Has your 9 mo. old decreased amount of food intake?lessless

MrsAMB07

DS either has to drop a bottle or cut back on solids. He has to eat or have a bottle before he's ready all afternoon/evening just to pack it all in at night. He used to be able to eat it all, no problem, never even seemed to phase him or get full. Now the amount I'm feeding him hasn't increased, but he can not finish it all. I know their growth slows, but now he's so active... I am surprised he's not at least eating the same amount, but he's actually eating less now. Is this "normal"?

I'm going to ask the pedi about dropping a bottle. He still gets 4 eight ounce bottles and eats a ton of food. He doesn't look for the afternoon bottle but I give it for nutrition and he doesn't turn it away. Then his dinner appetite is gone. I know their bottles provide their main source of nutrition so I don't want to get rid of it unless it's not needed anymore. I'm guessing she'll say drop a bottle and maintain or up the solids to make up for it, but I'll double check.

Is this average for around this age? Did your LO start to want to eat less? When did you drop some formula or BM? 

lpennie16

Based on what you said, I'd drop the afternoon bottle especially since it messes up his dinner appetite and he doesn't seem to care about it. Do you give much water? I've been giving water (especially since its summer and its hot) I think around 8 months, DS was only taking 24 oz a day.

Your DS is a big boy (like mine) he'll be fine with one less bottle a day. :-)

MrsAMB07

He's def. got some reserves to hold himself over. As my sister puts it, he could hibernate.

I give him a cup of water after meals for practice and he gets some, not a lot though. Did you mean to offer more since his ounces of formula would be less or were you just asking to see if the water was filling him up too much? 

AmyJ1116

So funny you asked because I was going to ask something similar.  Will has also decided recently to decrease how much he eats.  He's supposed to get 3 8oz bottles a day with solids 3X, but 4 days last week he eliminated his 3pm bottle, and instead we ended up feeding him dinner at 4 instead of 5.  He didn't seem hungry or anything.  I just worry about him getting the nutrients necessary from the formula.

So to answer your question, I think 3 bottles is fine for that age, in fact our pedi told us that at 8mo. Will should go down to 3 bottles. 

lpennie16

Here's something to put it in perspective:

DS is almost 11 months old. On average, he drinks 16 to 21 ounces of formula a day now. In addition, he drinks probably 6 to 8 ounces of water with meals. He has three meals a day and snacks (goldfish crackers, applesauce, a little cheese) He weighs 26 lbs so we're not worried that he's starving.

It sounds like you're giving enough water. He probably doesn't need 32 oz of formula a day at this point since he's getting solids.

Kentuckychick_8201

DD has been eating less lately too, despite the fact that she is more active.  She is getting more and more interested in table foods.  She does however still eat 24 oz sometimes 32 oz of formula a day.  The pedi said this is great because most 9 month old babies eat 20-28oz a day of formula.  She also eats 3 jars of stage 2 baby food or sometimes now I replace a jar of food with table food (for dinner she had real sweet potatoes and cantaloupe.)  Anyway I wouldn't worry.