Am I doing something Wrong?

Hey girls... I've been MIA for awhile, just too busy!! But anyway, my boys are almost 6 months old and I was just reading a topic about schedules. My boys both wake up and have their cereal (with fruit as of this week ) However, I was reading that topic and I realized most of you give your babies a bottle first thing. I mean, they are doing well with the cereal, but I think that if I tried to give them a bottle first then cereal an hour or two later, they would refuse.

So am I doing something wrong? Should they have a bottle when they first wake up??

Here's our schedule for a reference...

8-9 wake up, diapers, cereal with fruit
930-1100 playtime
11- nap (usually 1/2 hour, but we're trying for longer ones)
12 wake up 8oz bottle
1230-230 playtime
230-300 nap
300 8oz bottle
330-5 playtime
5-630/7ish nap
7 cereal with veggies
730-10 playtime
10 bottle

Also we keep them up later as DF works nights and I work days. Since he doesn't get home til 330-4, he at least gets a few hours sleep and then naps with them. (Them in crib, or at least we are tryiing to break them from naps in swings)

Thanks for any advice
Shannon

 

I nurse my babies before I feed them cereal. They still want the cereal after and sometimes want to nurse after. Maybe to wash it down, I don't know. I read in some baby book to give them a bottle first, because they still need the nutrition from it, it should replace a feeding, just add to it. 3 bottles a day doesn't seem like much. Maybe try only one cereal feeding a day until they want it. Hope this helps!

 

At this age BM or formula should be their number one source of nutrition, so a lot of cereal/fruit might diminish their appetite for their bottles. But if you haven't noticed and change in the amount of milk their taking in then I wouldn't worry about it too much. For me it's just easier to nurse them first thing, and then tend to my toddler and then work on fixing breakfast. You gotta do what works for you!

Reyna

 

Around that age they should be getting minimum 24oz's of formula/ebm per day. If they are meeting that then you should be okay, but as pp's mentioned it is normally recommend (11/12 months of age) to always give bottle/breast BEFORE solids as that is where the most calories/fat/nutrients come from.

 

My babies at 6 mo were still nursing 6 times a day. We just now are down to 5. I nurse my babies and 1 hour later give them solids. That gives time to digest and still be hungry for solids. One of the reasons they may not nap as well as you would like is that they may not be geting enough sleep. They should be getting 12 hours at night.Mine still take 2 naps a day at 2 hours each. And at 6 mo they were will getting a short third nap. I know it may sound strange but sleep breeds sleep. The more sleep they get the better they will sleep and the more they will sleep. That might help your naps.

 

Here are the changes I'd make:

Like pps said, always offer the bottle before solids. That young I'd probably offer solids no more than 30 min after the bottle, so it won't cut into their appetite for the next one. Solids are just for practice; they vitally need the nutrition they're getting in bottles.

It also looks like your babies are staying awake for VERY long stretches at a time. That might be hurting their naps. I'd aim to put them down for naps no more than 2 hrs after they woke up. Like pp said, sleep begets sleep. Being overtired makes it much harder to fall asleep/stay asleep.

Good luck tweaking everything!

 

QUOTE(TrinaP @ Mar 3 2008, 01:34 AM) [snapback]649655[/snapback]
I nurse my babies before I feed them cereal. They still want the cereal after and sometimes want to nurse after. Maybe to wash it down, I don't know. I read in some baby book to give them a bottle first, because they still need the nutrition from it, it should replace a feeding, just add to it. 3 bottles a day doesn't seem like much. Maybe try only one cereal feeding a day until they want it. Hope this helps!



I agree. I always nurse/bottle before cereal.

 

I'd have to agree with pps that bottle/breast first then food. If they are taking their last bottle at 10pm and not getting another until noon the next day then that's a good chunk of time without something to drink (i'm particularly addressing from wake up of 8 until noon...that's four hours without something to drink after having gone all night). I think that's a little long.

I'd aim for a bottle first, then about 30 minutes later give the cereal. If they don't eat the cereal it's not a big deal at this point...they will get a bigger appetite as they get older.

I also notice that you're at 3 bottles a day...I would think at not quite 6 months, you'd still want at least 4 but that's your call. If they are getting a minimum of 24 oz of formula/bm then that's fine.

Good luck!