6 months, switching to formula, growth spurt, solids...

[Rosalind]

Hi

DD is 6 months, for the past 3 days I have given 1 bottle a day and continued breast feeding every 4 hours and once, sometimes twice in the night.

Today I replaced the 11 o'clock feed with a bottle, then she seemed unsettled and hot, offered water thinking she would only take a little and she downed half a bottle, still unsettled half an hour later and thinking it might be a growth spurt I offered breast milk and she had another good feed.

My question is, if it's a growth spurt, I can't give more formula at each feed can I?  she already has a full bottle 210ml.  So should I be filling her up on solids?  I would quite like to take it slowly with the solids, she was more unsettled last night after her first bowl of baby porridge, but I'm not sure if this was tummy ache or hunger, I feed her twice which did the trick, but in the morning she had a huge pooey nappy and I was worried the porridge had given her tummy ache.  She ate it all up as if she was hungry though.

At 6 months do you give 4, 210ml bottles in the day plus 1 at night? Do you give more milk for a growth spurt?  or add solids?
 

[goldmom]

When did you give the solids? Sometimes it's best to give in the morning so it has time to settle in during the day and not bother the night, especially at the beginning. At 6 months they really only need very little solids and gradually building up as they get bigger.

Big poopy diaper in the morning could be b/c she ate so much at night! If she's not really used to bottles, it could be she was just sucking away not noticing how much was coming out and had a lot. I haven't done bottles at night (until very recently for DD and they're small bottles), so not sure. But we did switch to FF at 6 months for some bottles with DS. First I introduced the formula and a week later other solids, to make sure if he reacted I would know if it was from the formula I was using and not the solids.

[Lolly]

My question is, if it's a growth spurt, I can't give more formula at each feed can I? .

At 6 months do you give 4, 210ml bottles in the day plus 1 at night? Do you give more milk for a growth spurt?  or add solids?

You absolutely can give more formula and really you should! Milk needs to be the main source of nutrition until they are 1 and there are more fats and calories in milk (breast or formula) than early solids. You don't want her milk intake to start decreasing until she is closer to 1, 210ml is not considered a full bottle, most bottles can take 270ml so there should be scope to add more. The average formula intake with solids is between 720ml and 960ml between 6 and about 10 months, some need more some need less so you need to be guided by your baby.

If she seems hungrier then let her have more milk, if it's a growth spurt it may pass in a few days and drop back to her pre-growth spurt levels.

HTH!

Laura

[Rosalind]

Ah, thanks you, yes I gave porridge in the morning so I don't know why I thought she was waking because of that!  She is definitely having a lot more poos since I started formula, it used to only be one a week and is now one a day.

We are still on one bowl of porridge in the mornings and she doesn't seem to eat much at all in the afternoons when I am baby led weaning.  She spits most of it back out so I keep thinking its still early. Also she can sit up on her own but is still a bit wobbly which makes me wonder if I have started early, but then she is 6.5 months now....

Thanks Lolly, I did up the milk, she drinks 240ml now.  It confused me that on the box it advises 210ml for 6 months plus. x