Feeding Schedule-Dropping Bottle

Slpst5

My DS is 7 1/2 months old. He has been on solids since 4 months and now eats 3-5 ounces of solids 3 times a day. He is starting to take less at each bottle except the 1st and last bottle of the day. Has anyone's LO dropped a bottle and what was their schedule? He was eating an 8 oz bottle 7:30, 11:30, 3:30 and 7:15 and solids at 8:15, 11:00 and 5:30. He naps 9:00-10:30 and 1:00-3:00. TIA

kgilles3

When my LO started solids at 4 months, he was drinking 35 oz. of expressed milk each day - 5 bottles of 7 oz. each (6:30, 9:30, 12:30, 3:30, 6:30) and 2 oz. of solids around dinner time (5:30/6:00) each day. He attends an early childhood center and after a few weeks of us giving him solids, they started giving him a meal of 2-3 oz. of solids around lunch time (11/11:30) so we cut back his first and last bottle of the day to 6 oz. so he was down to 33 oz. of milk plus two "meals."

Just this week, we added "breakfast" and he eats 1/4 cup of oatmeal in the morning between his first and second bottles so I asked his teachers if they would be start giving him only 6 oz. bottles during the day, bringing him to a total of 30 oz. of milk with 3 "meals." I exclusively pump and have only been able to pump around 30 oz. each day, so I wanted to see if we could get his milk consumption down to the same and after 2 days, we've been successful so far, which is a relief because my LO really really really likes to eat.

His teacher said that since we added a meal in the morning, the next step could be working toward eliminating a bottle so they're going to try spacing out the time between bottles to 3 1/2 hours and then 4 hours so we can eventually drop a bottle. I think they're going to try that in a couple weeks after they see how he's adjusting to his intake of milk dropping from 33 oz. to 30 oz. 

TL:DR - as we added more solids, we decreased the amount of milk in each bottle and now are working on longer time between bottles to go from 5 to 4 bottles/day. We're going this very gradually.

fwhittaker

My 8 month old drinks about 30-32 oz a day with a bottle at 7, 11, 3, and 6:45 (ish for all the times) with 3 solid meals. We are going to drop the 11 bottle and up the solid intake at 10 months. The dr said no more than 32 is of formula a day at her age.