FF mamas, need advice (BFers welcome too, of course :P)

redshoegirl

Currently we offer Will and Dash three 7oz bottles per day:
#1 when they get up in the morning;
#2 around 3pm (following their nap, and before their afternoon snack); and
#3 when they go to bed at night.

For the last two weeks or so, they will both drink #1 and #3, but are steadily refusing #2.

Dash will drink half of the bottle about half the time, but Will refuses to drink it pretty much all the time; in two weeks, he's probably only accepted it 2-3 times, and even then only drank a couple of ounces. It's even worse when they're away from home and I'm not there to coax them - Dash will occasionally have a bit when MIL is watching them, but they've both completely refused to drink bottles at daycare for a couple of weeks now.

I keep offering the afternoon bottle because from what I've read online, they should still have at least 20oz per day at this age (10.5 months). Both boys eat three meals per day plus snacks and have regular sippy cups of water, but of course I'm concerned about them getting enough nutrition. I've tried cutting back on the amount of solids they eat by offering a bottle instead of a snack, but no dice - they just don't want that afternoon bottle.

Do you think it's OK to follow their lead and ditch the second bottle, or should I keep trying to offer it at least until they hit 11 months or so? When did your LO drop down to two bottles per day? 

mrs.winter

I would follow their lead. Have you tried to offer smaller amounts more times though out the day?  Ashton never took a 7 oz bottle until he was over a year old. He still rinks about 3-4 8oz sippy cups of milk a day (I give him toddler formula since he is not a good eater and I want to make sure he's getting enough vitamins).

Hope that helps.

redshoegirl

mrs.winter:

I would follow their lead. Have you tried to offer smaller amounts more times though out the day?  Ashton never took a 7 oz bottle until he was over a year old. He still rinks about 3-4 8oz sippy cups of milk a day (I give him toddler formula since he is not a good eater and I want to make sure he's getting enough vitamins).

Hope that helps.

Yup, I've tried smaller amounts but they're just not interested. I've tried putting it in their sippy cups as well, just to see if a more "fun" bottle would help (they looooove their sippy cups) but they're simply not interested. 

MauiWedding08

I am guessing they go down for a nap after lunch?  

What if you offered the bottle (or a 1/2 bottle - 3oz or so) before lunch?  Solids are great, but formula has such a high concentrate of vitamins etc that I would think the guidelines are in place w/ that in mind so that would be a reason to keep trying to get them to drink it. 

Along the same lines as drinking smaller amounts more frequently - Would they drink it in a cup or drink it w/ the meal?  

lola808

A wasn't big on the bottle and was heavy into solids while I was BFing. I think that was probably because my supply had diminished and he had started to rely on those for nutrition. When we transitioned to FFing this past month, he didn't drink very much from the bottle at first, 3-4 oz at the most (only 12-16 oz. a day). I made his solid meals a lot smaller and gradually he adjusted. Now he takes 4 6-oz. bottles a day. The transition time was probably a week or two, so if you want to continue trying to reduce the solids or replace a snack with a bottle, I'd say keep it up.

Also, I know they say solids are mostly for experimenting with food at this stage, but I try to treat them like major nutrient sources since he eats so much of them. I also started feeding him salmon for DHA when it seemed like his milk intake was pretty low. I'm sure you're feeding the boys very well, so even if they don't get all the formula that's recommended, at least they have healthy meals to fall back on. They definitely seem to be growing and thriving!

redshoegirl

lola808:

A wasn't big on the bottle and was heavy into solids while I was BFing. I think that was probably because my supply had diminished and he had started to rely on those for nutrition. When we transitioned to FFing this past month, he didn't drink very much from the bottle at first, 3-4 oz at the most (only 12-16 oz. a day). I made his solid meals a lot smaller and gradually he adjusted. Now he takes 4 6-oz. bottles a day. The transition time was probably a week or two, so if you want to continue trying to reduce the solids or replace a snack with a bottle, I'd say keep it up.

Also, I know they say solids are mostly for experimenting with food at this stage, but I try to treat them like major nutrient sources since he eats so much of them. I also started feeding him salmon for DHA when it seemed like his milk intake was pretty low. I'm sure you're feeding the boys very well, so even if they don't get all the formula that's recommended, at least they have healthy meals to fall back on. They definitely seem to be growing and thriving!

I treat the solids the same way as you do, simply because they eat so much of them. I know they're meant to be "fun until one" but since they're big eaters I try to keep their meals nutritionally balanced, etc. They're definitely little chunky monkeys and have TONS of energy so they must be doing ok, but I still worry.

MrsZiz

Bella was never really a great milk drinker. They always said "give her more milk more often"... well that simply didn't work with her. She was like your boys and held strong on refusing. I can't say I ever tried to force it. I didn't want her to be "force fed" even though the pedi thought she should be drinking more. Even still she only drinks about 4 oz at a time and doesn't drink as much as they want her to, quite honestly she's much more of a water drinker (like her mama). She gets plenty of liquid though and has good wet diapers. I think as long as they are getting plenty of calories whether from milk or formula, I wouldn't stress about it. They are almost one so I would just let them go with the flow. For us, Bella was always on the smaller side so we always did things to increase calories, we even put heavy whipping cream in her milk per a pedi dietician recommendation!

redshoegirl

MrsZiz:

Bella was never really a great milk drinker. They always said "give her more milk more often"... well that simply didn't work with her. She was like your boys and held strong on refusing. I can't say I ever tried to force it. I didn't want her to be "force fed" even though the pedi thought she should be drinking more. Even still she only drinks about 4 oz at a time and doesn't drink as much as they want her to, quite honestly she's much more of a water drinker (like her mama). She gets plenty of liquid though and has good wet diapers. I think as long as they are getting plenty of calories whether from milk or formula, I wouldn't stress about it. They are almost one so I would just let them go with the flow.

That's exactly it - I don't want to try to force feed them (and honestly I'm not even sure I could, because if you try to encourage them to sit and have their bottle when they don't want to, they just start howling with rage).

They do drink plenty of water, have lots of wet and dirty diapers, are growing and gaining weight and very active...so I just don't know. I instinctively want to just say, "Oh well, they're nearly a year old, we'll just go with it," but then I'm worried that I'll screw them up.

myday1708

If you are worried about them getting enough milk, I think you can use yogurt or yogurt smoothies and those count the same. The other  moms in my mom's group swore by baby yogurt smoothies. Alexa never got into it, she just likes her milk, but that is one idea! If they are able to eat regular cereal, I also soak cereal like rice chex or wheat chex in her milk and them give her the soggy cereal. She loves it! So that's another way to sneak the milk in.

That said, we're STILL at 4 bottles (sippy cups) a day. But it's only 4-5 oz each. She is never given a bottle with more than 5 oz, unless it's a restaurant and they give us a HUGE cup, which I hate, because then she fills up on milk and doesn't eat her lunch. Arg! Anyway, just saying that maybe you should try reducing the amount.

I found that she is not interested in her milk if it's cold, so we still warm it for her. After she started drinking whole milk, we just nuk it in the microwave for 30 seconds. Before that, we would place it in a bowl of hot water. She had formula mixed in from 9-12 months, but I don't think it matters.

HTH!