The doctor said....

[sraryan]

.. that by our 9 month check up, ds should be down to three bottles and meals a day.  And I should be giving him his bottle following his solids... not before.
I just spent some time looking through sample schedules but I'm still trying to figure out how to make the transition from our current schedule to three bottles with his three meals. 
here's what we're doing now.. (ds is 7 months old next week)

6:30am wake and 6oz bottle
7:30 breakfast (fruit and oatmeal)
10:30  6oz bottle
12pm lunch (veggie and/or fruit)
2:30/3pm 6oz bottle
4:30 dinner (rice cereal and veggie)
6:30 6oz bottle
7pm bedtime

Anyone have an ideas of how to make the transition go smoothly?  Thanks in advance!
joanne

[Tammy: Ethan & Kaden's Mom]

I don't have any suggestions for you, because we're still on 4 bottles.  But I find it interesting that your ped thinks that at 9 months old they should only be on 3 bottles.  At our 9 month checkup, our ped said 4 bottles was "perfect" for our ds.  I did talk to her about dropping a bottle, and she told me to let ds take the lead on when that is, because "he's only 9 months old".  Which was also my thinking at the time, but other people were making me think I needed to drop him to 3. 

Anyway, we're still on 4 bottles a day.  I may try him on 3 bottles a day at 10 months or so, but we'll see.

Oh - and I do bottle after solids all the time and have been doing that since he was probably 7 months or so.  I just do solids first, then wait 30 minutes to 1 hour later for the bottle.

Good luck!

[Fiona (Leah & Kians Mom)]

Hi there,
Am definetly no expert but I would say just give solids first then follow with the bottle and try to get rid of the afternoon bottle, maybe replace it with a small snack and some water or very diluted juice.  So I would do breakfast followed by bottle, snack around 10.30, lunch followed by a bottle for the moment this will replace the 10.30 bottle but this would be the next bottle to go. Very small snack or drink in the afternoon and keep the night bottle. It might take a while to work out and maybe be flexible on the morning and evening bottles, maybe someone else can give you better advice. If your baby refuses to eat solids first thing I would give a small amount of bottle and then try the solids and then drink whatever milk he wants.
Fiona

[sa]

i actually wanted to keep DS on 4 bottles for as long as i could. however, when he was 8-9 months, he didn't drink the whole bottle for all of his feeds and that his solid intake was not good either. so i tried to drop to 3 bottles and it works! he took 3 full bottles and 3 solid meals without fuss.

here is our feeding routine:
7am - milk
8am - breakfast

11am - milk
12.30pm/1pm - lunch

4pm - water & snack of fruit/yogurt
5pm - dinner
7pm/7.30pm - milk


many mums here suggest to have lunch at 11am then 1pm milk before afternoon nap. but it didn't work for DS. so i keep 11am milk then 1pm lunch. DS nap from 2pm-4pm.

HTH

[sraryan]

Thanks so much for the advice!!
I'm going to do this gradually of course but I think tomorrow I'll try giving him some solids for breakfast before the bottle and see how it goes.  Keep your fingers crossed!
Thanks again ladies!
joanne

[Deb_in_oz]

olivia is 9 1/2 months and we dropped to 3 bottles last week as she was extending her nap often to go from 2-4pm+ and had been of wavering interest in her 3:30 bottle anyway.  this is how we do it and every kid is different in terms of what kind of a gap they need before they have the bottle (after having eaten solids...)

wakes anywhere from 6:20-7am
7/7:30 bottle soon followed by small breakfast since she just doesn't want much (will move bottle to after breakfast soon, but i am a slow starter and to hold her off until bkfst is "my" issue so find i offer bottle, then solids, then bottle) so this will become 7/7:30 solids only
8:30 rest of bottle
9:15 in cot for 9:30 nap (hopefully) of 45 min - 1hr 30
11/11:30 lunch solids
12:30/1pm bottle
1:30-3/3:30 nap
5pm dinner solids
6:45 bath
7:15 bedtime bottle