Not sure what to do about feeding schedule for 9 MO - PLEASE HELP!

[lotus_1023]

My 9 MO DD is now typically having 3 feeds / day and one early morning (4-5am) feed. Her feeds have recently become before the sleep rather than after for the following reasons: a) If she has her early morning feed she doesn't seem hungry when she wakes around 7am; b) she's often too distracted when she's awake and wanting to play rather than feed and will only have a decent feed if she's sleepy.

Our day typically goes like this (for the past week at least):
4-5am: Bottle (approx 6 0z)
7am: Wake
8am: Breakfast Solids
9:50: Bottle (approx 4-5 oz)
10am: Sleep (around 1 - 1 1/2 hrs)
11:30am: Lunch solids
2pm: Bottle (4-5 oz) then sleep (around 1 - 1 1/4 hrs)
4:30pm: Dinner solids
6:30pm Bottle (approx 7-8 oz)
7pm Bed

So she's having approx 20 oz on a bad day and 24 oz on a good day. Is this approp for a 9 MO? I'd like to try and drop the early morning feed and push it back to wake time (may be a NW question though), and I'd like to try getting the feeds after sleep time not before (though every time I've tried she is just not interested in a feed and will have almost nothing). How would you suggest I go about doing this?

[lotus_1023]

Has anyone got any ideas? I'd really like to start making changes asap but not sure how to go about doing it. TIA for any advice.

[Lolly]

Have you thought about getting rid of the 4/5am bottle or reducing it to tide her over then starting with a milk feed at wake up? Even if she didn't take a full feed at 7 with breakfast it should get her through her first nap. You could limit the amount you give her then after a few days reduce it again, or just offer her water and see if you can resettle .

My DD is 10 months now, but her routine for a while has been

6.30ish Wake & bottle
8 solids
9.30 sleep
11 wake
12 solids
2.30 bottle and sleep (or bottle after sleep if she goes down a bit earlier because of short nap)
3.30/4 wake
5 solids
7 bottle & sleep.

There are some more routines here for you to see  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=164253.0. 20oz a day is fine for her age if she is eating solids well - the dairy in her food can be counted towards the 20oz too. Providing she is not feeding to sleep, at this age a bottle before a nap is fairly normal I think (from what I can remember!)  - is there a reason you want to change it around?

HTH!

Laura

[lotus_1023]

Thanks so much for that! I have tried cutting out the 4/5am feed cold turkey and she just doesn;t resettle without the feed, but I'll try tonight giving her about half the amount and then see if she takes the 7am feed.

Should I try perhaps dropping her to 3 feeds instead of 4? The reason for wanting to change feeds to after the nap instead of before was I was worried she might be associating sleep with a feed, though when I think back to my DD1 she had milk before naps until almost 2 and easily dropped it then, so I guess that's not an issue.

[Lolly]

You could try dropping one bottle, you may find she has 1 8oz bottle rather than the 2 4/5oz bottles. If she is falling asleep independently and is able to resettle herself then it shouldn't be a problem!

Laura