Feeding question

How do you know when its time to drop another bottle. Right now my girls schedule looks like this:
7 am - bottle (6 oz)
8:30 - cereal, fruit
9 - nap
11 - bottle (6 oz)
12:30 - veggie, fruit
3:00 - bottle (6 oz)
5:00 - veggie, oatmeal, fruit
7:00 bottle (6 oz)

I just started adding the 12:30 veggie & fruit. They seem to be hungry for that, but not for all of their bottles. How do you know which one to drop? Should I make a smaller bottle or just drop one and give more solids. I'm trying to figure out this feeding thing and it is so hard to figure out what to give them right now. They want everything we are eating, but I don't know how much of that to give them or when they should maybe having snacks etc. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I looked at the schedules that are posted here and went to wholesome foods, but I think I'm having trouble with the transitional part, not what types of food they can eat, KWIM? TIA

 

Maybe try 3 8 oz bottle. We do 2 8 oz and 2 4 oz.

 

Will they take 8 ounces at one feeding? If so you could add 6 ounces to their morning, afternoon, and evening bottle and then cut out the snack bottle.

My girls would never take 8 ounces at one time so I had to do four 6 ounce bottles for the whole first year. If they seem like they are still hungry even with what you're giving them now I'd try making their four bottles 7 ounce bottles and see if that makes a difference.

 

I agree with pp's. If you are thinking of dropping a bottle, I would up the ounces in their other ones & see how that works.

 

Just be careful that formula is still their main nutrition 24-32 oz is what my ped recommended per day. Since they are just getting 24 oz (assuming they drain their 6 oz bottles), I wouldn't drop a bottle completely unless you can accomodate by increasing the amt in their other 3 bottles.

As pp's have said, try increasing from a 6 oz to a 7 oz bottle. If that works, increase to 8 oz and see if they'll drink that. Then for me, I would probably drop the 11am bottle, move their feeding of food up a little bit and then space the last 2 bottles out a bit more.

All you can do is tinker with the schedule and they'll let you know if it's working or not!

 

Thanks for all of your suggestions. The girls don't even finish their 6 oz bottle now, so adding to them is probably not an option. I think that their teething is really bad right now so they are in pain when they eat. They both have their top 2 teeth coming in right now, I really fell bad for them. Hopefully after they cut through, they will get back to normal. This feeding thing is crazy, just when you think you got it down, they change something!

 

Poor things, teething can be miserable! :hug:

 

We had trouble getting our boys to drink enough formula (since birth) and our Dr. had us cut back on solids to make sure they drank more formula. I struggled to get them to drink 20 oz so dropping a bottle wasn't something I could do until they were much older. Actually mine were still waking to eat at night at 7 months. Ah the memories! :faint:

 

We JUST dropped a bottle, down from six 6 oz bottles a day to five 6 ½ oz bottles (they also get three 4 oz feedings of solids each day). We were going to try for 7 oz bottles, but our pediatrician told us that more than 6 ½ oz could cause reflux. My advice… email your pediatrician and get his/her input.