Formula Feeding and Solids

Hi Kim,

Here is my advice.
Now that you have started her on solids she may not require as much formula as she used to take.

The other thing is get her on a good eating routine. For instance you want her to have breakfast, morning snack,morning nap, lunch, afternoon nap, snack and then dinner.
For breakfast you can give her cereal, fruit and a bottle of formula.

For snack offer her some more formula (or save what was left from breakfast).

For lunch you could do a fruit and a vegetable and a bottle of formula.

Then lay her down for afternoon nap.

Then afternoon snack you could give her some fruit puffy things that gerber makes. You could also give her these at morning snack.

For dinner, give her one of the dinner jars of food and a dessert. Some of those already have a fruit or a vegetable in them. So you only need to offer the one that is missing.

Then save her last bottle for before she goes to bed. Idealy you want her meals to be every 4 hours or so, you also have sncaks in there. So I would go breakfast at 7 am, morning snack at 9, morning nap at 10, lunch at 12 (noon) afternoon nap at 1 pm till she wakes up, do snack right when she wakes up and then she can have dinner at whatever time you normally eat. Like 5 pm or 6 pm. Now the times I put down may not work out for your house . But you get the idea.

My daughter was eating 8 ounce bottles before we started on solids. Once we did that she went down to a 4 oz - 6 oz bottle at every meal.

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Personally as long as you are feeding your child healthy foods I wouldn't worry about it too much. My child has gone through various stages while he has been learning to eat solids. There were a couple of weeks where he wasn't wanting bottle at all. There was a week where he refused to eat anything he couldn't carry around with him. As long as your baby has plenty of dirty and wet diapers and has good energy, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

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It doesn't make sense to me that your baby would have room to drink the same amount of formula after eating solid foods. I got a lot of conflicting information with my first born. I've had four children, and they pretty well knew when they were full. My advice is feed her the solids and she'll drink until she is full. I think it is worse to try to force feed her the same amount of formula. That could lead to food issues later. Your daughter will tell you when she is full.

I understand...my little one is the same way. He prefers solids over liquid...so I have to just keep offering it to him...

I went through this with my son. I kept offering the bottles and I would mix the formula in his cereal. I had to make sure the bottle was pretty warm or he wouldn't have anything to do with it. This would be a good time to start introducing a sippy cup with the formula in it. She might be very interested and take it right away. After about a month of Mason refusing he just started taking it again like normal. I did waste many bottles but I never stopped offering it to him.......also check the nipple flow....slow,medium or fast. I had to change to fast because he was sucking way to hard.

Good Luck!

HI Kim,
I am now going through the same thing with a little one. I finally thought of something that has really helped me. Instead of feeding the meal first, I make certain he gets at least 5 ounces of formula, then, if he is hungry for food, he can have it. It has really helped us. Hope this might help you also. Good luck, and God's blessings. and your

Kim, I would try to cup feed! Even newborns can cup feed and you have less risk of long term dental caries and bottle dependence! If your child is voiding enough and gaining wt... there should be no problems....thirst is going to rule out in the end!

V.

I had the same problem with my daughter when she was that age. It seems no matter what, if you think about it, they are getting full on the solids, so they don't want to drink as much formula as it fills them up to. I did put my daughters formula in a sippy cup and served it with her solid foods. But she still didn't drink as much as she did when she was younger. I think it's just hard to get them to drink that stuff when they find out there's so much yummier stuff out there! You can try other stuff to drink too, like juice and water, just add the extra vitamin drops so you ensure that they are getting the vitamins that they need as little ones. But it won't be to long and she'll be on milk! I put the vitamin drops in that to. Good luck!

Hi:) I had to give my daughter her food in her bottle with formula at first (she was such a pickey eater) but now I feed her breakfast then an hour or so later give her a bottle and put her down for a morning nap. Then i feed her lunch and about an hour later again she'll take a bottle. She still wakes for a bottle in the middle of the night also. I know they say to give them water but she would just keep on crying:) Hope this helps, if she refuses formula try a multi-vitamin to ensure that she is getting all her vitamins. I personally was put on milk at 6 months old and my mom had to mix vitamins with it and I turned out great:) Good luck.

have you tried putting her formula in a sippy cup. i have a daycare and that is what I do with the little ones they drink it all right. the cup has a soft top to it. good luck. M.

My daughter was the same way! It's tough, but what I did was wait until she was really hungry, give her a bottle then wait about an hour and give her some table food. I usually did not get in what the doctor recommended, but she was still thriving, and I tried the best that I could, and that' all you really can do. I was happy to get in 20 ounces a day!

Put the formula in a sippy cup. You might also try adding a bit of powdered chocolate or strawberry drink, like Quik, to it. That may help.

Hi Kim,

I have a 7 month old too. I am the mom of 4 children. We sometimes experience bottle problems too. You may need to try a different/new nipple/bottle. You may want to ask you doctor about switching formulas. For example if you use Enfamil then maybe try Similac or switch to Good Start. In all honesty this is a phase for both you. It's something new that both you will adjust too. Just make sure to watch your baby's cues during feeding if she is showing you she doesnt want any more food. She doesnt have to finish the jar after a full 7 or 8 oz ~ that's a lot for her little tummy. Also check her tongue to see if she has a white coating that may be thrush, its like a yeast infection. Its very painful for them to drink if they have this... good luck. You will get back into a good routine again. be patient.

You might want to try and put it in a tippy cup. One that worked well for my son when he did that was the Nubby. You can get it at Wal-Mart for a little over a $1. Good luck.

Hi, Kim. I'm a mom of three, my youngest is about to turn one. She went through this, and like other posters have said, she was happier with a sippy cup at meal time. My sitter tipped me off to a great transition tippy made by Nuk. You can buy them at WalMart and Target for about $6 each. The "nipples" are very soft like a bottle so it makes the transition easier for them. Good luck and happy baby. Details on the sippy follow:

The NUK® Learner Cup helps make tye transition from breast or bottle to cup easier.

Spill proof soft latex spout designed to be gentle on gums, and get baby used to drinking from spout.

Extra wide neck for easier filling and cleaning.
Snap on cap snaps on to protect spout.

Easy grip handles ergonomically shaped with anti-slip soft grips make it easy for baby to hold. Handles are removeable for easy cleaning, and to ensure they always line up with the spout.

She really doesn't need solids until she's a year old. That's especailly true for breast fed as there's so much nutrition in mama milk. You can't force any child to eat so don't worry about it. The formula is more important that the solids right now. I must confess that my 1st weaned herself at 8 months, wouldn't take formula, drank cups of cows milk (NOT recomended for that age for good reason!!) and juice and ate table food and now is a healthy 31 year old mother of 5.

I had two very healthy happy babies and they both never drank more than 24 oz's formula even before solid food. After they started food, it was maybe 20 0z's of formula. My son at 7 months had this schedule: Wake-up (6:30) 6 oz bottle, then about hour later some cereal and fruit, 10a.m. or so, 5-6 oz bottle, then nap. Lunchtime was fruit and vegetable,maybe a little very watered down juice in a bottle, then bottle(5-6oz)2- 3p.m.He then would take his afternoon nap.When he woke up he usually had a little vegetable and some fruit when we ate dinner. Before bed @7:30 or so, he would drink a 6-7 oz bottle. My pediatrician said he would have drank more if at either lunch or dinnertime we skipped the food, that made hiom crabby so we let him dictate his day. my daughter's schedule was about the same. hope this helps.

Hey Kim,
Believe me I am going through the same thing. I have twins that will be 8 months on the 29th, and I am trying to do more solids with them. I have found with all 3 of my boys that they aren't going to take the same amount of formula that they did before you introduced foods to the baby. My twins were taking 9oz, then I started foods and they each have a jar of food and 6oz of formula 3 times a day and then have a 6-8oz bottle before bed. I have also found out with all my boys, if I try to give them their bottle before there food, they woun't eat their food. So I give them their food then, give them their bottle. Sometimes they drink all of it, and sometimes there like an oz or 2 left. Before I started giving them food 3 times a day, my twins were taking 4-5 9oz bottles a day(each), and my peditrician of course doesn't want them to have that much formula so I am glad they are on foods too. Also if the baby is extremly tried , you my as well give up before you even start. All 3 of mine would not eat their food if they were tired.They would just want their bottles.
These are some suggestions. If you have any other questions just let me know.

We had the same problem with our daughter. Our pediatrician was adamant that the breast milk (we didn't use formula until she was almost a year) was more important than the food. So, we cut her food down to two small meals a day until she was around 10 months and then gradually started increasing it. At that age, eating solid food is more for practice than for nutrition.

My daughter once she started eating solids did not tolerate her formula. We switched her to a soy based instead of milk based & she drank it all up. A few months later we switched her to regular whole milk with no problem. I had heard at the time that was common & was advised to just try different formulas until we found one she liked.

Since she is 6 months old, try having her drink out of a straw or a sippy cup.