Solid Food/Milk Ratio- So Confused!

Anjel_9@hotmail.com · February 2014

My daughter had her 12-month check up last week, and the doctor said that she is very healthy but is in the 94th percentile for weight... it seems that while baby girl has been eating more and more solid food, we haven't offered less milk/formula.. so she's been getting too many calories! We are in the process of switching her over from formula to milk, and she's doing great, as long as the milk is in a bottle and warmed up. (she won't take it from a sippy cup, even though she loves drinking water from her cup. That'll be another post..) We have been giving her 4 6-oz bottles within a 24-hour period, and after her appointment, we dropped one of them, so she is now getting an early morning bottle, and afternoon bottle, and a bedtime bottle (which yes, we will need to wean her off of soon). She also eats breakfast and lunch, has an afternoon snack, and eats dinner with us. I guess I'm just not sure how to do this, I want her to be a healthy weight, no propensity for obesity, but I also don't want her to feel like she's starving because we're taking away a significant food source. Would the best recommendation be to give her another week or so to get used to not having that 2nd daytime bottle, and then drop another bottle? Which other bottle should we drop, the other daytime bottle? Or do we drop the bedtime bottle because by that time she's had plenty of food with dinner? If that's the case will she wake up starving for the first few days? So many questions.. sorry! Appreciate any guidance.

Stephorse · February 2014

Our son has pretty much dropped all bottles except for the night time one. We first transitioned the morning bottle into a sippy which took a few days for him to take, but he did. Eventually he dropped that one, because he preferred to have a snack instead in the morning. We also took away the nap time bottles and gave him a snack instead, which has gone great. He is seeming to prefer solid food anyway over the milk and our pedi didn't want him having more than 24 oz anyway so he gets 5 before bed and about that much with his lunch which he will eat. If I was you I would take away the afternoon bottle first and then work with the morning bottle next. The nighttime will probably be the hardest to get rid of it. We are still working on that one, but the other ones have been easy to get rid of. Hope this helps! Good luck!

nanabanana06 · February 2014

I don't see anything wrong with his weight. He's just big. I would drop bottles entirely though and give sippies. We did this with my son and it took about a week for him to get fully used to it. Once on straw cups they naturally reduce the amount they drink cuz they can't get as much.

pb_bride · February 2014

I totally wouldn't worry about the weight at 1 year! Many toddlers thin out once they start walking and running. As long as you are not forcing your DD to eat (eg, still spoon-feeding her), then there is nothing to worry about. Toddlers who self-feed know when to stop eating when they are full. I certainly will not restrict the amount of food she wants to eat.

WE never did bottles. As PPs said, just switch bottles over to sippy cups or straw cups. WE offer DS WCM at meals and snacks only. All other times (between meals, before naps and bedtime) he gets water.

EMOmamma · February 2014

Don't stress. It'll work out. Try dropping the daytime bottles and offering sippys. You can keep the bedtime bottle for now and switch that last. If he's refusing the milk in sippys just offer a bit more other dairy than usual (cheese, yogurt, etc). You can still warm the milk for the sippys if that helps. 12-16oz of milk plus some dairy food is what my pedi recommends. Some days they have 6oz and others they have 20oz.

hollygb22 · February 2014

i know all docs are different...but we were advised to give no more than 20 oz of milk a day, to be sure to treat milk as a beverage with meals vs a meal in a bottle.

DD is 15 months old and drinks about 16 oz of 2% a day mostly with meals or a snack

Anjel_9@hotmail.com · February 2014

Thank you all for the responses and advice. The reason that the pedi was concerned is because the 94th percentile was a big jump for her. The doctor literally looked at her chart and did a double-take!

So far she has done well with our drop from 4 to 3 bottles so we're averaging 16-18 ounces a day at this point. I will try to switch her daytime bottle to a sippy cup and see how that works. She's previously rejected milk in a cup, maybe because it's cold, though she loves drinking water out of her cup. Anyway, thank you all again.

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Solid Food/Milk Ratio- So Confused!

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