Drinking Less

you do start to drink less at that age. my daughter didnt have any drink with her meals, but had the bottles in between as her "snack". i would say she drank 1 mid morning, 1 mid afternoon, 1 after dinner and 1 before bed. 6 ounces per bottle. i disagree with another poster, the main nutrition should still be coming from the formula which has complete nutrition. unless you are giving her complete meals using the pyramid system or similar to ensure proper nutrition, the chances of getting her complete proper nutrition from "solids" is pretty low for the average person to accomplish. solids do replace the formula as her stomach can only eat so much, but you just need to make sure you dont continue to feed her the solids disregarding the formula.

try to get her to drink 20-24 ounces. give the bottles in between meals. if you also feed some sort of snack in between meals, do so after the bottle. you can give water to hydrate but only do so after you know she has gotten the proper amount of formula.

if she doesnt do 4, skip the dinner one and only do the before bed. just dont give a snack before she drinks or else you would have filled up her belly. good luck

I agree with Amy M's response.

My daughter is 8 months (I also have a 4 year old). She's taking roughly 4 6oz bottles a day. Sometimes she doesn't take the whole bottle, so at night I make up for it and give her an 8 oz bottle. Pediatrician said she should be taking 24oz formula.

They should still be getting most of their nutrients from formula. I give her bottle before giving solids.......

She might only need 4 bottles instead of the 5. Her stomach is still small and the solids fill her up also.

Best,
J.

hi Y.,
totally normal that she's cutting back on her bottles b/c she's filling up on "real" food. it's good that she doesn't want more bottle at this point because she's getting more vitamins / nutrients from the food than just milk / formula. i would cut her back to 3-4 bottles, one in the morning, one before her nap(s) and one before bedtime. i have 3 kids and my 1st was off the bottle at around 13-14 months. 2nd hung on for a while, around 16 months. third was off by 12 months. try giving her a sippy cup at meals and see if she can use it. it'll help with her transition.
best of luck!

Hi! I think this is normal. By the time my dd is 9 months old, the doc said she should be down to 10-18 oz of formula per day... As for when to phase out the bottles, I think you and your baby will know! Good Luck!

My son is in the middle of doing the same thing, but seems to be replacing any reduction in formula with increased solids. I think as long as they are putting on weight, it's not a big deal.

By the time my daughter was 10 months old, she was drinking a little milk with every meal and then having only one big bottle in the early afternoon. My pediatrician told me that at the point that they start giving real milk (10 months for them), they like to have the kids using the drinks for only fluid and some fat, but not from nutrition. They want most of the nutrition to be coming from the solids.

My daughter went off of her bottle right at her first birthday but was using cups for a lot of the meals before that. But she wouldn't drink from regular sippy cups so I had to use plastic cups with tops - she is still using them.

Hope that helps - good luck.

Five bottles is too much now that she is eating food. Your daughter only needs between 20-24 ounces a day now. I give my 8 month old 4 6oz bottles a day. He probably drinks 20oz out of those bottles. You can also start giving her water in between meals instead of so much formula.
Hope this helps.