6.5 months-just started formula-how much milk a day?

[annaspanner]

Hi
Ive been slowly stopping breastfeeding as my lo lost interest (except when trying out her new front teeth) and have been substituting bf feeds for bottle feeds-so shes now on 5 bottle feeds a day (Aptamil 2-about 200ml per feed but she often has less) and no breastfeeds. She has also been on solids, happily, for the last month and is now having 3 (mini) meals a day. My pediatrician(in Spain) has just told me to cut down on the milk, quite a bit, and give her more food. She seems happy with the quantity of food shes getting and she has water throughout the day too as its so hot here at the moment.

How much milk should I be giving her? A friend said it should be 600-800 in just 4 feeds a day but I read somewhere that its a common mistake to start reducing milk too quickly when you start solids. Why does one person say one thing and the next says the opposite when it comes to babies!!! What do they recommend in the uk?

Thanks!

milk should be the main source of nutrition for babies till they are a year old, whether breast or bottle.

let you daughter determine how much solids she wants and give formula as she wants.

you can look at www.kellymom.com and search 'weaning'.

no use stressing you and baby over solid intake when making up milk is simpler.

Thanks K!-I'll have a look at Kellymom. You are right...making up a feed is much easier...I mustnt get stressed about these things. I just seem to be getting so much conflicting advice. I got a lot of hassle for not starting her on solids until she was 6 months and now my ped says maybe Im not giving her enough even though shes on three meals a day and eats until shes full. You cant win

My DD, just 7 months, has days when she just couldn't care less about the solids and if that's the case, I just offer her milk instead. She's on 4, 5 OR 6 210mls bottles a day depending on how the food thing goes. I just always have one ready and try and feed her on demand as I did when she was b/f. They regulate themselves naturally so as long as you offer milk, food and water with food, I think that's fine.

between 600-1000mls a day.

I tended to offer solids inbetween milk feeds.

Curiosity annaspanner as to why you are using the 'heavier' Aptamil 2 not aptamil 1??

Hi MNP-Basically it says for 5 months+ on the tub but I live in Spain and we use the Spanish version. We went to Gibraltar a couple of weeks ago where there is a Morrisons (some baby things are much cheaper there)and noticed that the Aptamil2 there says for hungry babies-is that what you mean? Our one just says its the next one after Aptamil 1. Do you use Aptamil 1 for babies over 6 months? Should you use a different formula when stopping bfeeding? something lighter maybe?

Sydney-so the more your dd eats the less milk she wants? I have been trying to give my dd solids and water no sooner than an hour after her milk because I gave her milk and food at the sitting one day and 10 mins afterwards she covered me in vomit! Even my bra and knickers were soaking!

Yes AnnaSpanner,

Aptamil 1 is suitable from birth untilthey start on cows milk.

Aptamil 2 is heavier, it takes longer to pass thru the babies system.

Personally i would use Aptamil 1.

There is Aptamil 3 - follow on milk but there is very little difference in the ingredients so i would stick with Aptamil 1 until on cows milk alone.

Thanks-I think I'd better ask the manufacturers because Spanish Aptamil is obviously different. My boyfriend just had a look in the supermarket and there are two versions of Aptamil 2 . I'd better make sure we are using the right one.

Aptamil in the UK have recently changed their packaging. COuld that be what he saw?

Actually, I checked their website and the system is completely different over here-must confuse mums who are over here on holiday. Aptamil 2 is 5-12 months and Aptamil 2 Conformil is 4-12 months for babies with digestive problems and colic etc.

Anna, as someone already said, you can stick to aptamil 1 from birth to 12 months. anything else is a marketing gimmick. The Conformil one sounds like the one that is thicker and keeps babies from being 'sicky'.

With a bit more description, maybe i can tell you more about the Aptamil2. i read spanish so if you link the website i can give you a better idea of what it is all about. With just the age recommendations, it sounds like aptamil 2 is higher in iron than Apt1. (totally unnecessary and it causes constipation in some babies.)

Anna - I have just started feeding my dd (also 6.5 mo) formula during the day as well as starting to feed her meals as well.

She has had 3 bottles - 6 oz in each with 1 b/f early morning & 2 b/f during the evening.

KKD-Here is the Spanish Milupa site. It seems have much less detail than the the UK site. I can't find a description of Aptamil 1 even. It mentions that Aptamil 2 is similar to breastmilk and it has probiotics which the UK site also says. I've written to the UK site asking them what the difference is.

Margo-hows your dd doing with the food and the formula? Are you going to stop breastfeeding altogether or just cut down? Im trying to stop it altogether and my boobs are killing me. I gave her a little feed from one side last nite as she wasnt settling but thats all for the last 48hours. I mite express a bit today. It's weird-I always planned to give up at 6-7 months or when she got teeth but now that its happening, its so difficult not to get emotional about it.

Anna, in answer to your question, yes that seems to be the way it goes but I don't think she's even taking THAT much food at the moment at all. Mostly doing BLW so its more about playing with the food I think! I've split up the bottles and meals so it goes:

6ish - bottle
8ish - breakfast
10.00ish - snack (at nursery)
10.30/11ish - bottle
12.00ish lunch
2.30ish bottle
4ish tea
6ish bedtime bottle

but if she doesn't want any lunch or tea then I, or the nursery, offer a bottle then too. So, its usually 4 bottles unless she really isn't interested in the food thing and seems to want one then. And I always offer water with food. Bit trial and error as she was exclusively b/f before I started back at work.

i looked at the Milupa link AS, but they don't have the ingredients listed for Aptamil 1 so i couldn't compare them. Apparently because of the WHO regs on promoting infant formula.

To check it out for yourself though, next time in the shops, compare how much 'casein' vs 'seroproteina' the Apatamil 1 & 2 have in relation to each other. Seroproteina is what in English we call whey. I suspect it will be higher in Apt 1. Apt 2 i think is higher in Casein which is also a protein but it is harder for babies to digest so it sits on their stomachs for longer. So-called hungry baby formula here in the UK. Whey is easier to digest than casein and which is what all so called first milks have more of.

I was also suprised to see that they have linked some of the wrong products to the information pages about what the formulas contained.

another was that Milupa in Spain recommends fruit juices to infants 2 - 3 months old!!

Exactly KKD! The advice here is sometimes totally different. (At 6.5 months the doctor told me to cut down on milk and give more food and most of the popular brands of food have added salt and sugar etc etc.) And why is the site so naf when the UK site is so good(ie.clear)-its the same company-a different market? or a smaller market? Anyway, Milupa UK answered my query and said:

...Spain has a different formula, as you have realised.... in Spain the follow on formula is from 5 months and is similar but not exactly the same as the Forward here in the U.K.....We would normally advise mums who have been breastfeeding to start with a first milk, for about a month, and then gradually change over to a follow on milk that is suitable from 6 months....So...use the Aptamil 1 for about a month and then gradually change over to Aptamil 2. This will give your baby's digestive system chance to adapt to the formula milk.

Wish it had said that on the pot! Too late now...but my dd seems to have coped with the changeover, thankfully. Thanks for your help kkd-Ill look out for those ingredients.

Sydney, thats reassured me...apart from the waking up/bed times, you are doing more or less the same but with 4 bottles rather than 5. I think I may still give her 5 bottles for now but feeds 3+4 can be much smaller. I think that giving her more milk when she eats less is a good idea too-I'll try that. Thanks. Hows the BLW going? And what do you give her for snacks?

Anna, yes, I think we are more or less doing the same thing. If she has 5/6 bottles during a day she doesn't usually finish them all. As far as snacks goes, just depends what's around. At nursery she gets to chew on a rice cake and play with some bits of banana and pear so that's what I do at home. If I'm pottering around in the kitchen I just pop her in her highchair so she can watch me and give her a rice cake or something. Found these Organix sugar free rusks too which she LOVES. As I said, not really sure she's actually eating anything but BLW is fab as you just don't worry about it. As everyone told me, until they're 1, its all about the milk and the food is just getting used to taste/texture. She does get offered purees at nursery but I made it clear that unless she's really interested or up for it I'd rather she just had something to play with and be offered some milk. Some days they tell me she eats a load of veg puree, others she doesn't.

So by that Annaspanner, you could just stay on Aptamil 1, according to my box of A1 whey/seroproteina 0.9g, casein 0.4g per 100ml prepared feed.

Anna - I've found it less painful to drop one feed at a time (I can remember how it hurt when I went to f/f with dd1)

I don't know if I will be giving up b/f completely.

LO has adjusted really well to bottle and food.

2 weeks into blw and she has demolished a weetabix all by herself (I never really thought it possible!) She has coped very well with all the new foods given to her.

Margo-its sounds like the BLW is really working! How do you give her the weetabix? Are you using normal milk at all now, for cooking I mean. Ive been doing the A.Karmel puré method by the book so far and she loves everything shes been given. I have started to make things more and more lumpy(lumpier and lumpier?) but have only tried finger food a couple of times...a rusk and some lumps of banana. She seemed to like them but took ages to chew and she only had a little really.

I gave her the weetabix whole to eat as a biscuit. It was very messy and she crushed chewed and sucked on it.

I forgot how much I hate half chewed baby food.

I haven't actually cooked anything yet, so haven't used cows milk yet.

She has chewed cucumber, carrot, banana, toast

My mum gives her banana porridge by Organix, she needs to know that she has actually eaten something. She likes to rebel.