When to switch from 5 bottles to 4?

I have been having such a difficult time with my babes trying to get them to eat. About 2 weeks ago we went from 6 bottles to 5 because they were just not ready to eat every three hours. The thing that concerned me is that they would not take anymore at a feeding, and some times they were still refusing their bottles. Both have reflux so I spoke with the Ped GI and upped their prevacid dosage hoping that would help. It did not make them anymore hungry. So I spoke with the ped and he said to start with cereal. Although they are little young (33 weekers so I guess just about 4 months adjusted age) they have had cereal in their bottles for months now due to their reflux. So we are starting with rice cereal in a new way 2 times a day. DS is doing excellent, DD not so well. But still, they do not always want their bottles and obviously they do not get enough formula with the cereal so once again I am worried they are not eating enough. Do you think it is time to switch to 4 bottles a day and try to up it an ounce or so?

 

how many ounces are they taking in? and are they big pukers? My DS is a huge puker and i found that trying to do more ounces in less bottles was a bad idea b/c he just puked it back up, smaller more frequent meals was the way to go for him. That said, we just dropped to 4 bottles as they finally have given up that 10:30 bottle. We do two solids meals a day as well. So all in all they get 4 6-7 ounce bottles plus 3.5 ounces of babyfood plus oatmeal.

I would say the big indicator is if they are gaining weight and seem happy and healthy. What does your ped GI think?

 

QUOTE(xavier2001 @ Mar 13 2008, 09:47 PM) [snapback]668377[/snapback]
how many ounces are they taking in? and are they big pukers? My DS is a huge puker and i found that trying to do more ounces in less bottles was a bad idea b/c he just puked it back up, smaller more frequent meals was the way to go for him. That said, we just dropped to 4 bottles as they finally have given up that 10:30 bottle. We do two solids meals a day as well. So all in all they get 4 6-7 ounce bottles plus 3.5 ounces of babyfood plus oatmeal.

I would say the big indicator is if they are gaining weight and seem happy and healthy. What does your ped GI think?


They have been gaining weight but their eating habits have just recently changed. He was not that worried about it but did recognize the fact that their eating habits are changing and that is why he said we could start the rice cereal twice a day. Neither one are big pukers anymore thankfully. Right now though DD gets 4.5 ounces 5 times a day and DS gets 5 ounces 5 times a day, both get about 4-5 teaspoons of cereal in their bottles. They do not always finish their bottles though. DS is eating now eating 2 tablespoons of cereal with 2 ounces of neosure. I don't know what to think but that is why I'm wondering if I drop them to 4 bottles a day maybe they will be more interested in eating instead of it being so challenging.

 

Hmmm, that's a tough one. But, if you feel like their reflux is mostly under control, I would try for a couple days on upping their ounces and cutting out a bottle. You can always go back to what you had before. I am thinking when the boys got pretty good at eating some solids, we cut back to 4 bottles per day.

 

I think the cereal in the bottle is filling, correct? So I am not completely surprised that they aren't drinking more. At that age, my two would drink 4-6 oz bottles every 4 hours (when not bf). I don't think there's any reason for concern right now.

The decision to drop bottles is yours to make. We all do it differently.

I didn't switch to 4 6-8oz bottles until the boys were 8 months old and eating 3 meals a day. Then around 10.5 months, dropped to 3 8oz bottles because they just weren't that interested and we replaced the afternoon bottle with a snack so for me bottle dropping was associated with adding in more solids and table foods. Plus mine just never would drink a "big" bottle...they prefered smaller more frequent bottles.

Hope you get it figured out. Plus if they are gaining weight well then I wouldn't worry too much (I believe at that age babies should have between 24 and 32 oz of formula/bf and mine were always on the lower end of that...sometimes fighting to get 22-24 but they were gaining just fine).

 

Mine are 33 weekers and were on 4 bottles around 4 months old. I had also started rice cereal at 4 months as well. If I remember correctly, I think I was giving them 6 oz bottles during the day and attempting an 8 oz before bed. Are you giving the rice cereal and bottle at the same time or an hour apart? When we first started the cereal, I would let them drink as much of their bottle as they wanted, give the cereal and then let them finish their bottle if any was left. At this age, formula is still #1. I would try 4 bottles a day at 6 oz (usually when you mix the 6 oz bottle, it comes out to 7 oz, so there is always some extra) and see how they do. That extra time in between bottles may give them some time to get hungry enough to increase the ounces they consume.

HTH!!!

 

At 2 months we went to 4 bottles at 8-12-4 and 8. Because of all the cereal we had to put in the bottles, they were just not hungry. The 4 hour schedule worked for us.

Recently we have dropped to 3. My DD drinks hers all from a sippy and DS all from a bottle. I am hoping in a couple more weeks to get him to a bottle in the am and 1 at night with a sippy in between. We shall see.

Both of mine prefer solids and the PED said it was fine as long as they were getting balanced nutrition.