Bottles & Solids

lmbrandt

How close in time do you give your LOs their bottle & solids?  

For awhile I have been giving LO his bottle and then about an hour later feeding him his solids.  We've been having trouble with him finishing his bottles though, by the time of his next bottle I don't think he's hungry enough to drink it all.  It has been rare for him to finish a bottle recently.  We offer 4 bottles a day, at 7 oz each.  Today his doctor said 9-month-olds usually average about 24-32 oz a day.  I'd say we're roughly coming in at around 22 oz.

I'm wondering if I shouldn't space out the bottles and solids so much, and do it all together more like a meal.  Give him his bottle and then offer solids right after?  That way he'd be full, but then has about 3 or 4 hours until he'd eat again?

Right now it feels like I'm feeding him all day long!  

vibarra27

I do solids then bottles. This is roughly how their food schedule is:

430-5am 6oz bottle
830am 4.5oz solids & a 3 oz bottle of they want it right after
12pm 3.5 oz solids & a lil snack after
230pm 4oz bottle
530 dinner as mich as they want
8pm 8oz bottle

Do what works for you. I told the doc the boys were drinking 22oz of milk still & he said "thats alot." i think all docs are different. Yours says LO should drink 24oz-32oz. Mine said 22oz was a lot @ this age. Im just working in solids before milk so by the time they are 1 they wont rely on milk as their primary food(my doc also recommended this but i did this before he told me).

ElleMF728

I agree that seems like a lot, I've heard 16-24 ounces is normal at 9/10 months.  I also think that most children are off of formula around a year so its natural that they would start drinking less and less the next 2 months or so. 

We usually do 4 bottles a day (3 6oz bottles and one 4 ounce).  We also do 3 solid meals.  I don't have a strict feeding routine.  If I want DS2 to take a long nap I tend to give him a bottle right before it though.  

dmbfan46835

Right now we are doing a 4 oz of BM MOTN (he has regressed from teething), solids around 8 am, then about 3 oz BM before the sitter, he takes 10 oz of BM at the sitter, with solids around 1ish, then solids at 6 or so and then 8-10 oz of BM before bed which is between 8-9pm. We don't really have a set schedule for BM, except  before the sitter cuz I don't want to be a dick and send him hungry. And at night before bed cuz it knocks him right out. Other than that the rest is on demand. So he is still getting up to 27 oz of BM a day and 3 meals of solids. But I feel like he is super skinny. I see all these posts on here about 25 lb babies. My little man was 29 3/4" long and only 18.4 lbs at his 9 mos appt. Not sure if breastfed babies get less calories than formula fed babies?? Is that a thing?  

missliz53

We do solids first 3 times a day and offer formula right after. Some days she takes more and some days less depending on how much purée she eats.  We are offering a total of 27 oz a day (our ped said between 24-26 oz), but she doesn't take all that. Here's our current schedule. I know it really helps me to see what other people are doing. Times are aproximate. We were doing a 5 or 6 am bottle, but she dropped that feeding on her own a couple of weeks ago

8:30: Fruit purée with oatmeal cereal, 5.5 oz bottle, very small bites of my breakfast after. 

11:30: Veggie purée +\- oatmeal cereal, 5.5 oz bottle, bites of my lunch after. 

2:30: 6 oz bottle 

5:15pm: a purée with meat, grain, and veggies, sometimes with left over fruit or veggie purées added and maybe a few teaspoons of oatmeal, 5.5 oz bottle, bites of our dinner after

7:45: 6 oz bottle

I also give her puffs or a rice risk or cracker while I'm getting her solids ready. So far fruit and veggie pieces get tossed off her tray or fed to the dog. 

ABombard12

We have been also having issues lately with him even taking his bottles He is EBF and lately at daycare he has been wanting NO part of his bottles..but will eat his lunch (solid purees)... I asked the doctor and she said so long as his diaper output is consistent with wet diapers and he is drinking at home that there is not much we can do and we know he is hydrated. I just know the sitter is upset over this and I am to.. to a point. I know if he is that hungry he will eat.. so I just keep telling her to make sure she is offering the milk whenever she can so that way if he is hungry he will take it. Otherwise, I mean what can you do? He is definitely eating more at night to make up for the lack of milk during the day (oh what fun for mommy ha).  I sent him to daycare today with a change in nipple for the bottle, a sippy cup to try, my shirt to try to have near him when hes taking his bottles, etc.  I just think between teething, nose stuffy now, distractions with the other kids, etc he is just too much of a busy body to take his bottles.... it is making me crazy tho... I worry... and keep counting diapers and keep feeding him when we are home because I know he needs it. Just hoping this will stop soon and he will go back to taking them so we can both get some sleep at night.

jen83mn

We do every two hours (longer if he's napping). So I nurse him when he wakes up, he gets solids for breakfast 2 hours later, a bottle 2 hours after that, solids for lunch 2 hours after that, a bottle 2 hours after that, I nurse him 2 hours after that, and then he gets solids for dinner 1 hour after that and a final nursing session 1 hour after that before bed. It's a lot of feeding! I'll probably drop the nursing session before dinner next. 

lmbrandt

@ABombard12, this sounds so much like us!  He is formula fed, so bottles only.  He used to finish 7 or 8 oz bottles no problem at all!  It only makes sense since we increased his meals to 3 times a day that he wouldn't want as much, but it can be a battle for him to even take a few ounces!  

His last bottle of the day is at roughly 7 p.m. and then he doesn't have one until 7 a.m.  So a full 12 hours!  You'd think he'd be STARVING by the time he woke up and had that bottle.  He drinks about half and then gets all weird with it!  He'll put it in his mouth and start chewing the nipple or play with it.  His top two teeth are just starting to poke through, so that might have something to do with this big change.  The other night he wouldn't even take one sip of his bedtime bottle.  He just squirmed and cried every time we tried, so we just gave up and read him his story and put him to bed.  My husband and I felt terrible putting him to bed without him drinking anything! He woke up about 30 minutes earlier than he normally would in the morning, but nothing major.  I thought no way he'd make it through the night.

He seems fine with solids, eats all his purees and puffs.  We are just starting chunks of food and he is not a fan at all yet, he just pushes it around his tray and it ends up on the floor.

He seems super distracted while we are giving him a bottle too...all he wants to do is play.  Like he has NO time to sit and have a bottle.  He had gained weight at his 9 month appointment...so I guess we just wait it out.  His doctor didn't seem too concerned at all.

amp61470

Okay maybe we are doing something wrong.. He gets 4oz purée in the morning, an 8 oz bottle after his morning nap, 4 oz of purée at lunch and sometimes he will take a bottle, 8 oz formula after his afternoon nap and again at about 5. 8 oz of purée at 7-7:30 and that's it for the day. I used to do purée and a 4oz bottle but he wouldn't take the bottle and cried for more purees. I mix the purée with cereal every time he likes it pretty thick.
ETA He weighed in at 19 lbs 10 oz last week at his 9 month check up. He is 29 1/2 inches long. 

laurapaine2003@yahoo.com

My LO will only take 3-4 oz max at a time - I feel like I'm feeding her ALL DAY LONG - then food in between. I'm a FTM and feel totally clueless when it comes to feeding her milk and solids!!!

vibarra27

amp61470 said:

Okay maybe we are doing something wrong.. He gets 4oz purée in the morning, an 8 oz bottle after his morning nap, 4 oz of purée at lunch and sometimes he will take a bottle, 8 oz formula after his afternoon nap and again at about 5. 8 oz of purée at 7-7:30 and that's it for the day. I used to do purée and a 4oz bottle but he wouldn't take the bottle and cried for more purees. I mix the purée with cereal every time he likes it pretty thick.
ETA He weighed in at 19 lbs 10 oz last week at his 9 month check up. He is 29 1/2 inches long. 

Youre not doing anything wrong. I feed the boys purees before bottles. Sometimes they want milk sometimes they dont. Doc said it was okay to do it this way cus our goal is to have them depend on solids rather than milk by the tine theyre 1. They take 4 bottles & looks like they'll be down to 3 in a few weeks. Do what works for your LO.