Bottles and Meals separate OR Bottles with Meals?

Most schedules I see on this board have the babies drinking bottles then later eating meals (or vice versa).

I was re-reading the Sleep Lady book today, She has it all smushed together. Wake, Feed bottle and solids/table food, play, nap. Repeat.

Spacing it out does allow them time to digest and eat more, right? If I put the bottle with the meal, they'll either eat or drink less, right?

FYI My girls have 4 bottles and 3 meals per day. Most days it feels like that's all we do. Does it make sense to consolidate? Or is too soon?

 

Most schedules I see on this board have the babies drinking bottles then later eating meals (or vice versa).

I was re-reading the Sleep Lady book today, She has it all smushed together. Wake, Feed bottle and solids/table food, play, nap. Repeat.

Spacing it out does allow them time to digest and eat more, right? If I put the bottle with the meal, they'll either eat or drink less, right?

FYI My girls have 4 bottles and 3 meals per day. Most days it feels like that's all we do. Does it make sense to consolidate? Or is too soon?

 

I have always done bottles first, because the formula is so important, then about an hour later I do solids, and put them down for a nap on a full tummy!!

 

I have wondered this same thing, too.
I feed bottles with meals, and my kids never have a problem eating/drinking everything I give them. They get bottle and cereal in the am. Then fruit and bottle for lunch, and veggie and bottle for dinner. Then a bedtime bottle.
If I did each separately, then all I would be doing all day is feeding!

 

I always did bottles and meals together. They started out with bottles every three hours then we started adding a little cereal with one of the bottle feedings. At about 5mos we were doing solids with two bottles and they started eating less since they weren't that hungry every three hours. We switched to every four hours and they had breakfast (8am), lunch (12noon), dinner (4pm) and a bedtime bottle. That made it very easy to switch from bottles with meals to cups with meals at about 10.5 mos. With other kids, there was no way I could spend all day feeding babies! At about 13mos, that 4pm dinner switched to a snack around 3 and dinner with the family around 6.

 

My babies have just recently started eating 3 meals per day. They get 4 to 5 bottles per day. Here is their schedule.

7am wake 6oz bottle, cereal
10am 6oz bottle
1pm 6oz bottle, solids
4pm 6 to 8oz bottle
6:30 to 7pm 6oz bottle, solids

They still take 3 naps a day, usually around 8:30, 11:30 and 2:30. I've tried giving them more milk to get them to go longer between feedings, but they still want to eat every 3 hours. Sometimes they will take a longer nap somewhere in the day and then they cut out of their bottles.

 

We do bottles and meals separate, except for breakfast.

Here's our current meal/bottle schedule:

7:00 breakfast & 5 oz bottle
11:30 lunch
2:30 5-6 oz bottle
4:30 dinner
6:00 6 oz bottle

They just recently dropped a bottle after their morning nap, around 10:30 a.m. I think at 10 months you can start to think about giving up the bottle and switching to sippies and regular cups. My girls use sippies with water/juice for lunch and dinner. I've tried giving them formula in a sippy but they won't drink it. I'm thinking at 11 months I'll start putting whole milk in their sippies and by 12 months by done with bottles and formula.