Is it time for 3 bottles a day?

[Ambinsi]

A little background:
DD is 7 months old, with reflux that is contolled with Axid. She was taking it three times a day and was doing so well in the past couple of months (barely spitting up and no signs of discomfort) that I started giving it to her only twice a day. She seems fine. She is on three meals a day of solids - fruit and veggies, no meats yet and no cereal on the spoon because she gets cereal in her bottle and too,much was constipating her. She loves her solids and will drink her bottle happily when she's hungry enough. My pedi wants her at least or around 24 oz a day of formula. She was on a four hour easy but since she's eating her solids with enthusiasm I notice she's rarely ready at the four hour mark. In order to get her to hit that 24 oz goal we sometimes have to do a dream feed which I don't think we should have to do at this age right?

So I am wondering its time to move to 3 bottles a day, perhaps 5 hours apart? Feedings are running into naps and we're having some chaos. She's still on three naps a day and they aren't great naps. We're getting ready to try to transition to 2 naps which I posted about in the Naps section.

I think the whole thing needs tweaking....wdyt?

If this posting is in the wrong place I apologize....now that I'm looking back I see this might be a general scheduling/EASY issue.
 
All comments welcome!

[Lolly]

We switched to 3 bottles around this age because my refluxing DD wasn't taking a decent amount of milk. She then began taking around 20oz a day on 3 bottles which she had at wake up, just before her afternoon nap and bedtime. Most people will start weaning the dreamfeed from around 7 months when solids are pretty well established so it's not uncommon by any means to still be doing it. Don't forget that dairy in her food counts towards the daily minimum they need.

I would think that the cereal is taking away her appetite for milk as it will be filling her with empty calories. I'm assuming you are using it to thicken for reflux? Using cereal is really quite an old fashioned way to do it, there are non-food thickeners available which do a much better job. Using cereal in bottles is pretty widely discouraged now because it doesn't thicken evenly in the bottle and is a choking hazard. Is she having a normal milk based formula? My two both did really well on Enfamil AR which is a reflux formula that thickens in the stomach - much safer than adding cereal to bottles.

HTH!

Laura

[Ambinsi]

She is on Similac Alimentum and has had cereal in the bottle since 9 weeks of age. We have an appointment with the doc on the 8th and we will discuss taking the cereal out. Here in the US a lot of pediatricians and gastros still recommend it but I know its very controversial. Alimentum is a very thin formula. But I have already thought of taking out the cereal so I will talk to the doc about it.

So its not unusual to still be dream feeding? That's good....although I am hoping that with some tweaking she can get those 24 oz during the day. I think we are going to start trying to drop a bottle or wait longer between feedings.

Is there anywhere I can find an example of a 5 hour easy if such a thing exists?

Thanks so much Lolly!

[Lolly]

This link has an example of what you could do with three bottles - scroll down the page http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=67398.0. This is from the EASY board if you haven't seen it
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=164030.0

I would think you will find it easier if you can get her onto 2 naps so things will be a bit more spaced out. My DD dropped the cat nap way before 6 months so from about 7ish months our routine was

6.30 wake and bottle
7.30/8 solids
9.30 -11 nap
12/12.30 solids
2.30 bottle then nap til 3.30/4 (we just made sure not to feed to sleep)
5 solids
6.30 bath, bottle, bed and asleep around 7ish

Laura

[Ambinsi]

Thanks so much Lolly! We are away for the weekend but upon returning home I am going to see if we can get down to 2 naps and take it from there. I think part of our problem is that her naps are short so she's tired and most often still takes that catnap...but I realize that's an issue for the "naps" section and I am already venting over there 

Thanks again!

[Ambinsi]

I use the Born Free bottles. I've tried Dr. Browns and find that they leak (for us anyway) and I tried the Playtex Drop Ins and I don't like them, nor will she even drink from them. On the Born Free we use the level 3 nipple (fast flow) which she seems to drink from easily.