LO only supposed to be on 2 bottles now?

[natasha82]

So my LO had his 8-12mth check up today. It all went fine-ish lol. Until the HV asked what food my LO eats and how many bottles he is having.

He still has 4 bottles and i didn't think this was a huge problem? I don't mind at all making him the bottles. He still wakes in the night, again i dont have a problem with this. But the HV said its because he is hungry?

He is a big boy, follows the 75th centile for length and weight and weighs almost 21lb so i hardly think i am staving him lol.

Also i have been doing TW and he also has finger foods so he can feed himself which he is very good at.
The HV said i should not be spoon feeding him now and he should be feeding himself all his meals? She also said i shouldn't feed him jars and i should be giving him the same dinners as me, but sometimes i have ready dinners as i don't always have time to cook.

So how do i go about this. This is roughly what he eats in a day, and i like to know what other people are doing especially who are TW their LO's.

He doesn't have a set routine as in eats at 8am because he still wakes up at different times.

Breakfast - Porridge or 1 weetabix with fruit puree
Milk an hr or so later, nap

Lunch - half a jar of stage 2 or something i have made myself mashed/lumpy so spoon fed. Little pot fromage frais - spoon fed but got the spoon loaded and him feeding himself today. Fruit of some kind, today it was melon and some sultanas.
Milk - an hr or so later, nap

Dinner - this is where i get stuck, i tried giving him a dinner at this time a month or so ago and i think it laid too heavy in his belly. So atm i give him half a jar of rice pudding or a little fruit pot and a rich tea finger biscuit. I need some help here please lol.
Milk an hr or so later, bed.

 

[NickyKB]

I had my 8 month check today, as long as we were all giving LO's some finger food they didn't care if we were still spoon feeding aswell! Also they were realistic and said an occasional jar is fine but ideally mostly home made and try and eat as a family.

eating as a family sounds great and ultimately i would like to do this but my LO has dinner at 5.40 and my OH doesn't get home til 7 and I just know if I had something proper with LO i would still eat with OH later... Also my LO's on 3 bottles a day (they didn't say i should reduce this) and 3 meals with his main meal in the evening this is just what works for him so if you know your LO is better with main meal earlier then go with your gut feeling... anyway our food routine is just changing as LO is reducing naps but atm its just timings rather than content which has changed:

7oz bottle when he wakes (takes 5-7oz)

breakfast 10am - porridge/baby weetabix/yogurt and fruit mash - spoon fed

Milk 7oz

lunch - this was around 2.30 but is now closer to 3.30 - either finger food eg sandwich, crumpet, fruit, cheese or spoon fed pasta and sauce etc i used to give him a fromage frais after this but now that's it's so close to dinner i don't.

Dinner 5.40 - 2 frozen annabel karmel homemade food cubes (maybe equivalent of 4-5 ice cubes not really sure) of eg casserole/curry/fish in sauce etc with a bit of carb often cous cous sometimes mash. fromage frais.

bedtime bottle 8oz 7-7.30pm (depending what time OH gets home as this is his time with LO)

they suggested i could try breakfast before milk if i wanted but there wasn't any strong reason for this. My LO eats a fraction of the amount if he feeds himself so I always spoon feed dinner so that he's not hungry at night, he has recently been eating more of his finger foods i'm not sure if this is because he's getting better at it or whether it's because the bottle immediately before lunch (which is the only meal i do as all finger food) is now several hours before the meal rather than 30 mins so he's hungrier...

what were you feeding at bedtime before that upset him? might it be worth trying some different options and see if that makes any difference (my LO used to do well with avocado at dinner time when i first introduce the 3rd meal). It might not be hunger thats waking him though...

sorry i've waffled on hope some of that answered your question!

 

[aimee-lou]

First of all - ignore the silly HV. She is there to give advice, not to make you feel like you're starving your LO.

In the same way as adults are supposed to have a certain amount of calories in day etc, babies and children are supposed to have a certain amount of milk/food too. As we all know, what's good for one would see another one ravenous. From 7 months it's 'recommended' for babies to be on 14-21oz of dairy/formula a day. But....the average weight on the tin for this age range is 18lb+. My nearly 8 month old weighs over 26lb and at 9 months Earl weighed in at 24lb. You're telling me that a 33% bigger baby doesn't need more milk after being on 6-7 bottles up to 6 months Just doesn't add up. What I'm trying to say, is don't feel bad about giving him too much milk. IMO there's actually no such thing at this age.

For example - Earl. He is 3 now and strapping. He has always followed the 75th for height, 90th for weight (in other words - chubby! lol). At your LOs age he was having 3-4 7oz bottles a day plus 3 full meals, plus a snack or 2. Seriously, you couldn't give the boy enough food. He still woke in the night (one of his bottles was overnight). At 10 months this went up to 2 overnight (so 4-5 in a day) as he was learning to walk and we could have given him all the food in the house and it wouldn't have been enough. The milk is concentrated nutrition - easily digested and gentle on their tummies. Way I see it, they will wean off it naturally, or you can replace it with cows milk when they're old enough. Either way, baby is happy and healthy. Anyway, by 1 year and a bit, he was down to 2 bottles of toddler milk a day (one at bedtime, 1 in the night - yep still not sttn) 3 meals, 2 snacks and a very healthy appetite. As for feeding himself, I offered finger foods from 4.5 months, but it just was not quick enough and up to the age of 1 I was still having to spoon feed the first half of every meal so that he didn't get stroppy and throw it all on the floor. I bought him his first cutlery around 10 months I think, and he got the spoon very quickly - took him a long time to get the fork though lol.

Onto Eddy - who is about a month or so younger than your LO and is still on 5 bottles a day, plus 3 pretty good sized meals. Both my boys do not do hungry - they scream the glass from the windows if they get even close to it, so no way i'd be starving them. Eddy still doesn't STTN either, and seeing as he's currently on the road to crawling, it's not likely to happen any time soon. I reckon I'll be lucky to see in the year. Eddy is still nowhere near self-feeding. he can do loaded spoons but it's messy and more ends up down him than in him which is frustrating for all involved lol.

Couple of suggestions about dinner. Try giving the cooked type meals at lunch time. Then you could do jars/toast or something like that for tea and it wouldn't lie too heavy while still having a good daily intake. We eat dinner at around 4.30-5 most days. it's what suits the boys. If Hubby is out I'll have a small snack with them at the table then wait for him to get in and we'll have something more grown up. Eating at that time means that they can take their time, have a play then up for a bath etc before bed at 6.30 for Eddy, 7 for Earl.

HTH and really try not to worry about what the HV said. Sometimes I think they just have to tick the boxes. Nodding and smiling is your best option.

 

[socitycourty]

2 bottles? my dr said Bm/formula should be main nutrition till they're 1 year old! My LO still takes at least 4-5 bottles a day, 1-2 during night and also 3 "meals" a day. Mostly fruit pouches/veg pouches or cereal (or both mixed together) but I also give her the crunchies and little fruit snacks to chew on.

It is so confusing!

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Ha! I don't give bottles, but my 11 month old has 3 bfs a day usually and 2 overnight.
Might skip this check if i get invited to one!

 

[MiniKiwi]

2 bottles? my dr said Bm/formula should be main nutrition till they're 1 year old! My LO still takes at least 4-5 bottles a day, 1-2 during night and also 3 "meals" a day. Mostly fruit pouches/veg pouches or cereal (or both mixed together) but I also give her the crunchies and little fruit snacks to chew on.

It is so confusing!

This is about the same as my LO. She has 4 or so 4-6oz bottles a day and then a BF before bed and when she wakes in the night. So 3 BFs a day and 4 bottles...

She eats oatmeal or toast for breakfast, yoghurt/sandwich/veges/eggs for lunch, and then our evening meal - whatever we're eating.

 

[Bug222]

Iain is a little more than a month younger but is having 6 bottles a day.... I don't see him dropping 4 of those in the space of a month!!! I have always been told that he will guide when to drop bottles and that BM/formula should be the main source of nutrition until one. I think you are doing just fine!!!!

 

[natasha82]

Hi thanks for all the replies, i have only just checked back at this post. So i made some small changes to LO's diet - he still has 4 bottles lol but i think is having more food now.

Breakfast - Porridge or 1 weetabix with fruit puree - also some sultanas or a biscuit.
Milk an hr or so later, nap

Lunch - half a jar of stage 2 or something i have made myself mashed/lumpy so spoon fed. Little pot fromage frais - spoon fed but got the spoon loaded and him feeding himself today. Fruit of some kind, today it was melon and some sultanas.
Milk - an hr or so later, nap

Dinner - this has been the big change. I now make us something we can all eat together, usually in finger food form so he can grab it himself and feed himself. He has had fishfingers with sweet potato chunks, carrots, sweetcorn and peas. Another dinner he had was roast chicken, roast potatoes, broccoli, carrots, peas, yorkshire pudding. Sometimes he has a pudding afterwards, sometimes he doesn't.
Milk an hr or so later, bed.

 

[mommy0629]

Hi thanks for all the replies, i have only just checked back at this post. So i made some small changes to LO's diet - he still has 4 bottles lol but i think is having more food now.

Breakfast - Porridge or 1 weetabix with fruit puree - also some sultanas or a biscuit.
Milk an hr or so later, nap

Lunch - half a jar of stage 2 or something i have made myself mashed/lumpy so spoon fed. Little pot fromage frais - spoon fed but got the spoon loaded and him feeding himself today. Fruit of some kind, today it was melon and some sultanas.
Milk - an hr or so later, nap

Dinner - this has been the big change. I now make us something we can all eat together, usually in finger food form so he can grab it himself and feed himself. He has had fishfingers with sweet potato chunks, carrots, sweetcorn and peas. Another dinner he had was roast chicken, roast potatoes, broccoli, carrots, peas, yorkshire pudding. Sometimes he has a pudding afterwards, sometimes he doesn't.
Milk an hr or so later, bed.

This looks good to me And 4 bottles a day is still perfectly fine for his age, ignore that HV, he's still supposed to get most of his calories from formula at this age. Was she maybe confused and thought he was closer to 12 months instead of 9 since it was an 8-12 month appt.? Honestly, that's the only reason what she told you would make any sense to me.

 

[Noodlebear]

Tell your HV to shove off lol. The shop bought food thing pisses me off royally. I know that sometimes I'm gonna get lazy and want chips or a take away etc so rather than giving him a pouch of something that's healthy so I can avoid the kitchen as much as possible for a day I'm going to have to mush up some chinese, yeah?

It's ideal to have babies off their bottles by one (apparently) but I know a few that've had a bed time one a while longer. We're told that all babies develop at their own pace so I don't see why moving them through the different stages of weaning is any different. Mum knows best, trust your gut x

 

[natasha82]

I'm gonna ignore the stupid HV i think. My bubba seems perfectly fine on his meals/snacks and shock horror 4 yes 4 bottles of milk a day lol.

And nope the HV knew exactly how old my LO is because she had his red book in front of her making notes and i was telling her he was 9 months old, and she was telling me how many weeks old he was?

Yeah and i agree sometimes i can't be bothered to cook for myself so we have take away but i cant give him that. So yeah i will give him a jar now and then, it won't harm him. Also it's all well and good saying he should be feeding himself now and yes he can feed himself finger foods really well. But he can't use a spoon properly yet to feed himself baked beans, or his breakfast or porridge or weetabix. I load the spoon for him and sometimes it goes in his mouth or sometimes he flings it about everywhere? So i let him do a couple but you know i don't really wanna spend my whole morning cleaning up porridge off the carpet.

 

[MrsNorthman]

Cant believe your hv said he should be feeding himself, there is no way my little is any were near that, I do give him the spoon sometimes with food on it and he sticks it in his mouth but I think its just to bite his gums on the spoon, I am still giving him his bottle, he can use the sippy cup himself and drinks his water non stop but the way I see it he is still only ten months old, he will have plenty of time to feed himself.

Also I struggle with the dinners as well, he always had a good dinner at about 1 but then I just give him the bed time cereal in the evenings, probably need to re-visit this myself!!

He is still on 3 bottles and day and just loves his bottles!!!

Also I havent really give him meat yet as I'm a bit scared and he has no teeth so I apart from mashing up mince sometimes and fish in his spuds thats about the height of it!!!

x

 

[lilmissdanni]

My hv is a pain in the arse. She takes the Mick big time! My lo refuses point blank to use a cup....he'd rather.go without than use one.I asked her for tips but she basically said it was my fault. My lil fatty still has 4 8oz bottles of follow on milk....one overnight.

She also mentioned the eating as a family thing....rylan.has his tea at 4 and is in bed asleep for 6:15....he will not simply stay awake any longer! I do not want my tea at 4, nor do I want him to have a nap at 6!

He has finger foods for dinner and a full stage 2 jar or homemade equivalent plus pudding at tea plus breakfast and snacks.

He refuses to.hold a spoon....won't even.consider it so unless he has toast, I give it him if it's something that requires a spoon.

I was made to feel an inch tall at that appointment!