8 month old not drinking enough

[Jlbst171]

Hello

My LO is 8.5 months old and seems to be teething (getting her top 2 teeth).  Up until about 1-2 weeks ago she was drinking most of her bottles but recently has been only drinking 2-4 ounces rather than her usual 6 ounces.  This is her current schedule

7:00 6 oz bottle and breakfast food (Gerber 2nd stage)
9:30-11:30 nap
11:30 6 oz bottle and lunch (fruit and veggie)
2:30-4:30 nap
4:30 6 oz bottle and snack (starch finger foods)
5:45 Dinner solids (meat and veggie)
7:00 begin bedtime routine (bath, 6 oz bottle, story, bed)
 
Here are my questions:
1. Do you think she is drinking less formula lately due to needing to drop to 3 rather than 4 bottles?  She is currently drinking 15-20 ounces rather than 24

2. She eats Yo Baby yogurt - does this count toward her daily formula/milk intake?

3. Is this just related to teething and something I just need to "wait out"

Thanks - any schedule recommendations would be really helpful

[*Kara*]

She eats Yo Baby yogurt - does this count toward her daily formula/milk intake?

It does

Do you think she is drinking less formula lately due to needing to drop to 3 rather than 4 bottles?  She is currently drinking 15-20 ounces rather than 24

Could be.  Most babies keep 4 bottles until closer to 10 months.. that said, mine dropped to 3 bottles at 8 months too.  Her intake went back up.  The best indicator is that the 2 mid day bottles will be the ones she is less interested in - most will still take their bottle first thing when they wake and at bedtime without an issue at all.  If she is taking very little of the first bottle as well, I would bet teething.  Bottles hurt quite a bit when teething front teeth... a bit of Orajel did help here - about 5 mins before bottle time.

[Jlbst171]

Thanks Kara!

She seems to be drinking most of her bottles now -only leaving about .5 to 1 ounce out of the 6 ounces we offer. Now on some days she will eat solids and others she wants nothing to do with them!!! I am chalking this up to teething - do you agree?

Some nights she has also begun to drink only a few ounces from her bedtime bottle - thinking it could be too close to her 5:45 dinner?

What suggestions do you have for a daily schedule? For both 4 and 3 bottles per day

Thanks! Looking forward to your response

[*Kara*]

For 4 bottles, I would do this but have her dinner solids at 430 with her bottle (since she does fine with this at breakkie and lunch)... she should be hungry enough to take a 6-8 oz bottle just fine at bedtime... if you want her to be part of family dinner, for sure put her at the table... give her some Cheerios

7:00 6 oz bottle and breakfast food (Gerber 2nd stage)
9:30-11:30 nap
11:30 6 oz bottle and lunch (fruit and veggie)
2:30-4:30 nap
4:30 6 oz bottle and snack (starch finger foods)
5:45 Dinner solids (meat and veggie)
7:00 begin bedtime routine (bath, 6 oz bottle, story, bed)

For three bottles:

7:00 8 oz bottle and breakfast food (Gerber 2nd stage) - but you may have to move solids to 8am with the bigger bottle
9:30-11:30 nap
1130 (or as soon as she wakes from nap)  lunch (fruit and veggie) - add in some carbs of some sort - bread etc...
215 bottle 8 oz
2:30-4:30 nap
4:30 starch finger foods - leave this the same for now or ideally move dinner a touch earlier if you can (~5/515pm)
7:00 begin bedtime routine (bath, 8 oz bottle, story, bed)
 
Total intake is 24 ozs over three bottles.

[Jlbst171]

Hi Kara
Well Abby is now 10 months old and again having trouble with her eating and teething. Her pediatrician recommended that we move to all table food (she has 6 teeth). She will eat a few things great but most days still prefers baby food (stage 2 or 3). I am having a really difficult time getting her to eat fruit and veggie table foods. Any tips? Also here is our current schedule

7/7:30 breakfast of 6.5 ounce formula, fruit or 3rd stage cereal, yogurt and Cheerios

9:30 starch snack

10-12 nap

12/12:30 lunch of water, fruit, veggie, turkey or chicken and cheese pieces

3/3:30-4:30/5 nap with 6.5 ounces formula before nap

5:00 starch snack

6/6:15 dinner of 2nd or 3rd stage dinner, veggie (sometimes), yogurt , pieces of our dinner table food

7:30 bedtime bottle and bed

What do you think?

[*Kara*]

I would cut out the snack at 5pm... she does have a big bottle around 3pm so she should be fine till dinner.  Are you able to pull dinner to 530/545 for her?  Do her baby food at that time and then let her sit with you and DH and pick at whatever you are having.

As for the finger foods thing - for sure you can offer them but I really wouldn't stress if she still prefers her baby food.  Teething really does turn them off of chewing at times... DD was much the same until she was about 13/14 months and then almost overnight, she was much better with real food  

As for the fruit and veggie table foods: steam carrots in sticks so she can pick them up easily.  Steamed broccoli was a big hit here as well...  I used to steam apples a bit to soften them, same with pears unless they were ripe... give her a half of a banana so she can easily pick it up...

Other things:

cooked rotini pasta
Cheerios (they are almost there own food group in this house!)
grapes cut into quarters/halves if small (lengthwise)
avocado pieces

As for snacks, I would try to add some protein to her snacks - cheese bits/yogurt etc...