10mos, time to drop bottle?

[MommyAlley]

Hi everyone! This is my first post - I just signed up.

I am a 1st time mom to a 10mo who had this exact same issue. Everyday is different, but after strictly following the EASY routine in the book for months, she just was not interested in solids anymore around the 9mo mark.
My mom mentioned that maybe she just wasn't hungry enough after her bottle to want to eat the solids. So I decided to switch her bottles to after her solids, and she is finally eating more solids than before and her milk intake decreased back to where it was previously. She is much more hungry for the solids.

Here is my routine: (does anyone know if I should be removing the 3:30 bottle by now?)
7:30-8 - Solids - cereal mixed with fruit, yogurt, cheerios or puffs to keep her fingers busy or a spoon for her to mimic me with
8-8:30 - Bottle - 4-6oz
10-10:30 nap
12-12:30 - Solids - meat,veg,cheese,crackers,fruit
12:30-1 - Bottle - 3-5oz
2:30-3 - nap (she is resisting this nap now however...)
3:30-4 - Bottle 3-6oz depending on the day
6 - Solids - cereal,fruit,veg,finger foods or whatever we are eating
7-7:30 - Bottle 2-5oz

She has adapted without any issues and I must say it is so nice to be down to 3 meals a day and to have more free time in between. I just need to figure out now if that 3:30 bottle can be substituted for just some light snacks and water before dinner...

[~inbalance~]

Hi MommyAlley! 

I split your question from the previous thread so that hopefully you can get some new eyes on your specific situation.  I'm also going to move your question to the bottle feeding forum since your main concern seems to be whether or not it's time to drop a bottle (unfortunately I'm kinda clueless with bottle feeding so no help from me!)

Hope that helps

[Lolly]

Hi there and welcome!

It could be time to drop a bottle, the minimum they need at this age is 20oz per day, some of her bottles are quite small so I would think some days she comes a bit short of that 20oz. I wonder if a bit of tweaking may help things. What time does she wake in the morning? People generally keep the morning bottle first until after 1 year, to keep the milk intake up. My DD was a milk refusing refluxer so we dropped to 3 bottles about 8 months, the routine we had seems to be one a lot of people adopt when dropping to 3 bottles - it went like this!

6.30 - Wake and bottle
7.30/8 solids
Nap
12 ish solids
2- 2.30 bottle
Nap
5 ish solids
6.30 bed time routine and bottle around 7pm

What do you think? Would this suit your LO? The only thing to watch is that you don't feed to sleep with the afternoon bottle and nap being close together!

Laura

[*Liz*]

We dropped at about 10 mths as well - I would think it is about time as well really.

We never had any prop issues with the bottle before a nap either, and I used to do it in the dark in his sleeping bag as he was so distractible  .

[frankiesmum]

I wouldn't drop it yet unless you can get dd to take more at each bottle feed as she wouldn't be getting enough, personally I would drop the lunchtime one first. For example
we do an 8oz bottle at 7am, solids at 8am, solids 11.30am, 8oz bottle 2.30pm and solids at 4.30/5 then 8oz bottle at 6 hope this helps
xx

[Lolly]

Thank you Frankiesmum! Look like your feeding routine is the practically same as the one I posted - it wotked really well for us!

Dropping bottles if bottle sizes are small usually makes them take more at the bottles they do have. With babies this age becuase of solids they need their bottles spaced out more to give them longet to get hungry for solids and milk! Taking smaller amounts is generally a sign they need to drop a bottle so you are effectively combining 2 smaller feeds into one larger feed. Don't forget to that the milk in solids counts towards their daily intake.

Laura

[*Liz*]

I agree - my DS was a low appetite one - but he was having something like 4oz/2oz/3oz/4oz on 4 bottles.

That improved to 5oz/5oz/6oz when I went to 3 bottles so actually more in total, even though i realise less than they are 'supposed too'.

He was 15 mths before he drank a 7oz bottle, and his am one was never over 5oz bottles.

What i am saying is don't wait and expect all babies to drink big 8oz bottles as some never do. Appetites do vary so much with these LOs.

[Spandanna]

Agree with previous posts. I think it's about the right time to drop a bottle and the lunchtime one is the best one. My DS started eating solids well after I dropped a bottle (8.5mths) and also increased his first and last bottle intake to almost double! In fact at 11.5 months he only had a morning and evening bottle and had 3 meals plus a snack too!!

Hope this helps