Switching to WCM + Not getting full

shamilton223

DS will be 1 year next week and we are trying to make the transition to WCM.  We started offering him a little a couple months ago and have built up to where we could easily switch over entirely.  He seems to like it well enough and willingly takes it, but it doesn't seem to be getting him full like the formula did. 

 We offer finger foods and purees at every meal but this past week (since we started substituting WCM in every other bottle) he just doesn't seem interested in eating those.   He'll pick at the "real" food and eat a few bites of purees if we're lucky. 

I don't want to force him to eat but I don't think he's getting close to enough food throughout the day.  The last few days he's been waking at 4am starving.  This morning, I've already given him half a bottle and he went right back to sleep.  He used to STTN like a champ - roughly 11 hrs.  Now we aren't doing so hot. 

 Has anyone else successfully made the transition to WCM?  How did you do it?  What does you typical eating schedule through the day look like?

meg_2006

DS recently went through a period where he wasn't eating much at meals, he was just picking at his food like you said your LO is.  In the past he was a good eater, so we just kept doing what we were and now he's back to eating like normal again.  I've found I have to offer 2 snacks throughout the day to get him through.  I don't think cow's milk is as filling, but at this point they should be filling up mostly on food anyway.  If not, he may not be ready for cow's milk yet.  Some still need to be on formula past a year.

shortstuff15

FarmBoysWife:

We are 100% off off of formula- 

His meals look like so: 

Aprox 7:30-8am wake up, 4-5 oz milk,
Half hour after wake up and milk- breakfast

Nap at 9:30a

At nap wake up, 4-5 oz milk, snack

Lunch then another nap

 Aprox 2:30/3pm snack at my arrival home

Aprox 4:30 dinner with DH and I, after Dinner DH leaves for work

after dinner bed, if he struggles going down he gets a 7-9oz of milk. 

He always has access to a sippy of water and DH refills it 4 times during the day (aprox 8oz each fill). When he snacks its like 2 oz of cheese, or mum mum, cracker, or what not. When he eats dinner and lunch its like three wheat waffles, a half cup of yogurt with a half cup fruit, or if he's sharing a plate with me, he eats half to three quarters my plate. We watch for signs that he is done, which usually is signaled by pulling the food out of his mouth and playing with it. Cows milk is going to be slightly filling like it is for you and I (like, if we are 15 min from dinner we'll give him a sippy of milk to tide him over, and he's hungry just about dinner time) 

As you cut back on the formula, he'll eat more food. When we made the transition we stopped cold turkey at our last container of formula, his consumption of water went up a bit, and then his food intake took off. 

This isn't our schedule but I agree with everything farmboyswife said. We used our last bit of formula earlier this week and so we are now on full milk. She definately drinks more but that's ok.

lp0

See I found WCM is more filling for ds than breast milk and ds started sleeping thru the night when I introduced it. He drinks three 8 oz bottles, morning, lunch and right before bed, and two more of water in between. He has breakfast at 10:30, snack at 1pm, lunch at 2:30, snack at 4:30 and dinner at 6:30.

talitha712

DD has been completely off formula and on WCM since the weekend before Christmas. Here is her schedule:
6:15 breakfast yogurt and waffle or oatmeal and fruit, sippy of milk offered but she usually doesn't drink a ton

9:30 snack, with water or milk offered

11:45 lunch, with milk offered

3:00 snack, with water or milk offered

5:30/6:00 dinner, with milk offered

DD does not get a bottle of milk or a sippy of milk at bedtime, which is around 6:307:00. She actually doesn't drink a ton during the day, which has me a little worried but I'm sure she's fine. At home we keep her water sippy out all the time, but at daycare she only gets drinks during snacks and lunch.

Fwiw DD was already eating mostly table foods by the time we transitioned to WCM. We had lessened the amount of formula in her bottles because she wasn't taking it all. Then we did a week of a bottle in the morning and one at night, but only water and WCM in sippy cups during the day. Then we ran out of formula so stopped the morning and night bottles.