Contemplating dropping a bottle but doesn't take in enough as it is...

[MGardner]

My DS is 8 months old. We do 4 bottles a day: 7:00am 5-6oz, 11:00-11:30 oz change, 3:30-4 oz change, 7:00p oz change. We do 3 meals of solids a day usually an hour after the bottles. But AT least one of the bottles my DS is not interested in. Either the 11am, the 4p or the 7p. At least one of these he only takes in about 2oz and it's a struggle..So on average he takes about 18-20oz of formula a day. I don't know if I should drop a bottle - perhaps if I drop one he would still take 18oz but it wouldn't be as much of a struggle. I just don't know because it seems he's not really taking a lot of formula for his age AND I woudln't know which bottle to drop. It always changes which bottle he's not interested in. More often than not it's the one before bed....and I don't want to drop that one....that one gets him through the night...so if I drop the afternoon one do I substitue with a snack? Should I even contemplate dropping a bottle?

[supermum]

Hi, I'm no expert, but your son sounds just like my DS...He is now 7.5 mos and we changed the feeding sched, due to the same problem...did not want any milk at the 11am feed, not much at 4pm and a little decrement in his bed time bottle. We've changed to :

7am bottle
8am breakfast

11:30am Lunch
2:30 bottle

4pm Dinner
7pm bed time bottle

This way he takes in a lot more oz than he was taking with 4 bottles, and he enjoys his milk
I hope this helps, I was going nuts too, and now we're both happy again.

Best of luck!
Alina

[cathbilson]

My Kieran gave up his 4th bottle aged 5 months, so it's not too early to give it up. He's never been a great drinker, would far rather have solids. And he went just like your LO - would only have 2 or 3 oz at each of 3 daytime bottles, then a good bedtime bottle. I ended up dropping the 3 pm bottle, moving his 11 am bottle back a bit. So now our feed times are as follows:
7 am bottle (8 oz)
8 am solids banana porridge - and if he didn't quite finish his bottle the remainder added in
11.30 bottle (8 oz)
12.30 veggies about 4 oz
3.30 yogurt - a big one, they're about 3 1/2 oz
4.30 veggies or fruit - about 3 oz usually
6.30 bottle (8 oz)
so even if he drinks the whole lot that's only 24 oz milk! And he hasn't night fed since 4 months old.
We still don't have any teeth so I can't give you advice on that. All the bottle advice says to drop the afternoon bottle, but that wouldn't have worked for us. he still likes his one at 11.30.
I can only suggest that you try it for a few days. It may or may not work for you. I found after switching to the above schedule that Kieran actually took more - before he would take 18-20 oz milk a day and now it's 22-24 plus his solids.

[rinajack]

We too have just 3 bottles, have for a while now.  Our feeding routine is:

6 Bfast - toast, cereal mixed with soy yoghurt then bottle
9 Snack - fruit finger food
11 Lunch - vegies/chicken puree and fruit puree then bottle
2 Snack -fruit finger food and an arrowroot
4 Dinner - meat/veg puree then finger food  - steamed veg and a small sausage, soy yoghurt
5:45 Bottle
6pm bed

Zara is on soy formula.  Her bottle are completely hit and miss, and unpredictable.  Some days she take a total of about 600 ml, sometimes it is half that.  I have discussed this with the Dr and CHN and because she eats such a wide variety of solids, and lots of them, I was told not to worry.  I do make sure she eats 1 adult size soy yoghurt per day though.  I cannot find any correlation between her solids intake and bottle intake - sometimes she just wants it, and sometimes she just doesn't.

[MGardner]

Okay so we tried going to 3 bottles, Here was his new schedule:
7am wake and bottle
8am cereal and fruit
9:30-11:30 nap
11:30 solids (veggies/fruit)
2:00 bottle
2:30-4:00 nap
5:00 solids (pureed meat/veggies)
7:00 bath, bottle bed.

Unfortunately he still took the same 4-5oz with the mid day bottle - and still pretty much refusing the last bottle of the day and started waking around 4am for a feed. I tried for 4 days before going back to 4 bottles. We are back to 4 bottles a day. He is eating about 6oz for first 2 bottles but the last two are always a struggle, the one before bed he usually flat out refuses. I think he is just full from the solids at 5pm. BUT, i can't possibly move dinner earlier. I am already rushing from work to pick him up at daycare in time to get him home and eating by 5pm. And I can't keep him up later than 7p because he gets exhausted. He only has 1/2 jar meat puree with 1/2 jar veggies or fruit for dinner. It's not like he stuffs himself. I don't know what to do, he just doesn't want that last bottle before bed. He pretty much sleeps thru the night, although he seems restless, sometimes he wakes for a minute and but I pacifier him and he's fine. But he is STARVING when we finally get him up at 7a (he usually sleeps in and out/talks/makes noises in his crib from 6a-7a). Should I keep offering every night even though the most I can get him to take is 2oz. I was very suprised when taking out one of the midday bottles didn't solve this issue, i thought for sure that would work....It's so strange that he just has no interest to eat before bed..it's really frustrating...

[rinajack]

Three things you could try.

1/ do bottle bath bed.  Maybe he is too tired to be bothered with the bottle. (my dd does get too tired to be bothered, especially after daycare)

2/ Do bottle at 5pm, then dinner at 6pm then bath then bed.  Might take more milk if it is before the solids. (this doesn't work for me since she is too tired for solids also)

3/ Can he have dinner at nursery - my dd has dinner at 4pm, and on nursery days, this means dinner at nursery.

[MGardner]

Great suggestions! I am going to try 1 and 2 since the daycare will not do a dinner feed. I wish they would, it's so stressful trying to get home and settled to eat by 5pm. But I am going to try the first two. thanks a lot.