Author Topic: Eating without formula?  (Read 1955 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Bella89

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 15
  • Posts: 669
  • Location: Poland
Eating without formula?
« on: November 24, 2015, 10:57:15 am »
Hi All,
my DS is 10 months, but as soon as he is 1 I will try to transition him to cow's milk if he will take it.
Right now our diet is based on formula and I use it for his solids as well.
He is on 3 bottles and 2-3 solids if nap transitioning allows us.
My question is, how much a toddler eats when i.e. 1.5 years? Should it be more like grown ups?
I ask because I myself have 3 meals and I don't really snack or drink between. I think that is not enough for DS obviously.
Is it like: breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner ?
Thanks!

Offline weaver

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 210
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 10146
  • May your choices reflect your hopes not your fears
  • Location:
Re: Eating without formula?
« Reply #1 on: November 24, 2015, 11:56:07 am »
breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner
Definitely what we have done.  As they closer to 3.5/4, the afternoon snack has reduced or disappeared. That's mostly because there isn't time for it since LO2 dropped naps early and goes to bed around 6.15, so dinner has to be at 5.  We actually won't fit lunch, snack and dinner into the timetable.  Bear in mind that tho we call these meals different things, for very small people they will often be around the same size, and pretty similar content.  Maybe the 'meals' will be a shade bigger but it's not necessarily so.
*Anne*, loving mama to a honeybee (2010) and a sweetpea (2012).  BF for 4 proud years.


Offline creations

  • Feeding Solid Food & EASY
  • Forum Moderator
  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 496
  • Posts: 21993
  • Location: UK
Re: Eating without formula?
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2015, 20:48:24 pm »
s it like: breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner ?
Yes, although I'd say more like: milk breakfast snack lunch snack dinner supper/snack/BT milk

Toddlers and children do still need milk (unless there is an allergy of course). You might serve it in a cup or you might continue with a bottle for a while.  Guidance to drop bottles at 12 months is to prevent tooth damage and avoid too much milk rather than solids, if a bottle of milk is taken in a reasonable time it isn't going to damage teeth. Many people choose to continue 1 of the bottles for some time beyond 12 months to ensure there is one good milk intake somewhere in the day.

I chose to keep the morning milk as the big milk drink, so we kept the bottle until 13 months as I needed to find a way to keep that at a decent size.  Milk in a sippy cup would be a few sips rather than a full portion and my DS was unhappy with morning milk in a sippy cup.  I found a straw worked great and served this with him on my knee almost like a bottle feed but sat upright.
I dropped the BT milk at 12 months by adding in a solids supper (so a third snack) along with a sippy cup of milk pre-bath time and weaned the BT bottle.  This worked really well for us. I do know though that others have found keeping the BT milk preferable.

You might also find that with toddlers they are likely to eat more in the morning and afternoon rather than the evening meal and that each 'meal' does not need to be balanced in the way and adults might be. It might be that the food groups are spread across the day rather than all in one meal, and we tend to say to look at amounts and balance of food groups across a week rather than within a single meal.

My almost 5yo still has: morning milk, breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner.
When going through a growth spurt he will also take a second breakfast and/or a supper in addition to those meals and snacks.
When he's older I would hope he drops 1 or both snacks, really I am only thinking of fewer acid attacks on the teeth across the day but I know he isn't ready to drop snacks yet.


Offline Katet

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 608
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 14364
  • Sydney Australia
  • Location: Sydney
Re: Eating without formula?
« Reply #3 on: November 25, 2015, 08:24:21 am »
Toddlers and children do still need milk (unless there is an allergy of course). You might serve it in a cup or you might continue with a bottle for a while.  Guidance to drop bottles at 12 months is to prevent tooth damage and avoid too much milk rather than solids, if a bottle of milk is taken in a reasonable time it isn't going to damage teeth. Many people choose to continue 1 of the bottles for some time beyond 12 months to ensure there is one good milk intake somewhere in the day.

It doesn't have to be milk but Dairy, so if they hare having say cheese, yogurt & custard & even non dairy calcium rich foods they don't need to drink milk as a 'drink', my DS1 flatly refused to drink milk (didn't really have formula as was BF) & we just made sure he had plenty of calcium rich foods in his diet.  Because he didn't ever want milk as a snack or with meals, he had Breakfast. I found we kind of settled into a bit of an unorthodox routine with Breakfast then a "first lunch" after his first nap & then a "second lunch" after his second nap & then Dinner & he didn't ever have a bedtime milk once he stopped his BF.

When DS2 was  around 1yo it was a bit different because of DS1's meals & so he had Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack & Dinner, which is pretty much what they have had since they went to preschool/school as they have fruit at 10.30 at school then 1pm is Lunch & they have a snack after school then dinner.
dc1 July 03, dc2 May 05

Offline weaver

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 210
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 10146
  • May your choices reflect your hopes not your fears
  • Location:
Re: Eating without formula?
« Reply #4 on: November 25, 2015, 12:23:05 pm »
my DS1 flatly refused to drink milk (didn't really have formula as was BF) & we just made sure he had plenty of calcium rich foods in his diet.
Same here!  LO2 loves cows milk but LO1 won't touch it, neither of them ever had formula and neither is a fan of BT milk. Both have lots of calcium rich foods in their diets, cheese, yoghurt, green leafy vegs and almonds!
*Anne*, loving mama to a honeybee (2010) and a sweetpea (2012).  BF for 4 proud years.