want to stop giving DF

[rogrogit]

My baby is 7 mon now, eats 3 solid meals a day (about 200-300 ml each), and takes 2 bottles (240 ml each: his meal before going to sleep+DF).
He's in a normal weight (even a little bit chubby ), eats well and sleeps 12 hrs at night (in which I give him the DF at about 23:00).
I tried to use the BW book, but she explains how to add 30 ml every few days to his bottles and reduce it from the DF, but as I said, I don't give him bottles during the day at all.
What do I do in order to stop with the DF?
Thanx!!

[Freya'sMum]

Hello!

I am going to move this post to the bottlefeeding forum who can answer your dreamfeed query, but before I do, I'm going to express a little concern at the amount of milk your lo is having per day...

Without wanting to sound too scary, 480ml (16oz) per day is under the minimum recommended amount for a baby of 7 months. At this age, solid foods are offered to babies as a supplement to milk which is still their primary source of nutrition until at least 9-10months when the balance starts to even out then reverse. Various organisations advise that babies of your lo's age should still be having their pre-solids quantity of baby-milk with the solid foods topping them up if they are still hungry (the range is between 20-30oz depending on your lo's pre-solids appetite!).

Personally, I wouldn't drop the dreamfeed if this takes your lo over the 20oz of milk per day because he won't be having sufficient for his nutritional needs, however I understand that you might want to stop feeding at night-time (who doesn't) so perhaps you could substitute this bottle with another during the day? The bottlefeeding parents might have other ideas to help you too!

Ax

[rogrogit]

First, thank you for your respond 
Actualy, I'm doing what both the doctor and the nurse in the clinic told me to do: Once the baby eats enough at one meal (about 200ml, and mine eats a lot more), I can stop giving him bottle. I guess that in each country they have different point of view about that.
I'm willing to give him the DF amount during day time. Do you think that will do?
But how do I do that? It's not reccomanded to just stop giving the DF, right?
The thing is that he goes to sleep at about 19:30-20:00, takes the DF at 23:00, and he wakes up at about 8:00. But in a few weeks he's going to kindergarden, I'm going back to work and both of us will start waking up at 6. So I think it will be best if he'll sleep these 10-12 hrs in a row. Plus, for me it'll be great if I could go to bed at 22:00.
What do you think? How do I do that?

[Freya'sMum]

Well, I'm not a doctor, nurse or dietician, but from my research around the subject, most articles recommend that babies start on solid foods at around 6 months, that the main diet continues to be their milk (breast or formula) and that foods are introduced partly as a nutritional supplement, but mainly just so that they learn what food is and what to do with it. So the solid foods top-up the milk intake, not replace it, they have lots of milk plus solid foods, and the recommendation of about a pint (20oz or 500-600ml) full-fat milk per day lasts until los are 24 months!

I'm really not the best person to help you with stopping the dreamfeed, my 13 month old still feeds in the night , but there is a sticky post about it in the FAQ section of this forum, and I'm sure some bottle-feeding parents will be able to offer their experiences too. I just think that ds really shouldn't be having less than 600ml formula milk per day in total, so you'd need to make it up somewhere in the daytime.

And about your return to work, it sounds like you just need to shift ds's EASY back a couple of hours, and perhaps you could do this gradually eg. put him to bed 19:30 and wake him at 07:30 in the morning starting your EASY from there, maybe do this for a few days then put him to bed at 19:00 and wake him at 07:00 and start your EASY from there for a few days, and so on until he gets used to doing maybe 18:30 or 19:00 thru till 06:00? Again, you might want to post a separate thread in the EASY forum for more comprehensive thoughts on this!

HTH?

Ax

[* Paula *]

Have you considered offering a bottle at around 2:30pm?  That way you could introduce this feed to your lo and then start working on reducing the DF.

I do agree with PP at this age milk is still their main source of nutrician, and solid foods are not meant to replace it.  I would definitely suggest offering a feed in the afternoon, to make up for dropping the DF.

HTH's

Paula

[kallaroo]

my ds is 6 months and we have just dropped df.
he is established on three meals a day and has an 8oz bottle at 8 followed by breakfast. Lunch at 12 with 2oz of milk. An 8oz bottle at 4.00, dinner at 6.00 and an 8oz bottle at 7.45
we just started reducing his dreamfeed by a few ounces every night. i also add baby rice to his dinner (dinner is 2 ice cubes of food and 5 teaspoons of baby rice)
i did it over a period of 2 weeks- i probably dragged out the last 2oz- but he still sleeps from 8-8.

[* Paula *]

Congrats on dropping the DF - Sounds like your lo is doing really well.