Too Early to drop to 3 bottles???

[darcys mum]

Hi ladies,

I am wondering whether it is too early to drop my little man down to 3 bottles per day.
He will be 8 months old next week, never been a huge eater but currently on 4 bottles each of 8 oz but over the course of the day he leaves a full 8oz not taken.

We started solids at around 6 months and he is fairly good with them however it is really hard to try and fit them in with the bottle feeds and his long morning nap and I just don't think he is hungry enough for it... his routine is currently like this:

Wake 7am 8oz bottle

try solids about 1hr later, sometimes he will take sometimes not, usually a little cereal with fruit.

10-12/1 nap

then 8oz bottle

again try solids hr later but not always interested

3 or 4 (depends on morning nap wake time) sleep 1hr

4 or 5 8oz bottle

6pm solids dinner

7.30/8pm 8oz bottle, bed. Sometimes he will sleep right through, sometimes he is not a good sleeper but usually only if teething, has a cold etc...

I have spoken to our child health nurses, one said that sometime between 6-12months he will lose interest in one of his feeds and when that happens to just drop it. The other said if he is not finishing all his milk to instead reduce each feed by 2oz......

I am thinking about dropping the 5pm bottle as it is so close to the bedtime one anyway and makes it difficult to fit dinner in as well all in a 2-3 hr window it has just happened that way because of his long am nap.

Do you think this is ok to do since he usually leaves 8oz over the day anyway? Maybe I could offer 3 9oz bottles to be safe? or should I do like the second nurse said and reduce each feed back to 6oz??

I am hoping if I go to 3 feeds it will make him a little hungrier for some solids 

Thankyou in advance for your expertise 

[Buntybear]

Hi, I am going to move this to bottle feeding for you x

[darcys mum]

Any thoughts would be appreciated.......

[*Kara*]

I had the exact same situation with DD at 7 months... I dropped each of her first 3 bottles to 6 ozs and left her BT at 8ozs to give her a good shot at a good sleep  

The reason that this is a better approach in my opinion - constipation.  Moving to 3 bottles will mean that he won't be having a bottle close to 2 of his meal (you generally end up with a bottle between lunch and dinner but separated by a couple hours each way)... unless he is a master water guzzler with a sippy, solids without some liquid is a recipe for an ER trip (it was for us).  Took 10 days for her to become impacted and require an enema and a couple months of laxative therapy to correct it.

Don't worry about him being more hungry for solids yet - solids are second to formula until closer to a year.

[Lolly]

We dropped to 3 bottles just before 8 months to get my refluxer to take more milk and it worked well for us. She had a bottle at wake up, just before her afternoon nap and at bedtime. She has never been a big drinker of milk or other fluids but we haven't had constipation issues like Kara has.

He is getting plenty of milk is 24 hours, they average around 24-32oz of milk with solids so if you did drop to 3 bottles of 8oz each he will still be getting plenty of milk and you can increase the dairy in solids which counts too.

What do you think?

Laura

[darcys mum]

Thanks for your replies Ladies

We are on day 3 of dropping the feed and it seems to be going well so far.
We are having sleep issues so wake up times vary from day to day but our current routine is looking something like this now:

7.30 8oz bottle

8.45 solids still not really interested in breakfast at this stage...

10.30 sleep 2.5hrs, he has always wanted to take a rather long morning nap, which I don't mind gives me a chance to get jobs done!

12.30/1.00 lunch solids this is going much better now

2.00/2.30 8oz bottle

4.00 sleep 1hr

5.30 dinner solids

7.30 9oz bottle, sleep.

He is much more interested in eating at lunch and dinner now and is finishing all of his bottles now.

Constipation shouldn't be a problem he is definately master of the straw cup and loves to drink his water!

I know that milk is still the most important source of nutrition until 1yr old when food becomes the main source, but I feel like there needs to be a transition time, you can't just flick a switch at their first birthday you know? and at the rate we were going it just wasn't happening! Part of our problem is that since he started to crawl at 6months he does not like to sit still or be "trapped" in his highchair! I'm hoping this will improve though!!
Even with going to 3 bottles he still isn't eating very much, but it is still an improvement on what we were doing that's for sure, I guess we just have to wait for his appetite to catch up now, he has never really had a big one though

We have our 8month check at the health centre on Monday (not sure which of the two nurses it is with ) so will be interesting to see what they have to say about it....

[*Kara*]

Good!  If he is good with his straw cup - you should be golden!

And yes, I totally know what you mean about thinking they will never take to solids at a year   Teething has been a bit of a deterrent here!

[momma.bear]

He is much more interested in eating at lunch and dinner now and is finishing all of his bottles now.

Constipation shouldn't be a problem he is definately master of the straw cup and loves to drink his water!

I know that milk is still the most important source of nutrition until 1yr old when food becomes the main source, but I feel like there needs to be a transition time, you can't just flick a switch at their first birthday you know? and at the rate we were going it just wasn't happening! Part of our problem is that since he started to crawl at 6months he does not like to sit still or be "trapped" in his highchair! I'm hoping this will improve though!!
Even with going to 3 bottles he still isn't eating very much, but it is still an improvement on what we were doing that's for sure, I guess we just have to wait for his appetite to catch up now, he has never really had a big one though

Seems like our LOs are quite similar! My DD will be eight months on Christmas Day and we just dropped to 3 daytime feeds (and one NF). She is the same way, disinterested in solids and milk and would rather just play. She used to love solids, but that stage went by quickly. How much does your LO eat per meal on average? My freezer is full of purees but at the rate she is going she'll be eating purees on her first birthday still! However, she is 19 lbs. so her disinterest in food is not as much of a concern!
Also, just curious what straw sippy cup you use. I am on a hunt to find a great one.

[*Kara*]

Momma.bear - where are you located?  I am in Canada and have a Playtex sippy with a straw (my DD hates it but I have a good friend whose BF'd babe loves it!). 

This is the one:
http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=11468683

RE: the amount of solids she is eating - my DD used to be a huge solids eater and slowed right down around 9 months   As long as she is getting her minimum of 24 ozs of formula - any amount of solids is fine.

[momma.bear]

I am in Canada as well. Thanks for the tip, I may give it a try, they are pretty cheap! I'm pretty sure she's getting 24 oz of solids (she's bf and I also pump during the day).

[*Kara*]

I'm pretty sure she's getting 24 oz of solids (she's bf and I also pump during the day).

I hope you mean 24 ozs of boob juice

[momma.bear]

lol, yeah! last night was rough

[darcys mum]

Hi momma bear,
He would be lucky if he ate 1-2 tbsp at breakfast, Lunch is the best meal at the moment he would eat about a 1/4 cup, then dinner sometimes nothing or couple of tsp, sometimes he will eat 1/4 as well though, depends on his mood !

I am in Australia so I don't know if you would have these cups over there, but it is just a cheepo one called a dinkee cup it has a flat lid with a long plastic straw that can be bent over back onto the lid so it doesn't leek, this has been the best by far as it has a long soft plastic straw that he can actually hold onto while he drinks, some of the others only have a couple of centimetres in length which he didn't like as much!

He is going really well though on the 3 8oz bottles a day and taking solids a little better since doing so, though we have been teething and just cut through his 3rd tooth and the 4th is almost through as well now too so that might be putting him off a bit as well.....To boot he has woken up with a very snotty nose the poor little fella, he is not having the best time at the moment I hope he is at least a little better for Christmas Day, fingers crossed!

[susankula]

Thanks for this post, I've been going crazy with my daughter and her lack of interest in her bottles!  I'm going to try this, it can't be any worse than we're doing now!

[Lolly]

How old is your LO susankula?

Laura