How much formula does your 8mnth old take?

dreambirdie

Dreaded health visitor was out to see son last week and she says i need to cut my sons formula intake -ive been trying in vain to wean him for what seems like FOREVER!!

At the start we were all over the place with the weaning but the past 3 weeks or so we have fell into a bit of a routine and im wondering where to go from here?

He wakes at around 7.30 and has a 8oz bottle. then at 10am he has some cow and gate fruity porrige (the 4mth+ one) mixed with 2/3oz of formula then he will take about 3oz milk.

For lunch about 1pm he will have a baby food jar and juice no bottle

About 4.30 he has another baby food jar and sometimes he will take a dessert (pureed fruit) again he has no bottle with this jst juice or water

then he will take a 8oz bottle at 6-ish then another just before 9 then he goes to bed.

So so far i have cut out 2 of his daily bottles but cant seem to get him to take only one in the morning and at night. any ideas?

also trying to introduce him to lumpy food and it is NOT going well. he sucks the sauce off and spits out any lumps! i tried him with the Heinz fruity porrige this morning it is for 7+mnths. i thought by giving him this it would fill him more therefore he wouldnt need his 3oz of milk. i offered him juice but he cried until i gave him milk.

MX5huggy

Why do you want him to have one in the morning?

Scrap the morning bottle move him on to whetabix or ready break made with formula and formula from a dodiy cup.

Scrap the baby food and feed him what you eat you'll be spending a fortune on all these jars.

lauren_1

have a look at Baby led weaning.

peachyprice

I would start by cutting out the morning bottle and giving him breakfast then instead using the 8oz to make the cereal and the remainder to drink, by now he shouldn't need both.

dreambirdie

problem is as soon as he wakes he wants a bottle straight away, i barely have enough time to make him a bottle before he is screaming the house down for it! ive tried him with breakfast in the morning but he wont entertain it and spits it out getting himself really distressed until he has a bottle. i read that babies still need 16-20oz formula a day at his age. this is where i was getting the idea of one in the morning and one at night. then i was thinking he could have a breakfast lunch and dinner. then bottle before bed.

peachyprice

That's 16-20oz including that used in food. You LO is having 29-30oz,

Have you tried giving him half of his bottle to get past the initial hunger then breakfast?

pigpen

They are 'supposed' to have about 1 pint of milk a day..

HV's are notoriously full of $h!t. Is he a big fat porky person??? Or is his weight in line with his height??

If he is sleeping through the night, getting to grips with eating food, and is in proportion ignore the HV he is just fine.. they stop when they are ready. You speak to a different one next week they'll say it is all ok.. they give conflicting info based on what course they did most recently.

Trust yourself not some freaky person who has seen your child maybe twice for about 10 minutes a time.. noone knows your child better than you.

He obviously WANTS the milk.

my LO is 9 months and is a dragon until she's had her morning feed... she won't even look at a beaker or food. Mine is breastfed so I have no idea what she is taking but she gets a fair bit I'm sure.. she has 3-5 feeds a day so probably in total more than yours.. and she has at least 2 beakers of juice.

How about if YOU want to lower his milk intake.. not because the HV said so, but because you want to.. how about you give him 7oz of milk instead of 8 first thing and last thing and 6oz the middle bottle.. if he wants more give him water or juice... He will probably want more food if he is having less milk though.. and try finger foods, toast, rice cakes, veggies etc.. messy but they learn fast!

We have..

boob.. school run.. breakfast (weetabix or ready brek) and juice.. boob about 11am and she goes down for a nap.. school run.. dinner about 4.. when we go to the outlaws she has jars as they are easier to transport and she wil have a jar of 7th dinner followed by 2 or 3 yoghurts and anything else on offer!.. .. she snacks on bits while I do dinner.. raw veg, rusks, toast, cereal bars.. anything!!.. she has porridge about 7pm with yoghurt then boob and bed at about 8. This has been her routine since about 7 months... and I know she eats a lot.. but she is a big baby.. 99th centile for height but only 75th for weight.

neneromanova

My DD is 8 1/2 months and her routine is:

7:30 get up, 2 petit felous(?sp) yoghurts then about half hour to hour later is 6oz Bottle

12pm Half jar of 7mth+ food (she's not a fussy one luckily) then she has another 6oz bottle and nap time.

5pm Half Jar 7mth+ food with a rusk for pudding.

6.30 bottle and then bed.

9/10pm (whenever we go to bed) another 6oz Bottle to get her through the night but this is slowly getting lower now as I want to wean her off of it so she's on 3 bottles a day.

So your DS doesn't have much more milk than mine.

This might sound rude but I don't mean it to be. When he wakes up, try and give him breakfast first then bottle after as the whole point of weaning is to wean him off the milk and onto food.

I know this is an MSE forum but I find jars a godsend as she can have a variety of foods that would cost a hell of a lot more to buy separate ingredients. If you can afford them then keeps on them if you like

moneysaver12

My little boy is 7 and half months old. He has about 20 ounce of milk a day. He has three 8 ounce bottles but doesn't alway drink all of the bottle. He wakes up in the night for a bottle around 5.30. Then he has a bottle with is breakfast and he has a bottle with his supper around 6pm. He has breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper. He has healthy snacks in the day too. He looks like his is in proportion for his age. I think that if you are happy with what he is eating and your baby is wanting the milk then i don't see a problem.

moneysaver12

What about when he has breakfast, trying him with some water instead of the milk. Just seen that you have tried this already. I think that when he starts eating more solids he will reduce his milk intake. Also what about giving him some supper, like a yoghurt or some porriage (sp).

dreambirdie

pigpen he is 75th centile for both height and weight so completely in proportion. normally i dont take into consideration what the health visitor says because she is so totally by the book and thinks that all children have read this book.

but i do want to get him into some sort of routine before i go back to work

this is the routine i was trying to get him into:

morning bottle 8oz 7.30 ish
then a breakfast not using formula e.g readybrek etc 10ish
lunch 1pm
dinner 5pm
bottle before bed 8oz at 8pm
(so he will have the 16oz of formula)


ive nearly got there but he is still dependant on a bit of formula at 10ish and has 2 bottles before bed! im just gonna stick to what im doing and hope for the best that the volume he eats at dinnertime will increase, i think thats why he wants a bottle at 6ish. i had no idea weaning would be so blimmin hard!