w/ "real food" begins- do you give them bottle at same time as meal or not (and why?)

over the past month or so we've been doing rice cereal--i give them 1/2 bottle of milk then cereal then finish up with milk. i do it that way bc they're new at it and too impatient to eat the cereal first,. but i didn't want them so full that they wouldn't eat the cereal.

then i noticed on the schedule postings that a lot of you do bottle and meals at totally different times. my thinking has been that w my toddler's 3 meals and 2 snack times (which we do in the chair too,. she just likes it that way) i would be in front of the highchairs all day pretty much. !

how do you do it and are you happy with it? we're about to turn 6 months (i need to fix Pierce's scroll) and i want to get a good system down.

 

Hi Heather,

My suggestion is to just do what works for you and the babies. When my babies want a bottle, they want a whole bottle, and would not be too happy with me stopping in the middle! But, if it works for you, I would stick with it. I have always done bottle, then about an hour later, solids. And yes, I do feel like I am in front of a high chair all day, somedays, but it works for the babies!

 

thanks,. and i know what you mean. i don't mind the feeding requirement at all,. i just would like to play with them too,. take my two year old outside,. so many things to do in a beautiful spring day!

 

quote:
originally posted by becky5
I have always done bottle, then about an hour later, solids. And yes, I do feel like I am in front of a high chair all day, somedays, but it works for the babies!


Me too. I always did a bottle first. I did feel like all I was doing was feeding or cleaning up from a feeding ALL day!! But I just kept thinking that one day they would be on table food and milk and then I wouldn't feel like that anymore, and now that we are, I have so much more free time throughout the day. It may seem like a long way from now, but you will get there.

But as Becky said, do what works best for you and your babies.

 

okay,. so not to belabor the point but do yall do it that way to make sure that they get their liquids in first and then if they are still hungry they can eat more?

i was thinking if they had just had a whole bottle an hour earlier they might not be hungry??????

 

Yes, that is why I did it that way. They are always hungry these days!

 

I always did it that way because formula or BM is most important for them until 1. That way I knew they were getting plenty of formula. But they always at the solids too. They do get hungrier and want more than formula/BM as they get older. We never had a problem with them not being hungry for solids.

 

I always did solids and bottles/nursing at the same time. When we first started cereal, I did what you are doing then I experimented a bit. If at a feeding they weren't starving, I'd try spoon feeding a bit first. If they took to it, I'd finish the serving (at that stage it wasn't much) and then do bottles. Once they got the hang of solids and we'd added a few flavors, I started doing bottles followed immediately by solids. They never flat out refused the solids, especially when it was only once or twice a day. At 5mos we moved to 4hr feedings and solids three times a day. Some feedings they ate a little less of the solids than others but as long as their overall formula intake was good, I didn't worry about it. At this point the solids are mostly for practice anyway! GL!

 

I have always wondered why people split up the bottle and solid feedings as well. I would feel like I was feeding them all day long. My schedule is this:

7:30am bottle(7oz) and oatmeal
11:30am bottle(6oz.) and fruit and puffs
3:00pm bottle(6oz.) and veggies and puffs
6:15pm bottle(6oz.)

I give the bottle first and then immediately feed them solids. They are very good eaters and eat everything that I have given them so far. It makes it a lot easier for me to do the bottles and solids at the same sitting rather than split it up.

 

I guess I am one of the few that gives food first then bottle. When I first started the cereal (oatmeal and rice) I would give them their bottle with it. Basically let them drink the bottle and then I would take it out of their mouth and spoon in the cereal so they could taste it. When they got the hang of it I would do cereal first and then the bottle right after. All my kids were good eaters so I never worried about the formula intake since they liked to eat. Now for my son I still give the cereal first and then a bottle for both breakfast and dinner and then for lunch he gets two (yes two stage 2 foods, one vegtable and one fruit or a half a yogurt) and then two hrs later he usually will get a 7oz bottle. But this is what works for us so it's really what will work with your kids since they are all different and how they eat is different.