DD is just shy of 8mo and starting nursery in 3 weeks. Up until 2 weeks ago she was having 5 x 7oz milk a day, she then dropped her 9am bottle of her own accord and slightly upped the amount of food she was having at lunch time. This is her routine:
7am 7oz milk (drinks 5oz, 2oz goes into b'fast)
8am B'fast
9 - 11am NAP
11:30am Lunch with pudding
1pm 7oz milk (drinks approx 5oz)
1 - 3pm NAP
3:30pm 7oz milk
5:30pm Dinner
6:45pm 7oz milk
So she's now on 4 bottles, at what point should she be dropping another bottle? Presumabely this would be replaced with a snack?
DH is the chef in the nursery that DD is going to and tells me that breakfast is at 8:30, lunch with pudding at 11:15 and then snack with pudding at 3:30. I'm hugely aware that her routine will probably change as soon as nursery starts and she also probably won't be sleeping anywhere near as much. However at this point in time she doesn't have a snack but DH is very eager for her to have a snack when she starts. I have asked him how he envisages fitting in a snack as well as milk, he suggests that we drop the milk but this seems too soon to me. Is it? Going from 5 bottles to 3 in a matter of weeks. His reasoning is that their menus are nutrionally anaylsed so that the children get the required food intake for the full day across the whole balanced menu. I said that she's managed at home fine for now but he says she will be burning more energy at nursery. I think even more reason to keep that bottle of milk for now....unless of course nutrionally she doesn't need it.
Thoughts please?