xp: when did you drop to 3 bottles a day?

kimarino13

The girls really picked up their intake of solids at 6 months and now eat 3 meals a day.  We still give them 4 bottles a day, but it seems like they are *almost* ready to drop one.  Their 3 pm bottle has become more of a "snack" (4-6 oz) and it seems like we are lucky to get them to take 26 oz a day of formula now that they are eating so much solids.

What age did your baby drop to 3 bottles a day?

JenniC1135

I went a little slower on the solids with my twins- introduced early but we weren't on 3 solids meals at 6 months.  Their main form of nutrition should still be breastmilk or formula, so I'd cut back on the solids if they aren't getting in the bottles they need.  I think by 9 or 10 months we were down to three bottles. 

kimarino13

They are still getting 24-28 oz a day, which is enough per the pedi.  She's actually the one who said that they need to cut back on formula (32 oz a day max) and up the solids intake.  But man, I feel like it swung in the other direction so quickly!  We still offer them 4 8-oz bottles a day, though they rarely finish a bottle anymore.

macchiatto

Mine stayed on 4 bottles until we switched to whole milk at a year. ETA: I know pedis do vary in what they recommend. My pedi emphasized that solids were for practice not nutrition for the whole first year; my boys were drinking 32-36 oz per day till about 9m or so, then more like 24-26 until 12m. Your LOs do seem awfully young to be trading formula for solids; I'm curious what your pedi's reasoning is.

kimarino13

So maybe I shouldn't worry that they are "only" taking 6-7 oz in 3 of thir bottles and 5-6 oz in the afternoon "snack" 3 pm bottle.  I was worried that they were getting close to dropping that "snack" 3 pm bottle, but maybe not...

kimarino13

macchiatto:

Mine stayed on 4 bottles until we switched to whole milk at a year. ETA: I know pedis do vary in what they recommend. My pedi emphasized that solids were for practice not nutrition for the whole first year; my boys were drinking 32-36 oz per day till about 9m or so, then more like 24-26 until 12m. Your LOs do seem awfully young to be trading formula for solids; I'm curious what your pedi's reasoning is.

I am not sure what her reasoning is.  Before 6 months, she said that there was no such thing as "too much" formula.  But at 6 months, when I told her they were averaging 36 oz a day, she said that was too much and 32 oz should be the max.  She said they definitely need to be on 3 meals a day to cut the formula back.  Maybe because they were also 75%-85% for weight at 6 months?

macchiatto

Ah, OK. I was just curious to hear the reasoning since I know that's a common school of thought as well. I'm not sure if the recs vary related to weight percentiles or not; my boys were still pretty chunky at that age. (I forget their percentiles but Alex was 18.13 lbs and Will was 17.10 at 6m.)

kimarino13

macchiatto:

Ah, OK. I was just curious to hear the reasoning since I know that's a common school of thought as well. I'm not sure if the recs vary related to weight percentiles or not; my boys were still pretty chunky at that age. (I forget their percentiles but Alex was 18.13 lbs and Will was 17.10 at 6m.)

Yeah, I am guessing at the weight thing.  Probably not the case. 

janjag

kimarino13:

So maybe I shouldn't worry that they are "only" taking 6-7 oz in 3 of thir bottles and 5-6 oz in the afternoon "snack" 3 pm bottle.  I was worried that they were getting close to dropping that "snack" 3 pm bottle, but maybe not...

This combination of bottles/amts sounds totally normal. We dropped to 3 bottles at 1yr, and it was the lunch bottle we dropped. Adding a solid food meal at lunch time meant they just didn't want much milk then... so it was the easy one to drop.  But when I say they didn't want much, I mean like 1-2oz.

We still do a 6oz (sippy - not that they're drinking it!! transition time) of milk at 4pm.

kimarino13

janjag:

kimarino13:

So maybe I shouldn't worry that they are "only" taking 6-7 oz in 3 of thir bottles and 5-6 oz in the afternoon "snack" 3 pm bottle.  I was worried that they were getting close to dropping that "snack" 3 pm bottle, but maybe not...

This combination of bottles/amts sounds totally normal. We dropped to 3 bottles at 1yr, and it was the lunch bottle we dropped. Adding a solid food meal at lunch time meant they just didn't want much milk then... so it was the easy one to drop.  But when I say they didn't want much, I mean like 1-2oz.

We still do a 6oz (sippy - not that they're drinking it!! transition time) of milk at 4pm.

OK, phew.  "Not wanting much" for us means 5-6 oz in the 3 pm bottle.  Other bottles are between 6.5 and 8 oz.  That is in comparison to the 8 oz they used to almost always finish pre-solids.

Shannonlea

We are working to three bottles a day because I added a third meal.  I am just putting less and less in it each time (down to about 4 oz) and I plan to try to eliminate it next week.

They get 9 oz in the other 3 bottles.  And then they get cereal and breakfast and each eat 2 oz of fruit . They get 2 oz of fruit with some puffs and sometimes an oz of juice water down in a sippy for lunch.  And then cereal and 2 oz of veggies for dinner.