Dietary Advice Please

[Timmytoo]

Hi everyone, please give me your thoughts as to whether we are feeding our 19month daughter too much and need to drop a bottle. My mother thinks she should be off the bottle but our nurse says she can keep having her bottles until she's 2. My DP is with the nurse and I'm with my mum.

Here's her current stats and daily diet:
She's 19 months, weighs 15.7kg (2.5stone) and is 90cm. She is big for her age.

Daily Diet Structure:
Breakfast is a bowl of oats with cinnamon and a bottle of water at 8.30am
Apple/banana and yoghurt at 10am
Bottle at 11am
Lunch at 1.30pm: rice, vegetables and fish or chicken
Bottle of water and a nap at 2.30
Yogurt /fruit/biscuit or maybe a combination of any two around 4pm when she wakes
and another bottle of water.

She "helps" my DP and I prep supper and will have a raw carrot which she loves or something similar, or maybe some nuts or a crisp if we are having a snack.

Supper is around 7.30pm and she will have what we have ie: veg, meat, rice or potatoes or curry or pasta. (She loves curry) and she will have a drink with it.

She goes to bed around 8.30-9pm with a bottle of formula.

My mother says its far too much and her bottles are unnecessary, but she has a huge appetite and always wants more.

She does stop if shes full but she really enjoys her food. Both my DP and I are athletically built with healthy appetites and we do eat alot. So I'm not sure if we are over feeding her based on what's normal for us.

People are saying her stomach can't handle the food we give her, but her poos are normal and she has 2 per day. She has no physical issues. She does some running around during the day.

I don't want to do wrong by her and she is my 1st and we have no one to compare her to as our parents dont live close by and we have never had any previous childcare experience.

The doctor had concerns about her growth (height) as she grew very tall in a small amount of time but she has stabilized now.

My DP says she must have the formula as it has the vitamins she needs, but I think she has them from her meals.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated so thank you 🙏

Switch bottles of water into cups. I never gave water from a bottle, only formula.
How much milk is she having as you've mainly mentioned bottles of water which can fill you up but have no nutrition as they have no calories

Thank you for your reply @dementedpixie. If we give her cups, she just pours it or shakes it everywhere and messes. She doesn't drink normal milk, just leaves it or shakes it around. Is there a reason for using cups instead of a bottle?

I think I’m on your and your mum’s side with this, in that I would not offer water in a bottle and would be looking to move to sippy cups and cow’s milk, with a good multivitamin (or at least vitamin D), especially if you have any reason to believe her diet is deficient - though it doesn’t sound like it from the description.

Is your mum concerned about the number of meals or her portion sizes? The number of meals and snacks sounds appropriate and normal for her age, albeit she has a later schedule than my DC. DS2 is the same age and has three meals and two snacks, with milk around nap time (breastfed if I’m at home, small bottle of cow’s milk if I’m not) and at bedtime. He doesn’t always drink it all but has up to 120ml so not talking large bottles. For portion sizes, we use those toddler plastic plates from IKEA.

I would definitely give water in a sippy cup rather than a bottle. I would also give free access to a sippy cup at that age so she can help herself throughout the day.

I personally would not give formula after the age of one. I would look at transitioning to cow’s milk in a sippy cup as a bedtime drink. My DS does have cow’s milk in a bottle still at bedtime but it’s the only time he has a bottle and we will move him to a sippy cup at some point in the next few months.

She is definitely big for her age - DS2 weighs about two kilos less and is about 4cm shorter. But whether her weight is appropriate is a matter for medical professionals. Her diet doesn’t sound excessive and some children do naturally slim off at particular stages - my DS was properly fat before he became mobile and is a much slimmer toddler now. I know others for whom that happened around 2-3.

The reason for using cups instead of bottles is in relation to jaw and teeth development. It’s the same rationale for weaning them off dummies - the sucking can damage the teeth. It’s also important for them to learn to sip rather than suck, developmentally.

She will mess about with cups - that’s normal and you take it away when they do, tell them no, give it back, lather, rinse, repeat until they get it. I don’t dispute the sippy cups with free flow spouts are messy but you can get some with straws and others where they suck the side of the lid, if that makes sense, which are usually marketed as no-spill and much less messy than the kind they can turn upside down and drip everywhere.

You could also try a doidy cup at actual mealtimes, which is a slanted open cup to help with learning to sip.

Who are the people commenting on what she eats and saying her stomach can’t handle it? Is she in childcare? If so, what do they say there?

Get rid of the bottles, she will mess with a cup, that is what toddlers do.

Thank you very much, your advice has been most helpful. She isn't in childcare yet as I work from home and my DP looks after her full-time for now. Just friends and family have mentioned the amount of food. The doctor and nurse have said her weight was ok but we have to see the nurse monthly to keep a record of her height and weight due to previous concerns. We live in SA so there is plenty of sun for Vitamin D. I don't think she's deficient at all. But her Godmother took her out for the day amd commented on how much she ate and how quickly she ate it. She eats independently. My parents have expressed concerns about her weight as we zoom called when she was in the bath and they said she's very chubby. She does have rolls. Here's a pic of her..

I just wanted to clarify, when I mentioned bottles, I was referring to formula. She gets 2 bottles of formula at 170ml per feed.