How many bottles, and what amount, at 8mos?

[<Catherine>]

I *think* I'm ready to move from BF'ing. We introduced a bottle of formula at BT about 3 or 4 weeks ago. He's now having a bottle at BT and a bottle at the first NF (I'm trying to stick to just the one NF, which the bottle seems to be helping us achieve, but he occasionally has the odd BF'd 2nd NF).

These two bottles are each 7ozs, and he generally finishes them both.

I feel as though he's 'snacking' on the breast throughout the day rather than taking full feeds, possibly because he's getting so much at night by bottle? I want to stop at least two of the 3 BFs that remain, possibly keeping the morning feed, I'm not sure yet.

Yesterday I switched his 2nd BF (lunchtime) to a bottle, made up 7oz but he only drank about 4. Same today.

How much should he be having in 24hrs? And how much per feed?

He's a week into a months trial on Nutramigen, not sure if that's relevant. It definitely suits him though.

I'm hoping if I can get him to take more during the day then I can cut down the nighttime ozs.

[Lolly]

Ideally they should be having 4 bottles at Ben's age plus solids. The recs are for a minimum of 20oz which can include the milk in foods - although I'm assuming all your solids are dairy free if he's having Nutramigen. Most babies are taking between 24 and 32oz a day plus solids.

The nightfeed could be having an impact on his days, we weaned DD's nightfeed at 8 months by reducing 1oz every 3 days. She was getting about 20oz of liquid milk during the day plus solids.

It may be a lot to be changing him to bottles and stopping the nightfeed all at once, so I would probably switch the feeds you want to switch, let him adjust then work on the nightfeed.

What do you think?

Laura

[<Catherine>]

Yes, that's what I planned. Tbh, I'm too scared to touch the nf just yet as I think it's the only reason we're getting any sleep at all

He's not totally dairy free, he seems to be ok with small amounts in solids but I am cautious. DS1 was the same, it was only really milk in quantity and cheese that affected him.

So how should his day look if he's still having 4 feeds?

At the moment we're looking roughly like this :-

8am bf
9-10am solids
(Nap 11ish)
12.30/1pm bf (now bottle, 4oz ish)
2pm solids
(Nap 3.30 ish)
4pm bf (hasnt appeared overly interested in this one for a little while)
5.30pm solids (usually very little, more of a snack if that)
7.30 bt bottle (7oz)
1am ish bottle (7oz)

That quantity of milk is higher than I was expecting (his formula tub says 2-3 7oz bottles in 24hrs!) so I guess i probably keep feedings roughly how they are (whether bf or formula) with an aim to gradually reduce the nf soon.

[Lolly]

That day looks about right for 4 bottles.

The other option that may suit him better is to drop to 3 bottles in a couple of weeks. We did this with H, mostly to get 20oz into her but also it spaced things out a bit more and seemed to suit the reflux better, she was 8.5 months when we dropped to 3.

What we did was wake up bottle, breakfast, nap, solid lunch, bottle just before the pm nap (about 2pm), nap, tea, bedtime bottle. I *think* we probably switched to 3 bottles then dropped the NF because she was taking enough in the day for me to know she really didn't need the night bottle.

Ignore the formula tubs - the babies haven't read them 20oz minimum is the NHS recs.

Laura

[twogirlsmommy]

dd1 is 10 months and still on 4 bottles.  We make 8 ounces for each bottle some day she drinks it all some days there is 1-2 ounces left in bottle. Drives dh mad at the waste but I can't tell you if she will take a full or not at each feed and I don't want to chance it.  She does not eat at night at all though.  Her routine looks like this.

Bottle 7/7:30 (sometimes 7:40 if big sister wont get dressed)
Breakfast: 8/8:30
Bottle 11:30/12
Lunch:1
Bottle: 4
Dinner: 5
Bottle: 7 (bedtime)

When she was still taking a night feed depending on when it was (after 3am mostly) I would do breakfast first b/c she would take a full bottle at night)

[<Catherine>]

Fab, thanks. Seems as though we're doing ok as we are then