What to give instead of the bottle

[Solitaire]

My son is now 8 months old and it's taken me two months to get him to start taking food. Even now he still only takes abit.

I've got his breakfast sorted. When he gets up he has either porridge or a Weetabix.

I'm not sure what to do when he's hungry again whether to give a bottle or a snack. He usually wants something every two hours.

I'm not sure if I should be trying to stop the bottles or not?

What is best to give as snacks in between meals?

Today so far my son has had a Weetabix made with his milk at 7am,
Porridge made with his milk at 9am.
Some soup with bread in it at 11.10.

Thanks for your help

 

[tristansmum]

What I do is breakfast, mid morning bottle, lunch, mid afternoon bottle, dinner and bedtime bottle. Sometimes I give him a baby biscuit or rice cake as a snack when his brother is having something as he gets upset if we eat in front of him.

 

[biglebowski]

Until lo is 1 year old their main source of nutrition should be milk / formula. I always offered a bottle first, then a meal at least an hour after. I tend to stick to meals and dont really offer snacks but go with whatever suits your lo. My lo's day around 8 mo was like this:
7am - 8oz bottle
8am - brekkie
11am - 6 or 7oz bottle
12 - lunch
2.45 - 6 or 7oz bottle
4.45 - dinner
6.30 - 8 oz bedtime bottle
Times changed depending on wake up time / naps.

He started to drop his mid morning milk intake around 9.5 mo so this was dropped as he was taking less and less. Hes 1 this week and still has 3 bottles a day (bedtime he skmetimes has less if hes ate a good amount at dinner).

 

[biglebowski]

Oh and we did BLW and he didnt start "eating" until around 7.5mo. Hes like a bucket now so dont worry, they start to eat more over time. Your lo sounds like hes doing great.

 

[Solitaire]

Thanks for your advice. I thought I had to stop the bottles.

 

[tristansmum]

They need to have atleast 18oz of milk once on 3 meals a day. My son prob has 20ish. Plus milk in porridge, cheese and yogurt.

 

[Rachel_C]

You can stop using a bottle but you mustn't stop giving milk (formula or breast) until LO is at least a year old (more like 2 years old IMO).

If you're concerned about teeth from using bottles, you can try switching some of his bottles for a cup or free flow beaker or straw cup, but you need to make sure he's still getting the same amount of milk. Some babies won't drink as much from a cup as they would a bottle, so I'd just stick with a bottle in that case.

Ideally, you would keep his milk the same as it was before weaning and add in any snacks around that, if he seems to want something else. At that age, I'd still be giving milk first then food. At maybe 10 months old, you could switch to food first then milk after.

 

[Sarah Lou 80]

Until lo is 1 year old their main source of nutrition should be milk / formula. I always offered a bottle first, then a meal at least an hour after. I tend to stick to meals and dont really offer snacks but go with whatever suits your lo. My lo's day around 8 mo was like this:
7am - 8oz bottle
8am - brekkie
11am - 6 or 7oz bottle
12 - lunch
2.45 - 6 or 7oz bottle
4.45 - dinner
6.30 - 8 oz bedtime bottle
Times changed depending on wake up time / naps.

He started to drop his mid morning milk intake around 9.5 mo so this was dropped as he was taking less and less. Hes 1 this week and still has 3 bottles a day (bedtime he skmetimes has less if hes ate a good amount at dinner).

I could have written this! Just try and go with the flow. Your baby will tell you when they want to drop bottles. My LO dropped the mid morning one first. It can be confusing as one day he would want a bottle bu would take less, and the next day he would flat out refuse it. He's back to having the mid morning bottle now (at 11 months) as he's really suffering with teething pains and isn't eating much so his milk intake has increased.

 

[MindUtopia]

I'd say if he's hungry in between regular mealtimes, I'd still give him a bottle at those times if that's when he'd normally have a bottle. Babies will drop bottles in their own time. One day he just won't be hungry between solid meals and then it will eventually become a pattern and will happen more regularly and then every day. My daughter stopped wanting her 11am (ish) bottle around 8-9 months. So I moved it until after lunch (1pm) and then the bottle she would normally have around 4pm is small and somtimes just a snack.

So her day used to look like:

8am milk
9am breakfast
11am milk
12pm lunch
4pm milk
5pm dinner
7pm milk

Now it looks like:

8am milk
9am breakfast
12pm lunch
1pm milk
4pm small amount of milk (I think she will drop this one soon)
5pm dinner
7pm milk

They'll let you know, but no, there's no reason to force it. They usually pick up the amount of solids they eat around 9-10 months, so you'll likely see a natural shift in things around that time, but there's no rush.