Overfeeding?

I hadn't posted a question in awhile, but here I am for some expert opinions!

My girls are almost 9 months, 6.5 adjusted. They've both cut two teeth in the past two weeks (one tooth right behind the other). In the past week or so they have all but refused one bottle a day. Which bottle varies from day to day, but they are both doing it consistently.

Up until now we've done 5oz of Enfacare (with a tsp of rice cereal per oz of formula, per doctor's orders) every four hours. Just this week we switched to Enfamil (because it's what we have in the house and I plan to ask the doctor at our next appointment about reducing their caloric intake) but kept the rice cereal.

Is this normal? Are we overfeeding them? I was starting to wonder if, since their growth has been on target, there was a good reason to keep the high cal formula AND rice cereal? Maybe it's making them so full that four hours is too frequent to feed them? We can't remove the rice cereal, that's in the formula to help with the reflux and spits.

Feedback appreciated!

 

Some kids will refuse bottles when they are teething, so that could be part of the issue.

How much are they getting total during the day? Our LO's are getting 26-28 oz. a day, plus their solids. They are almost the same age as yours. They get Nutramigen and 1 tsp of rice cereal in each bottle. They eat 4 bottles a day.

 

About 25oz per day plus solids as well. Maybe it is teething, then. It'll be reassuring to see it get back to normal, then!

 

Our doc said they should be getting 24-32 oz. a day plus solids at their age. I think when they hit 9 months, it drops to 16-20 oz, but I will find out for sure when we go for our checkup in a few weeks.

 

my boys are 9 months old and get 8 oz bottles 4 times a day. They don't always finish their bottles. I just posted a thread actually because one of my boys is teething and was having a hard time drinking his bottles. We went up a nipple level so the milk comes out more asily without him having to suck as hard and it has made a HUGE difference. He is drinking easily now and not getting upset. What nipple level are you using?

 

At nine months, you should be aiming for at least 24 ounces of formula. 'They' say anywhere between 24-32 ounces, and gradually increase their solids. I know by nine months my kids were all on table foods by that point. And we were on 3-4 bottles/day either 8 ounces or 7 ounces. So that would be between 24-28 ounces/day. It was rare that they would finish them. But I eventually was able to get all of the bottle in them(wouldn't finish them in that one hour window), most days.

It sounds like they are doing great. They could be teething, or just not hungry. It could be any number of reasons! Don't you love the motherhood guessing game? :laughing:

 

I feel like I'm stumbling in the dark! This is great feedback, though. We're actually still using the brown nipples, but widened to an X to draw milk. They're probably the equivalent of a medium flow. That's a great suggestion. How do you combat the clear rubber nipples tearing further when you widen for the cereal, though? The only reason we stuck with the brown nipples is because they don't seam to tear any further than you cut them.

The doctor didn't call back about the caloric intake today, so I hope he will tomorrow. I don't want to deprive them of nutrition that they need, but I also don't want their little bodies to be forced to metabolize more than they have to have, ya know?

Now I'm really thinking about the nipples. We'll have to do some experimenting there.

Thanks!