2 bottle a day babies......share with my your routines please.

[cheesenpickle]

My DS is 8 mths old in a week and i have seen the HV this morning with some weaning queries. I thought id understood her advice but actually thinking about it im confused!

Hes currently on 3 x 6oz bottles a day and 2 meals, breakfast and lunch (this is a proper dinner) but isn't having tea as he has a 6oz bottle at 3/3.30pm. The HV told me its fine to drop 3pm bottle (im to Increase morning and evening bottles to 7oz). So I said i would give him his tea at that time. She then told me to give him 3oz to tie him over to 5pm tea. I was then thinking but how do i drop 3oz in the future do i just at some point offer him a snack?

My day looks like this at the moment;
7.30/8am - 6oz milk
8.30/9am - solids breakfast
12 noon solids lunch
3/3.30pm 6oz milk
6.30/7pm bedtime milk.

Please share with me your routines and how did you drop that third bottle. Thanks.

My lo is one and still has 3 bottle is routine as followed.

Up about 7-8 has 6oz bottle and breakfast straight after.
Dinner 11.30-12
Nap 12-2.30
6oz bottle at 2.30
Tea at 5
Bath at 6
Then 6oz bottle and bed for 7.

Honestly? See what suits your baby - just because the HV advises that you do a certain thing doesn't mean your baby will agree with her! He'll drop the bottle when he's ready - you'll probably notice that he takes less and less of it and eventually won't want any at all.

When DD was about 8mo she was still having about 4 bottles a day (7oz) and 3 meals a day. That suited her. She did this until she was gone 1 IIRC. One of the children I looked after had a bottle in the morning, no milk at all in the day and then a bottle when she got home when she was 8mo - again, perfectly normal. Just to illustrate really, that for all the routines you'll get on here, you might find that your DS does't find any work for him!

Why not try offering some sort of snack at about 3pm, and then the milk so your DS will take whatever milk he needs - that might end up being the full bottle, it might be 3oz as per the HV, it might only be 1oz.

He might not take 7oz at breakfast and in the evening, 6oz might still be enough.

Thankyou, what sort snacks are good to give, i can't see fruit really been filling enough hes a big boy and likes his food!

I wonder how this HV will answer you if you bf. I basically just offer 3 meals at 8, 12 and 5, and then bf on demand day and night. If I'm in the mood I also offer a snack at 2 because that's what 9mo DD gets at nursery.

I give her bf whenever she whines. Some days its twice in the morning. Some days she doesn't ask at all between breakfast and lunch. I think you can just offer a dinner at anytime that suits you, like 5 or 5.30 looking at your routine, and continue to give the same bottles until your DS no longer wants it. Babies hasn't read your HVs manual. It's easier if you adapt to him.

For snacks, I know the nursery gives fruit, yoghurt, crackers, cheese kind of things. I tend to do yoghurt or muffins.

There's no reason why fruit wouldn't be filling enough even if he's a big lad.

Cheese, crackers, veg sticks (nice and crunchy, good for gums), halved grapes, banana, a satsuma, halved cherry tomatoes, yoghurt...even the occasional biscuit is fine.

Anything that you would eat as a healthy snack is fine, as long as there's no honey, whole nuts (chopped nuts or nut butter is fine) or whole grapes (last two are because of the choking risk). Low salt too.

You don't need to be providing special 'baby' snacks, so don't worry about that.

at 8 months milk should be the main source of nutrition, so i would be very unhappy at dropping another bottle just yet.

12oz of milk a day for an 8 month old really isn't much.

Flisspaps- I'm just assuming fruit wouldn't be enough, not sure why, only that ive seen him hoover half a banana and then be looking for more!

thisisyesterday- I thought they were supposed to have 16-20 oz a day up until 1 which is why i was checking about his third bottle. She told me to increase morning and night bottle to 7oz so he gets 14oz and as long as he has milk in ce real, cheese and yought, rice pudding etc then he will be fine.

Your HV is sadly misinformed about the amount of formula he needs a day. (And you are right)!

Have a look at this page from the NHS about vitamin drops. If your DS drops below the recommended 500ml a day (which I believe is 17oz), he will need to get supplemental vitamin drops. I think it's better to keep him on the 16-20oz you originally think until 1.

i think your HV is giving very out-dated advice and, in your position, i would be tempted to make a complaint about this.

some babies naturally drop their milk intake, and that can be ok as long as you make sure they're having a very good, balanced diet and you would normally be advised to use formula on cereal, in puddings etc to get more into them.

but it certainly isn't something to aspire to, especially given that if you don't wean until 6 months your baby will only have been on solids for 8 weeks!!

thankfully you had the sense to check the information she has given you, but other people may well not which is why i would complain about it. she may need re-training with up to date feeding advice

at 8 months ds still had 4 milk feeds alongside 3 meals. Meals were at 8am, 12pm and 5pm. Milk was at 7am, 11am, 2.30/3pm and 7pm. I never dropped feeds until ds started losing interest and he wasnt down to 2 feeds until around 11 months. The milk feeds got replaced with a snack and drink of water.