Almost 7 month - feeding questions, pls help

[Eleanorz]

Hello! My son Zac is 6 month 3 weeks. He is a big boy at 75 percentile. He is on formular feeding, and started solids in the end of five month. Here is his day like:

8-9 wake up
9:45 - 10:30 will start first bottle anytime during the period (once start usually finish in 30 min)
11:00 - 12:00 start first nap (usually one hour and a half)
1:30 solids (veggie and fruit)
2 - 3 will start second bottle
4:30 second nap
5:45 solids (cereal, sometimes I skip this if second bottle gets too late)
7:45 third bottle
11:30 dream feed (I give 200ml bottle, sometimes he can finish, sometimes not.)

On a good day, he can drink 900ml, on a bad day 780ml.

I want to move his first bottle time to much closer to his wake up time. Any suggestions on how? Right now he is just not interested in milk after get up. Also currently in order to preserve his milk in take, I am only giving a small amount of solid, is this good? Or I shall gradually increase his solid since he is approaching 7 month? Any suggestions are much appreciated.

[Lolly]

Is he having any night feeds? If he isn't I would start getting rid of the dreamfeed to see if that helps. Is he on the fastest flow teat? Has he got any digestive problems like reflux?

I think you are right to keep solids to a minimum as you want to keep the milk up. His bad day intake is fine but you don't want it to slip much lower really until he gets much closer to 1.

Laura

[Eleanorz]

Thx Laura. He does not have nf. But if I stop df, I am just afraid he will wake up in the night asking for milk. I really don't want to do nf again. Right now he sleeps (of course there are NWs) from 8-9 to 8-9.

He is on fast Flow teats and no reflux problem.

For solids, he just has 2-3tsp veggie and fruit purée everyday. Is it too little? Sometimes I give cereal too.i was told he needs to eat meat in 7 month, is it true?

[Lolly]

He doesn't "need" meat, it has iron but formula has iron in it so he's getting it from there.

The dreamfeed is dropped around 8 months so you will need to do it soon anyway! If he's not hungry first thing I would think waking from hunger if you drop the dreamfeed is unlikely as he should begin taking those dropped oz in the daytime. I wonder if the timing of your day and DF is causing some of your NWs. Tracy said the DF should be done between 10 and 11 or it can disturb sleep - your day does run an hour or so later than most peoples so it may be different for you.

It's up to you but I think if you want him to be hungry when he wakes in the morning then the dreamfeed will need to go.

Laura