Dropping bottles - getting in line with nursery daily schedule

[LittleLegs]

Hi

DS will be starting nursery 3 full days a week in another 3 weeks time when he will be 7.5 months.  At the moment his E schedule is pretty much as follows (solids may vary a little dependant on nap times)

7:10 7oz milk
8:20 solids
11:00 7oz milk
12:30 solids
3:00 7oz milk
4:30 solids
6:30 7oz milk

The nursery timetable is as follows:
8:30 breakfast
10:00 snack time
11:30 lunchtime (cooked meal)
2:00 snacktime
4:00 dinnertime (sandwiches / finger food)

I am thinking about trying to get him into line over the next few weeks or how I can get him into line when we reduce to 3 bottles a day.  The breakfast and dinnertimes will be fine.  How can I do this or when can I do this?

I assume there'll come a point when he'll need a snack when he gets home from nursery at 6pm???

At the moment he loves his milk and although he's doing well on solids his consumption hasn't increased significantly since I started weaning at 22 weeks (now 29 weeks).  Is this because his milk is filling him up?

[*Kara*]

It could be that the milk is filling him up... he is fine to have 20 ozs a day (don't forget formula that you use to make his cereal etc).  Would they be willing to give him a small bottle at the designated snack times instead of a bigger one at lunch time.

So it could be like this:
You give him a 7 ozs bottle at home in the morning.
Solids at 830am
4 oz bottle at 10am
Solids at 1130am
4 oz bottle at 2pm
solids at 4pm
Bedtime bottle with you of 5-7 ozs. 

This could keep his consumption about the same if you don't want to drop it yet

[Lolly]

His milk intake is absolutely fine for his age and babies don't need to drop milk feeds in favour of solids until much closer to 1 year, milk is his main source of nutrition until then. If he is drinking his bottles ok and eating some solids then I would leave things as they are until he starts indicating that he is ready to drop bottles by taking much less or refusing.

As for nursery - you are paying them and they should be able to stick to the routine your LO is already in. I would ( and did when my two started daycare) give them a copy of your LO's schedule and tell them they need to at least give his bottles when he is used to them (or as close to as possible). They can give bottles when the other have snacks as PP suggested, I would provide his normal size bottles and he will take what he wants/ needs.

Laura

[LittleLegs]

Thank you both for your advice.  Sorry for the slightly delayed response here.

I was thinking of doing something similar to what you suggested Kara but letting them give him a snack with the other children at 10:00 say a yoghurt or something dairy, lunch with them at 11:30 so earlier than I currently give lunch but not much different from his current mid morning bottle.  Then a mid afternoon bottle at 2:00pm snacktime and then dinnertime with the other children at 4:30 and then a bottle before bed so I would be dropping a bottle and he would have 21oz of milk and a yoghurt.

My other thoughts though are with you also Lolly which is why I posted on here to check my approach above.  I know nursery will do whatever I ask them to do, they have given me a routine sheet to complete.  Because I am giving milk and an hour later giving solids I think the milk is filling him up and he will always be on 4 bottles.  I have recently spoken to a couple of other mums and they said they dropped a bottle at 7 months so haven't known what to do.

Thank you again

[LittleLegs]

If I stick with what I am doing I don't know how I'll migrate to the nursery schedule eventually.