When to drop a bottle?

Hi everyone,
My little ones are almost 7 months old (I can't believe it!). We have been feeding them a half a jar of food a day along with 5 bottles of 7 oz of formula for about 2 weeks now. The schedule goes like this:

Between 7:30 AM: Wake up
8Am: 7 oz bottle
11AM: 7oz bottle, half a jar of fruit or veggie
2:00 PM: 7 oz bottle
5:00 PM: 7 oz bottle (sometimes some fruit or veggie)
8:00 - 8:30 PM: 7oz bottle sleep

Sometimes, after that 11AM feeding which includes the other food, they can go 4 hours without showing signs of being hungry.

They were at my MIL house yesterday and got off their schedule and were not fed their 4th bottle until 7PM!!
So..we put them to bed at 8:00PM without that bottle and they slept until 7:00AM this morning. This has happened twice before and they slept through the night on those nights too.

Also, they are SO tired at 7:00 or 7:30 PM so I know they are ready to go to sleep at that point. So, we put them to bed and have to wake them up to feed them.

So..could we drop a bottle? They would still be getting 28 oz of formula a day. I would make sure they they received two feeding of fruit or veggies if I dropped that last bottle at 8:00 PM.
Their day could go like:

Between 7:30 AM: Wake up
8Am: 7 oz bottle
11AM: 7oz bottle, half a jar of fruit or veggie
2:00 PM: 7 oz bottle
5:00 PM: 7 oz bottle
7:00 PM: Half jar of fruit or veggie

Or, at that last feeding at 7PM, should I just give them 5 oz of formula or give them BOTH the fruit and veggie with a 5oz bottle.
Gosh..this is hard to figure out.

 

I dropped a bottle about 3 weeks ago as they werent finishing the dream feed or the first morning feed. We risked it and they both went 12 hours quite happily. Mine eat about 6-7oz every 4 hours and DS will eat 8oz before bedtime. Im only giving 4 bottles but 3 of them have a spoon of cereal in them.

In your shoes, I´d drop a bottle and see what happens. I´d put them down at 7pm but with full bellies. You could extend their feeds to every 4 hours if they´d last that long but you´d have to go gradually (increasing the time by 10-15 mins each day) or else do the schedule you suggested. OR swap the 5pm and 7pm feeds around so they have the veg first then go to bed with formula in their tummies. You could also give them an oz more formula in the last feed or at the 5pm feed. I guess it´s just trial and error.

When I dropped a bottle, I increased their formula by an ounce for each feed and it works fine. They dont always finish their bottles either but they dont wake during the night to feed either.

GL!

 

Mine dropped a day bottle and their night bottle between 6 and 7 months, and they started STTN at 7 months, so I'd definitely try... In my situation though they're just not hungry until at least 4 hours after breakfast.

 

We werent ready to drop to 4 bottles until 11 months. But if you think they are ready I say go for it. You can always try increasing the remaining bottles to 8 ounces and see if they will take more during the day that way. ardon:

 

Hi, I would suggest trying to drop the 2pm or 5pm bottle. The last bottle before bed keeps them full for the night, just a thought. GL!

 

Our girls finally started eating about 8 oz in a bottle and eat 4 8 oz bottles/day. Sometimes they don't finish the whole bottle and sometimes at daycare they eat kinda crazy... They started spacing out their bottles more when we started adding solids. We are just now getting to three meals a day. So far, it's gone pretty well.

They get a final bottle between 6/7 and then are out for the night.

 

I would try lining up their eating schedule with yours...three meals a day and then a bottle before bed. What always works for me is pushing a feeding by a half hour and seeing how it goes. I write down the times I tried and then see where it needs to be adjusted. My girls are almost 9 months and this is their schedule:

7:30 am Breakfast 7 oz bottle, cereal and fruit
10 am nap
11:30 Lunch 7 oz bottle, veggie/meat and fruit
1:30 pm nap
4 pm Dinner 7 oz bottle, cereal/veggie/meat and fruit
7:30 pm 7 oz bottle
8 pm Bed

Hope this helps.