Help me understand....(feeding baby)

MrsW062610

I need y'alls help!

Our pedi wants DD on just 1 formula bottle at bed (if that, even) by 1 year old (bday is 1/13). I'm confused on what she should be getting in place of formula - mainly the morning and bedtime bottle.

Here is her current eating schedule:
6am (wake up): 4 oz bottle
7am: 7 oz puree
9:30am: 4 oz bottle
11:30am: 7-10 oz of puree, plus some table food
2pm: 7-10 oz of puree, plus some table food
4pm: 4 oz bottle
6pm: 2-4 oz bottle
8pm (bedtime): 6 oz bottle

So, I guess what I'm asking is what do you replace all of those bottle feedings with? Milk (Pedi has given us the go ahead to introduce)? More purees? More table food? Snacks? She is daycare during the week and will only give purees until she is 1....won't do puffs, table food, etc.

I'd love to know what you do, if you are giving less formula/BM and how you are replacing that.

Thanks in advance for your help!     

amt0312

Hmmm...only one bottle of formula per day? I guess to me that would mean replace formula with milk during the day, preferably in a sippy cup and make sure your LO is getting a varied diet to replace lost nutrients due to the switch from formula to milk. I'd clarify what your pedi thinks you should do, though. 

Why does your daycare only do purees? That seems a bit silly to me as some babies never really do purees. 

MrsW062610

Thanks all for your advice and thoughts.

I really like our pedi and I've read on here about formula/BM is main nutrition for the first year. I think what he is trying to get across is the idea that in the next month and a half liquid should not be her main source of nutrition. And that it should be a slow transition from mainly formula to mainly food. Does that make sense?

We are gonna try some milk and yogurt out this weekend and see what happens. And I guess start giving more food. The only problem is that DD doesn't sleep at night if she hasn't had enough during the day. So it's hard to not "overfeed" although I  know that's not really all that possible.

I think daycare doesn't give table food before a year because of risk of choking. Although there's a new kid there and he is like 9 months old and gets table food....so I'm not sure about that. Maybe he's one that never/won't take purees.

Anyway - thanks for the ideas. I forgot we see him on Monday real quick for the 2nd flu shot so I will ask him! Thanks!

holly142

I would talk to your daycare about doing more table food.  DD's pedi said that she should be feeding herself most of the time.  We quit purees at about 9 months.  Although, we just started pouches, so I guess that is pretty much pureed food.  However, she feeds it to herself.  The only time I spoon feed DD is when she eats yogurt, soup or oatmeal cereal. 

I am no help with the bottles.  I still nurse every 3 hours.  In addition, DD has breakfast (usually a combination of oatmeal cereal, english muffin or yogurt along with fruit), lunch (what I am eating cut into strips) and dinner (what I am eating cut into strips).  

MissMeegs

I'm struggling with this question myself and we don't go back to the pedi until DS's first birthday on January 7. I suppose I could call them. But I didn't talk to them at all about his diet at his 9 month visit.

Right now he gets 28 oz of formula per day: one 4 oz bottle at wake-up and four 6-oz bottles throughout the day. He also gets three meals, with breakfast and dinner being the most substantial and the midday being more of a snack (usually a pouch of fruit or veggie puree, or a mozarella stick or yogurt).

I suppose I should start by just lessening the amount of formula he's getting and maybe switching to 4 oz bottles except for bedtime? I don't know. I may just wait until his 1 year visit to find out!

pinkyxboo

So what we do is a 7oz bottle at wake up, then a breakfast meal at about 10am (usually fruit and oatmeal), then a 4 oz bottle around 1, 1:30 and then her lunch meal. She's not really doing purees anymore so I usually give her a serving of cut up veggies, fruit and a protein or grain. Then she gets another 4 oz bottle around 5 and then her dinner meal(similar to lunch) and then she gets 8 oz around 730 before bed. I don't have recommendations for cutting back, as with my daughter, as we increased her solids, she dropped the extra bottle feedings on her own. I just wanted to give you an example of our feeding schedule.

MrsW062610

babywinks said:

Although all pedis are different I thought it was more common to start weaning off of formula or BM and switch to whole milk after baby's first birthday. But I'm no doctor. Either way, start slowly and don't worry if your LO isn't ready to give up the formula bottles by 12 months or even 15 months. This is one of those areas where you can be vague with you pedi IMO - just say we are working on it or it's going well. Unless you have a medical concern, they don't need to know it took you until 14 months.

this is a good point. Now if I could get DH into that mindset. he thinks that what our pedi says is gold and we must go by that because he's a doctor. He doesn't understand that each baby is different and it's not going to be horrible if she's on formula a little longer.

Thanks to everyone for all of the opinions. We see the pedi next week, so if I think of any questions I will ask him then.

 

housewifebecomesher

Just a suggestion, OP. We have been using the Gerber yogurt blends for awhile now and it is the only thing my super picky daughter will eat without a fuss. I like that there are several flavors and it doesn't have to be refrigerated until after it's open. Some of the flavors have veggies or grains mixed in. Hope this helps!