Parenting Forums

Posted: 05 October 2007 at 8:21pm | IP Logged

Hannah's been weaned for a few weeks now and I've got her on 3 meals a day(she's 6 months), thing is I can't figure out when to give her her milk..I am still bf altho am switching to formula over the next few weeks and she's now having one bottle of milk a day, before bed.  She still feeds 3 times (!!) in the night, I am hoping to get that to just one (as a dreamfeed at about 10.30pm) when she goes onto formula fulltime..

so when is the best time to give her milk?  after her food, or in between meals with water or juice at mealtimes? (she just spits both out at the moment), and how many times should she be having milk?  about 4 times including her bedtime bottle?

there just doesn't seem enough hours in the day to fit everything in and have her eat enough food and take enough milk...!  thanks, Greedy

Posted: 06 October 2007 at 12:01am | IP Logged

Kaitlyn is 8 months now. She had weaned by 6 months as well. the only difference is that she is taking formula so i suppose she would drink milk less often than breastmilk. she is eating 3 meals now as well. i give her milk first for the reason, she only drinks 4-5 bottles a day and they are 4-5 oz each only. she barely makes 20 oz a day if shes lucky but she eats 3 meals after a bottle. she takes 2 tblspoons of cereal with fruit mix. fruit or greens lunch. dinner jar chicken mix or dinner entrees..  Im trying to get her milk up a little more..she weighs only fourteen and half pounds at moment.

Posted: 06 October 2007 at 2:37pm | IP Logged

thanks for the advice, I think I'll go with milk first for now and see how that works when she's on formula full time..if I get her onto 4 x 6oz bottles, that should be ok...as she'll be having milk with her cereal anyway...

wow, Kaitlyn is dinky! Hannah was about 18lbs a few weeks ago and she's definitely grown since then, she a lil sumo lol

Posted: 11 October 2007 at 8:00pm | IP Logged

I'm having a nightmare with Seren and giving her milk and solids. I'm sure she isn't getting enough milk but I'm breastfeeding her and she is only feeding from me 3 maybe 4 times a day.

To be honest she is the total opposite of Cerys, which is probably why I'm finding it all very strange. Cerys was on formula by this stage and would eat her food and drink a whole bottle afterwards, plus bottles in between. Cerys was a very hungry baby and to be honest even now if she is playing up it's usually because she's hungry... she'd happily eat constantly if I let her.

With Seren she has only ever had a maximum of 6 feeds from me a day and she's so laid back that she doesn't even cry if she's hungry. If I feed her milk before her solids she won't eat any solids and if I give it to her after her solids then she is sick... so obviously over feeding. We've only just gone onto 3 meals a day as I've taken it slowly with her and she is now 6 months. 

At the moment I'm just trying to give her milk when she first wakes and then a solid breakfast about 2 hours later I then give her another milk feed about 2 hours before lunch, which meant the way things worked out today she ended up with lunch around 3pm... then no milk in the afternoon as there was no time before her dinner. She's just had a bedtime feed and gone to sleep.

She has started to wake a couple of times during the night recently but she also has 3 teeth pushing through all at the same time (again she is not whingy or crying at all with all that going on.. still perfectly happy - she is just waking about 3 times a night). I tried dreamfeeding her as the first thing I thought was that she was waking hungry but even in her sleep she won't take a feed she just turned her head away and carried on snoring.. then she woke 1hour and half later for a feed and every 2 hours after that. Some nights she will feed for quite a while during the night but recently she has only been feeding for about 10 minutes so I'm now thinking it must be a comfort feed because of her teeth. 

I was also going to change to formula when she reached 6 months but because I'm finding the bf so easy with Seren I have decided to carry on.. possibly until she is a year old if things carry on the way they are.