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We did it!!! Tried it last night with doing 7oz, 7oz, 8oz, 8oz (7:30 bedtime) and he didn't wake AT ALL till 7:15 this morning!!!!!!!!! HIP HIP HURRAY!!! So I think the earlier dream feed time was causing him to wake up through the night. We'll see how we do the next few nights but at least now we know that we doesn't need feeding from 7:30pm till morning bottle. PHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And he'll be 7 months old on the 9th so we're great for timing!!
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Well done!! That's great - and I'm not at all jealous of a 7.15 wake up, honest :P
Laura
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yes, i know i'm lucky. my friend's daugther gets up most mornings at 5:30am. i couldn't function!!!
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My LO was about 6.5 months and was eating really well. Her DF was going down and she wasn't taking alot so i just stopped one day and that was it! No problems at all. She sleeps 7-7/7.30am and only wakes in the night if she's teething.
She's 9 months now and her routine is:
7.30am - 7oz bottle
8.30am - breakfast
12noon - lunch
3pm - 4-5oz bottle
5pm - dinner
7pm - 7oz bottle and bed
Try cold turkey, you never know until you give it a try. I was worried to begin with, dreaded getting woken up really early but it never happened, thank god!