should i drop the df??

[Sabine]

my now 7 month old has stopped taking much from bottles during the day (prev 4-6 oz per bottle now 3 at most).  This is his schedule:

5am/530am wake and BF back to bed
7am wake and BF top up
8am solids (4 tbsp cereal and 3 tbsp fruit)
9-930 nap (1-1.5hrs)
11 am EBM (prev 4-5 oz now 3)
12 lunch (3tbsp veg)
1230/1 nap (1-1.5hrs)
3 pm EBM (prev 5-6) now 3
445-5 supper ( 5tbsp cereal, 3-4 tbsp veg and 1 tbsp fruit)
6 bedtime rtn
630/7 bottle EBM 5-6oz
11pm DF 6oz

I am starting to reduce the df bottle to 5oz this week and dropping by 1 oz per week so he gets used to it.  I am hoping he will take more from bottles during the day right???  Also, what happens/what should I do if he only has 45min naps/??? Do I keep the same schedule and keep him up, he can't do more than 2.5hrs A time right now??

Any advice please??

Sabine

[C-line]

Hi Sabine,

I think dropping the dreamfeed would definitely help, as my doctor said that my son would make it up during the day if I did.  You may also want to lower the amount of solids and see if that helps, but it actually looks like your child is getting close to how much milk he/she needs for the day although with nursing its hard to say (even with the reduction).   This could also be a phase, just to throw another wrench in there.

As for dropping the dreamfeed, this actually went much more easily than I thought it would.  Dropping the amount is ok, but I ended up giving the dreamfeed earlier and earlier.  The doc also saw no problem in us just dropping it but I was having a hard time getting my son to take enough formula so I was hesitant.  Anyway, it was almost as if my son weaned himself from it.  He goes to sleep around 6:30 and ended up waking at 9pm one night, so I just decided to DF then - he slept through the night.  Next night, I went in at 8:30, he ate and slept through the night.  I think I did 8:30 for the next couple of nights and same result.  Then he woke about an hour after bedtime, I fed him then and he slept through.  This was nice because I was confident he could do it and defnitely didn't need the food.  Anyway, then I just stopped and it's been several weeks to a month now.  No problem.

I hope it goes this way for you if you decide to do that!  GL!

Caroline

[tylersmommy]

Dropping the DF may help. Lots of people have had success gradually dropping it like Caroline. We did it cold turkey and that was that...Tyler never missed it. Keep an eye on his solids intake to ensure that he's making up for those calories with breastmilk or formula, since his main source of nutrition still needs to come from those. I suspect that his lack of interest in bottles during the day is because he's filling up on solids. You might try limiting the amounts of solids you offer him and see if that helps. At his age, he should be taking around 28-32 oz of breastmilk or formula...it can be hard to estimate with breastfeeding, though.

Tyler was a big 30 min napper, so our days ended up being pretty unpredictable sometimes. I never kept him up longer than he could handle. I did my best to stick to the same nursing times, maybe moving it a bit earlier, and if I had to skip a solids meal, it really wasn't a big deal.