Please come and reassure me that 21 month old dd will be fine if I drop her final formula feed.

[suiledonn]

Hi, just looking for some reassurance. DD is 21 months old and still drinks one bottle of formula at bedtime (around 6-7ozs) She has a very small appetite and although she eats a variety of foods she eats very small amounts particarly of meat/fish. She can't eat eggs due to an allergy and hates cheese. She has cows milk on cereal and will drink it sometimes but not others. I realise she is quite old to be still having formula and I would like to stop completely but I worry if her food intake can besufficient to give her all the nutrition she needs.

[TheHonEnid]

Well I also have a 21 month old dd3 and she still has a small sippy cup of milk while she is having her story before bed - I know mine eats a good and varied diet, in fact I gave up formula when she was 11 molnths!

[posieflump]

will she have cow's milk before bed?

[suiledonn]

If I give her cows milk at bedtime she will only drink about 2ozs so I don't think it would be enough to get her through the night.

For example what she ate today

Breakfast: One bite of homemade multigrain bread, 2 bites of a banana and a small cup of milk. Refusing cereal of any kind at the moment.
Snack - yoghurt - about 3 teaspoons
Lunch - about 5 teaspoons of vegetable soup.
Snack- a pear, a rice cake
Dinner - one small baked potato of which she ate about 4 teaspoons, broccoli & cauliflower - she likes these so she ate a few florets of each, about 3 bites of roast parsnip and 3 bites of roast chicken.
Some tinned peach slices in own juice

Does this seem like enough?

[TheHonEnid]

if she is happy and thriving yes it is enough! perhaps if you drop the bottle she will get more hungry?

[suiledonn]

She is very happy and has loads of energy. She was quite ill before Christmas and was in hospital and her appetite has improved a bit since then.
Is it possible though that 1 bottle of formula at 7.30 at night could affect the appetite overall? This is what I keep wondering because I would love her to eat more and not need the formula but I worry that her appetite will not improve without it and she will be missing out.

[TheHonEnid]

try it for a week and see how it goes

[tori32]

suiledonn your dd will be fine. Just give cows milk in a cup instead. Not having the formula at night will probably increase her appetite anyway.