1 yr - Do I replace ALL four bottles with a meal/snack?

marybeth1699

LO's schedule right now is: 5:30 am wakeup and bottle w/ formula, 8 am finger food breakfast, 9 am bottle w/ formula and nap; noon finger food lunch; 2 pm bottle w/ formula and nap; 6 pm finger food dinner and 7 pm bottle w/ formula and bedtime.

 I know this gets asked a million times, but I am having a hard time envisioning how to transition to WCM and a sippy cup.  I understand the process of adding an ounce of milk and reducing by an ounce of formula until he's fully on WCM and fully off formula.  BUT once I have done that how do I get rid of bottles in between meals? Do I fill him up with snacks in between?  How many snacks per day is appropriate?  Do I continue to feed him first thing in the morning?  How many hours after your LO wakes do you typically feed him/her breakfast?

Did your LO have several cranky days where they were hungry b/c they weren't getting the formula calories anymore and constant bottles?

kacelle

We haven't switched yet, but I think DD will take it okay.  You could start moving bottles closer to meals now and transition to a sippy cup.  That way he'll be used to getting a cup of milk with meals.  

Right now, DD wakes around 6:45.  We do breakfast at 7 and a bottle at 7:30.  We just do one snack a day right now unless she seems hungry, usually around 3:30.  At one, you can basically mimic your schedule with him--three meals and a snack or two, with drinks at meals.  You can offer water in between meals.

memali26

DD1 was on 3 bottles at a year. We first transitioned them to whole milk, which took about a week. At that point her schedule was:

7AM bottle
9AM breakfast
12PM lunch
3PM bottle
5:30PM dinner
7PM bottle

Once she was on whole milk only, we dropped the 3PM bottle first, just switched it to a snack and a water sippy. A few weeks later we switched the 7AM bottle to a milk sippy and breakfast, and switched to a snack and water sippy at 9AM. A few weeks after that we changed the 7PM bottle to a sippy of milk.

DD1 was a pretty laid back baby and the changes didn't faze her a bit. As we dropped bottles we offered milk in a sippy at bfast, lunch, dinner and bedtime, water in between, which is still how we do it now. So she gets 3 meals and a morning and afternoon snack, sometimes a small snack or treat with her milk before bed.

BabyBoyNYC

i tried dropping down to 3 bottles and he got really cranky so i knew he wasn't ready. you try just decreasing the amounts? I'm starting to offer more flavorful snacks in hopes he realizes how much better real food taste than formula and will start to drop on his own BUT i've had to do all the decreasing so far so who knows. he is just not one of those babies that regulates himself he will drink and drink as long as it is offered. My DS also wakes at 5:30 for a bottle so it kind of makes things difficult because I can't stall him out till 7am he would freak out. 

dashtwins

it would seem very inappropriate to "fill him up with snacks" in between every meal. That will just make him never know his hunger cues and turn him into an all-day grazer/snacker that this country has such a problem with. Babies, like adults, don't need to be full constantly. I can't answer the question on how to transition off all the bottles, but I had to put my 2 cents in on snacking. A small snack between breakfast and lunch and a regular snack between lunch and dinner seems more than appropriate.