Help with feeding schedule...

[Nickie18]

My LO's schedule needs a modification... He's almost one year old and is now transitioning to a sippy cup- I need help figuring out how to reduce the amount of formula/milk.

His current schedule: (he has always had very high A times and also refused to take an afternoon nap, so we modified the morning wake time to keep the awake time down...)

6am- bottle- 8 oz formula
8/8:30am- wake up
9am- breakfast- usually one egg, waffle or pancake, fruit, yogurt, 2 oz water
10:30am- 8 oz
12:30pm- lunch, 2 oz water
nap 1-3pm
3:30pm- 8 oz
5pm- snack of fruit/cheese/cheerios/crackers
6:30- dinner- eats what we eat- today was shrimp thai curry and rice and some grapes, 2 oz water
7:15pm- 10 oz
7:30pm- bed- sleeps until 6am next am.

Any ideas? That is a lot of formula... Thanks!

[*Kara*]

WOW!  That is a huge amount of formula for his age - but he does eat well too!

At a year of age, he only needs 16 ozs of dairy to meet his needs (this includes cheese, yogurt and milk too!).  Have you started moving to cow's milk yet?

Many will keep the wake up and bedtime bottles and drop the ones during the day and have a snack with water instead.. milk as a drink with meals.

You could certainly try subbing those bottles at 1030am and 330pm with a snack instead... go for something with a bit more to it, things like avocado, cheese, whole grain crackers/breads,

I would also cut the two bottles he does have each day to a max of 7 ozs fairly quickly.  I would be willing to bet that the bedtime bottle at 10ozs has little to do with needing calories to get through the night

[Nickie18]

Thank you- yes, it is a lot of formula... He is not fat by any means, just extremely tall and very active.

I will cut the day bottles to 7 ounces and the night time to 8oz for now. we are also trying to transition from bottle to straw sippy- Maybe just drop one bottle at 10:30 and do teh snack, one less sippy transition!

Thank you- will let you know how it goes- I know we also have to do something about the mornings- he should be able to sleep in later without the bottle, but I tried everything to stop early wakings to no success... Is it any harm in still giving him a bottle at 6am so he goes back to sleep?

[*Kara*]

I will cut the day bottles to 7 ounces and the night time to 8oz for now.

Just to clarify, I meant cut the wake up bottle to 7 ozs and the bedtime one as well.  Drop the other two completely and just offer a snack

I know we also have to do something about the mornings- he should be able to sleep in later without the bottle, but I tried everything to stop early wakings to no success... Is it any harm in still giving him a bottle at 6am so he goes back to sleep?

This isn't an EW since he has slept for 10.5 hrs already... but I would bet it is habitual if it is at the same time each day...   He does sleep a fair bit in total

[Nickie18]

Thank you!
We have dropped the 10:30am bottle and substituted a snack and water from the straw sippy. Only 2 days but ok so far. So that means we are down to about 26 ounces of formula right now, and he seems to be ok with that. We will work on dropping the 3pm one as well next...

The waking in the am can be anywhere from 5:15 to 6:30am. today was 6:15am, so not sure if habitual or he just has had enough sleep. It started by him waking at that time and then not going to back to sleep. I tried giving him a bottle and he fell back asleep for another hour, so we have been doing that ever since to keep his A time below 5 hours (otherwise he would be up from 6 until 11 for hisfirst nap, then he would refuse the second nap and have an A time of over 6 hours until early bedtime... This way, his first nap is later and his second A time is reasonable.

I will continue the bottle as long as I can at 6am to get him back to sleep until he can tolerate the longer A times, so I hope...

Thanks again!

[*Kara*]

I almost wonder if he is just really hungry by then? 

[Nickie18]

he does seem to be at the 6am feeding. takes the whole bottle in a few minutes. he has been eating a lot more recently too...

[*Kara*]

Then I would use momma-instinct and feed the hungry baby for now   If he gets to the point that he won't go back to sleep easily and ends up a crab-apple because of it, then we do something