Dropping bottles

Hi ladies. Since you all have been there done that I thought you could give me some advice. My girls are 9 months old and I think they're ready to go from 4 bottles to 3 bottles, but I'm not sure the best way to go about doing that. Here's their schedule:

6:30 bottle & breakfast
8:30-9:30 or 10 nap
10:30 bottle
11:30 lunch
12:30-2 or 2:30 nap
2:30 bottle
4:30 dinner
6 bottle & bed

I'm thinking about dropping the 6:30 a.m. bottle because they eat a good amount for breakfast, usually 6-7 oz of food between them. I'm worried though that they'll be hungry and then not nap as well.

Which bottle did you drop first?

TIA.

 

Hi ladies. Since you all have been there done that I thought you could give me some advice. My girls are 9 months old and I think they're ready to go from 4 bottles to 3 bottles, but I'm not sure the best way to go about doing that. Here's their schedule:

6:30 bottle & breakfast
8:30-9:30 or 10 nap
10:30 bottle
11:30 lunch
12:30-2 or 2:30 nap
2:30 bottle
4:30 dinner
6 bottle & bed

I'm thinking about dropping the 6:30 a.m. bottle because they eat a good amount for breakfast, usually 6-7 oz of food between them. I'm worried though that they'll be hungry and then not nap as well.

Which bottle did you drop first?

TIA.

 

Sara: I don't have any advice, since my babes are just reaching the nine month mark next week, but I'm at exactly the same stage, with exactly the same schedule -- EXACTLY! My babies have started to refuse to finish bottles (or refuse them entirely) most of the time.

My thoughts are these (a) decrease the 10:30 and 2:30 bottles amounts, until we merge that into one bottle or (b) combine the 10:30 and 2:30 bottles into one bottle (either at lunchtime or post afternoon nap) or © switch one of the middle of the day bottles to a sippy cup instead.

I don't think we are ready to give up the morning bottle -- I know that I'm usually thirsty when I wake up!

Will be interest to see what advice you get!

40+mom

 

I say drop whichever bottle they are not really drinking.
We were on a similar schedule around 8-9 months, and at that time, I combined the mid-morning and mid-afternoon bottles into one that they had about an hour after lunch. They were only drinking half of each of these bottles, and when I made it just one, they drank the whole thing. Soon after though, I started serving a sippy of formula at lunch, and we were down to just a morning and evening bottle. Now we do a sippy of milk at breakfast and a sippy before bed.
HTH!

 

I agree with PP's.... dropping the morning bottle is hard...i would drop one of the middle 2. I knew mine were ready because they were completely refusing the 3rd bottle before dinner. It was harder to drop the 2nd bottle since one of my girls seemed to need it in order to take her 2nd nap of the day (even though she only took around 2 ounces at that time, she still needed it to nap, go figure). When i cut down from 4 to 3 bottles, i actually gave them their 2nd bottles at different times. One got it before her nap in order to sleep, and the other got it when she woke up from her 2nd nap since she refused it before the nap...bottom line, you need to follow the cues from your kids. If the morning bottle is the hardest one for them to finish, maybe cut that one out because it will be the best for you, and just offer them some formula with breakfast in a sippy or water to quench their thirst. Good luck!

 

Instead of offering a full 8oz bottle, why don't you offer 2 4oz bottles - one when they wake up, one when they lay down.

This is what we do:

10am - wake up, 4oz bottle, breakfast
12 noon - nap, 4 oz bottle
3pm - wake up 4oz bottle lunch
5pm - nap, 4 oz bottle
6pm - wake up, dinner, juice/water
8pm - bathtime, bedtime, ds gets 3oz bottle, dd does not want a bottle at bed time.

They have been doing this since about 13 months
Othewise, they would be drinking TONS of milk!

Emily

 

Thanks for the advice. We went to the doctor today and got home late, so they got dinner at 5 instead of 4 or 4:30. Since it was later I gave them a sippy with dinner with formula, and they both took about 3-4 oz. They went down at 6 like normal and I haven't heard a peep, so I think it might be the bedtime bottle that we drop.

Thanks again