8mo starting nursery and refusing bottle - have a few ???

[Rugbylovingmum]

Hi all,

I am due to start back at work in 2 weeks . I will be working 4 days, 9-5, and DD will be in nursery during that time. She has her first settling in session at the nursery on Monday and I have a few questions I'd love some opinions on before then.

She is exclusively breastfed and generally refuses to take a bottle - she has taken one occasionally but only if she is very hungry. If I feed her morning and night she certainly won't take a bottle in between. She is a great eater and has 3 good meals a day - she eats loads of fruit and vegetables, yogurt and cheese plus quite a bit porridge/bread/pasta/rice but won't really eat any meat. We did a kind of BLW from 5 months (she kept grabbing food off our plates and sucking it so we just let her carry on) and she took to it straight away and now we are quite how much she puts away.

1. She usually has 3 feeds a day (maybe 4 or 5 if it is very hot and/or she isn't well) so we will be dropping 1 feed a day. I'm sure she will be fine but can she really get all the nutrients she needs from 2 feeds plus her solids? I'm a bit worried. It just seems a long time to go from 7.30am to 7pm without a feed IYKWIM.

1. She'll take some water from a cup but if we put milk in the same cup (either EBM or formula) she spits or dribbles most of it back out. She has started taking small sips recently but not much. I'm thinking that as she is 8 months now there is no point in persevering with the bottle and may as well just stick with a cup but someone suggested we go straight to cows milk now rather than spending months coaxing her to take some formula then have to try and switch to cows when she turns 1. They said that if she only sips the formula she's not really getting any benefit but I'm not sure what's best - any ideas???

1. I hadn't expected to still be feeding at this stage, I was aiming for 6 months but DD had other ideas . It's going fine but I do want to stop sometime over the next few months. I'm just not sure how that is going to happen - how do people find it works? I guess we need to get her taking some milk from a cup first. I can see her dropping her morning feed easily and having milk with/in her breakfast instead but what about her night feed. At the moment she has a bath then a feed then bed - do you stop that feed or replace it with a cup of milk? That night feed is the one I'd like to get rid of so DP and I could have an odd night away and leave DD with the grandparents but she isn't a great sleeper anyway and I'm not sure how I'd settle her without it.

Sorry, that ended up being very long but I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks!

I am completely with you - I have tried and tried and others have tried to feed my baby formula and it has not worked. My baby is one month behind yours. He takes solids and water fine but refuses formula.

I have even gone away for practice days and come back and still my baby will not take formula. I have found the baby to be ok and it seems he would rather wait for bf. I am a bit concerned about my supply reducing too.

Good luck with returning to work.

Hopefully someone will come on and give you an answer.

.

bump

Hi - I had a DS who was 9 months when he started nursery and was exclusively breastfed. I was in the same boat as you in that he wouldn't really take a bottle at that age. I was really worried but honestly it was fine. He had a feed at 7.30am then when he got to nursery at 9am, they'd give him some porridge with some ebm. They loaded him up with yogurts and other milky products during the day and kept trying him with ebm in a cup up to about 11 months when I switched him to cow's milk during the day.

When he got home at 5.30/6pm, at first he'd be desperate for a feed and I'd often put him on for a short one whilst DH was making dinner but he dropped that after a month or so. He fed a lot at night to start with - as if he was making up for it! At weekends and on days off, he'd pick up where he left off and carry on with three feeds a day. We dropped the morning feed and replaced it with breakfast at about 11 months. He weaned at about 13/14 months ish.

Sorry - not much in the way of advice there but I hope it makes you feel better! It can be done and he'll be fine without bf during the day so long as you make sure the nursery are under strict instructions to fill the gap with plenty of yogurts, cheese etc. DS is a fab eater so no problems there! DD on the other hand...!

Thank you - makes me feel way better. We do feed him yoghurt too.

sorry for hijack rugby.

Hi,

sorry to post and disappear but DP is ill today and DD decided she didn't need to sleep today. Finally got her off to bed and have time to check mn.

Bodenbore - no worries about hijacking , it sounds like we are in a similar situation.

Cashncarry - thanks for the reply, it is very reasuring. The nursery seem great and are very interested in food/healthy eating etc so I'm sure they will be good at giving her lots of milky foods and yogurt during the day. Luckily she eats loads of dairy products anyway.