I would love to transition my 6 month old son to take most of his calories from solid food rather than the bottle. Sippy cups cannot work because they require a child to "suck" and my son has a cleft in his soft palate which means he has no "sucking ability." A sippy cup means it needs to pour out and instead of controlling it by his suck, he needs to control manually.
I have a 6 month old who has had an NG tube - nasal gastric tube for birth (this is a tube that goes through the nose into the stomach). We use this to feed my son. My son was born with a cleft in his soft palate and an underdeveloped jaw (which has now been corrected with surgery). As a result of all this he has always had trouble with feeding from a bottle and even though we use special nipples and bottles to feed him (due to his cleft), he still cannot finish a full meal (5 ounces of breastmilk or formula, 5 times a day). I would really like to get him moved completely to solids (which he loves) and stop with the bottle so that we can stop using the nasal gastric tube.
I am very confused on our transition to solids because everything I have read says that even though he may be eating rice cereal and different fruits and veggies, he still needs his bottle (either breast milk or formula). I am frustrated because I thought we could transition him and get him off the bottle for good. Has anyone out there transitioned there child from bottle to solids at 6-9 months. And by transition, I mean complete change over. thanks for your replies!
Thanks to everyone who replied. My son has been without his NG Tube now for 6 days. We started trying to feed him every 2-3 hours instead of every 4-5 hours to see if he could take smaller feeds more often rather than large feeds less often. This is day 2 of doing this and so far it has been working. He is in a better mood since we are not forcing him to down 6-7 ounces in one sitting. Also, he is eating his 3-4 ounces super fast - about 15 minutes. We use a mead johnson bottle with a preemie nipple that we received from our OT and it is working. Still, this is only day 2 of this new pattern and there are some feeds where he can be difficult, but for the most part, it is going well.
We also plan on trying to add milk into homemade baby food. I tried doing this on Friday of last week but used a jarred babyfood that was already thinned out and so I could only put about an ounce of milk into it before it became too runny. I will try making my own baby food and adding some milk and spoon feeding it to him, since he loves that.
He can eat solids now as much as he wants BUT he still has to have formula till 1 year old. Babies need the liquid nutrition for development and growth up to 1 year. At 1 year he will need full fat cow's milk-full fat for continued brain development. Your doctor should be able to discuss this with you. Best of luck.
My 11 month old also has Pierre Robin. We feed him with the Mead-johnson cleft palate nurser bottle (no n/g tube, luckily). He started eating baby food at 6 months, and while he eats 3 meals a day now of baby food, I am still feeding him over 30 ounces a day of formula/breastmilk by bottle. He just doesn't have enough motor skills yet to drink from a cup (so I understand your issue with the sippy cup pouring out), but he is practicing with cups. Even with his palate repair (done a couple of weeks ago), we are still using the mead-johnson bottle.
As others have replied, they still need lots of volume of formula/breastmilk even past 12 months old...
Most importantly, if you haven't already found out about it, there is a good, active yahoo group for Pierre Robin families.
Good luck!
As frustrating as it sounds, you're going to have to deal with the NG tube for another 6 months :( Babies absolutely NEED the nutrition from breastmilk (or formula if that happens to be your choice) until at least 12 months. Maybe after his 9mo surgery he'll be able to have a sippy cup to make things a little "easier" on you. Have you asked his doctor what else you could try? Hang in there and know that this is only temporary!!!! This too shall pass....
You can get him off the bottle and on to solids, but he still needs the calories and the liquid from formula/breast milk. If he will take it from a cup or sippy, throw the bottle out.
Yes, they do have to continue formula as they get the hang of eating solids and have a diverse enough diet from solids.
My kids were all able to take sippy cups at around 7 mo. Can he drink from a sippy cup, or is that also a problem? If he can, then you can continue formula that way.
You could try a regular cup, but I never had the bandwith to deal with constant spills. And my kids liked to play and walk around with their sippy cups. So, only having a cup in the high chair would have limited their intake of formula significantly.
Good luck!
Yes, he still needs breast milk or formula.
If he really likes rice cereal then you can make it with breast milk or formula but he can't just eat that. If he can drink from a sippy cup or a regular cup then he can get it that way.
Be patient. Before you know it he'll be a year old. It really does go by fast.
