Not Getting Enough Formula?

Try widening the hole in the nipple. Take a toothpick and put it into the hole of the nipple. Boil it in water for 5 minutes and AFTER it cools down to room temp, take the toothpick out. I found this to work as a step toward a sip cup.

Both of my children were picky when they were little and getting formula down was quite a battle because neither of them used a bottle after 5 months of age. Believe me, I was blessed beyond belief. Anyhow, we used sippy cups instead. This way when the kiddos were thirsty it was water or formula, it really helped getting in the nutrients they needed. Hope that helps.

Personally I think people try to wean their babies from the bottle too early. At 9 months you shouldn't even be thinking about it, all it's going to cause is a stressed baby. The first 2 years of a child's life they are in the oral stage of development and so sucking on something is perfectly normal for the first 2 years. Your daughter's nutritional needs are more important than whether it's from a bottle or something else. Since breastmilk or formula are the primary source of nutrition, supplemented with finger food, your daughter needs more formula. Just because a baby is growing fine doesn't mean their nutritional needs are met. Look at it this way overweight children often eat unhealthy food filled with fat and empty calories that is why many become Type II diabetic, so obviously even though they are gaining weight they aren't getting the nutrition they need. I say don't worry about the bottle yet and concentrate on giving your daughter plenty of formula throughout the day. I breastfed until 13 months and then my son would have bottles before nap and bedtime and I was so stressed about him not wanting to give up the bottle but by 18-19 months he didn't care about the bottle any more and gave it up himself, no stress, no crying unconsolably. Their only babies once, no need to rush for them to grow up. That's just my opinion.

have you started her using a sippy cup yet? my girls are 6 months old and are just starting. you can give her formula in her sippy cup if she'll take it, and it might make it even easier to get rid of the bottle in a few months. good luck!

I would definately try to switch to the sippy now, but don't force it if she's not ready. Also, if she's getting about 18 oz of formula a day, that sounds pretty good, but if the Dr. is concerned, could you add an oz or 2 per bottle before nap...or maybe give her some during her solid meals? I wouldn't worry too much about it...as long as she's happy and healthy, and getting solids too...although right now, solids should just be for practice and formula should still be their source of nutrition.

Also, once they turn a year, they should still have 16-20 oz of whole milk (per my ped) until they are 2, so if she is still on the bottle at one, it's ok, just switch to whole milk and work on switching to sippys then!

M.,
I would say if you are going to try to give her more formula that you don't necessarily have to give it to her in a bottle. If you are concerned about trying to get rid of the bottle then put it in a cup. I started my daughter on a cup at about 5 months old and she did great with it. Anyway, there is just not necessrily a need to give her a bottle more often.

Do you give her something to drink during the day when she has her other meals? Cause if not then you could give her a cup of formula at these times (not enough for a full bottle; just a few ounces). That would give her a little more formula, and again not having to necessarily give her a bottle.

Hope this helped!
T. :o)

I breastfed my 2nd one for 3 months & he was eating so much I couldn't produce fast enough so I had to start him on formula as well. He was a chunky but funky as a baby, but they say it's like a puppy...you can leave food down all the time, but they will only eat til they are full. I would just let your dd eat what she wants, she'll stop when she's full. Good luck!

Nel

Hi M.,

My son did this at 9 months, he enjoyed his food much more. Our doctor had us keep a sippy cup of formula handy for him throught the day(You can get the slow drip cups). We had to monitor the ounces of formula after awhile because he loved it and we would fill in with filtered water. Needless to say the bottle just dissapeared.

Good luck,
K.

Hi M.,

As a mom, I know how hard it is to be told, your not doing something right. We always want to do the best for our children and at this age, thier not very vocal about thier needs.

I wholeheartinly agree with your pediatrician. Your child should be drinking between 24-32 oz. of formula. This also includes if you are mixing it with her cereal. If you add just extra powder to the cereal and don't mix it according to the dirrections, this could cause damage to the kidneys. There is a reason they tell you the proportions of water to mix with formula.

The reason, if your doctor did not explain is a couple of things....

1. Formula is iron fortified. It may be very difficult to get your child to eat enough iron fortified foods in a day to maintain a good iron level. Babies are born wwith a tramendous amount of iron and have a good level until 4-6 months. At this point we need to start supplimenting the diet. Infant cereal is easy to digest and is chalk full of iron. This is the reason that cereal is offered between 4-6 months. Foods may contain iron but the choices are not typical of a nine month old. A great exception to that would be fe fortified adult cereal. Cherrios is a favorite of most infants this age and up. Other food sources include....Beet greens, chard,chicken, clams, dates, dried apricots, Dried peas and beans, dried prunes or prune juice, eggs, liver sausage, molasses, kidney and liver, oysters, raisins, sardines, scallops, shrimp, spinach, tuna, veal,and wheat germ. Not real great chioces for a nine month old. Some of those should not be even introduced until 1 year old.

Did your pediatrician check the infants iron level? Ususally it is done by a finger stick or heal stick. This number would give your pediatrician a better understanding of how important the formula source is.

Does your infant get any vitamin supplimentation. This would help. However, vitamins from food absorb alot easier and more completely than pills or suppliments. Vitamin c is a major contributer of iron absorbtion. So your child should have 4 but no more than 8oz of 100% fruit juice daily. This helps the iron absorb. However, the body only needs 4 oz. to get 100% nessasary vitamin c for a whole day. So, if your child is not drinking juice, I would introduce it, but limit it, so's not to inhibit formula intake. Your child should also be drinking no more than 8 oz of water a day. The infant does not need the extra water in the diet but too much can be harmful.

I think another major concern for your pediatrician is the fact, when infants are drinking so little formula alot of parents will just switch to whole milk. This can cause an extreme dip in the iron level. Your infant should drink formula until his first birthday. You can introduce whole cows milk in a cup but I would not recommend any earlier than 2 weeks before his birthday. After he has already been introduced to cheese, yogurt, pudding, icecream, ect. and has tolerated them well.

Some suggestions for increasing formula intake. I think offering it in a cup is a great suggestion that has already been made.
Make the formula according to the dirrections dnd make homemade pudding. Instead of adding milk, use premixed formula. Ok, you may not want to eat the pudding but its an easy way to sneak it in.
Always make the formula according to the instrustions!!!! then substitute it for milk in almost any recipe.....pancakes, mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs.... ect.
Offer the formula cool/cold instead of warm. Some infants this age will drink it cold out of the frig.

Try freezing some of the pudding and making pudding pops, feels great on teething gums.
Try making cream based soups w/ formula instead of milk.

I know formula cost alot of money. So, it may have seemed like a good thing that the formula intake had decreased. I would suggest offering the formula as you have been. If you can get 1 more bottle a day, then you won't have to play all these games to increase intake.

Another thing to consider. A person can be a healthy weight or even overweight but malnurished. If all you ate for 30 days was big mac and large fries, 3 meals a day. I bet you would gain alot of weight, but that does not mean you will get all the vitamins you need to keep your body healthy.
I think that was more of the reason for the suggstion of the formmula increase.

Between 9-12 months is also the time where we want to introduce more food into the diet. So, if you are already feeding 3 meals and 2-3 snacks a day then I would suggest instead of the 2-3 snacks (offer small amounts of formula)2-4 oz, to wash the foods down. If the increase of food has caused the decrease of formula intake, then reverse the process. Still, offer the 3 mealls a day, but decrease the snacks.

I hope this helps to understand why the doctor made the suggestion that he had about increasing the formula.
Please, try not to take the suggestion personally. I know how hard it is to except constructive critisism, especially if he only said your child is not drinking enough formula. Increase his inatke. If they don't take the time to explain the reasons, it sounds like something they would just like you to do.

If you have any further questions or would like more info on your childs diet, you can email me a personal message.
WIC is an excellent source of information. Maybe you could look into applying? I have worked for WIC for over 12 years now and thats were I came up with this information.

Last but not least.... do not get over wehlmed by all this info. You know your child the best and if a suggestions has been offered, do not be afraid to say why? Or what if? If you don't agree, get another opinion. just be carefula nd make sure it is a qualified opinion.

H. B.

My daughter was eating sold foods at nine months as well. When I feed her cereal I'd use formula instead of milk or juice. With my doctor it was a calcium and protein thing. My daughter eats yogurt at least once a day. Not the trix or kid friendly labeled stuff. Regular generic fruit yogurt. I'd add rice crispies for grain. That seemed to be enough for her.

M.,

If it were me, I'd scale back a bit on the solid foods and give more formula. Everything I read said that for the first year breastmilk and/or formula is the primary source of nutrition and everything else is just for fun and practice. Breastmilk and formula have around 20 calories per ounce and that is hard to match with baby food. Breastmilk and formula also have the proper combination of nutrition and fluids where baby food may or may not. From what I remember, most babies take about 32 ounces of formula or breastmilk a day so your daughter is taking about half of that. Check out www.kellymom.com and www.askdrsears.com. They are primarily breastfeeding sites but have some info on formula and introducing solids and some other topics.

T.

I tried a sippy cup with my kids, and that worked. So did putting formula in the cereal.

My son took 4 bottles a day up until around one. Then we weaned him off of the bottle,and then cut bak, just switched to a sippy. I would be more concerned about her meeting her nutritional needs than still taking a bottle. And if the doctor was concerned I say give her another bottle a day.
Sounds like she's a beautiful healthy girl! Good luck.

Both of my kids were breast fed and happy with that so I didn't have formula issues however my daughter became anemic when she was about 9 months old - she hated baby food. We had to put iron in her food. I found that both of my kids, as babies, hated baby food (bland)and ate well after they got food seaasoned like most of us like it.

Just hide the formula in her favorite foods.

Good luck!

Try introducing a sippy cup. My kids liked the ones with the soft rubbery spout. My kids are 6, 4, 15 months, and 3 weeks. I am a home health nurse who is staying home with my babies for awhile.
Good Luck,
A. A.

First off what was the reason for the doctor saying your child is not getting enough formula. If she is eating a lot of real food her vitamin intake should be fine, but in order to make the doctor happy, you can always put formula in a sippy cup. There is nothing that says you have to wait until you child is 1 year old to change the way they receive their liquids. Both of my daughters were drinking from sippy cups long before they were a year old. This will also help ease into the transistion from bottle to cup. Good luck. And remember you are mom and you know what is best for your little ones.

Mix her cereal with formula. That way she gets both solid food and formula.

I guess I'm confused as to why he's concerned about the formula intake if she's not underweight? It's obvious that she's adequately nurished... so I'm confused why the formula is an issue.

You can add it to her cereal... that's a great way to add a little.

M.,

You might try switching her over to a sippy cup. My daughter's 7 1/2 months and I have this sippy cup that has three different nipples. One is just like a bottle with a nipple shaped similar to the playtex nipples. Then it has a soft nipple that is shaped like a sippy cup and there's also one shaped like a straw. I've started using it as her water sippy with the bottle-type nipple and she loves it so far. I'm going to try the sippy cup shaped one next and then I'll try the kind of sippy's with straw's and see how she takes to it. You can find them at Wal-mart for around $10 -13 I think. They're the Nubby ones that are fairly cheap but work great. I've had mine for a while so I don't remember what it cost.

Anyways, I would try that first and maybe start giving her the formula in that sippy-bottle and maybe just add a couple of oz per bottle depending on how many bottle's she gets in a day. So feed her around 20 - 22 oz instead and see if that makes iteasier to switch her from the bottle to a sippy cup. You may have to try several sippy cups before you find one that sh'ee like. I suggest finding one that is similar in shape and texture of her nipples on her bottle. It may make it easier for her if they're fairly similar.

Anyways, I hope that helps. Let me know how it turns out.

C. T.

I believe your doctor is wrong. My daughter's ped in California and her new ped in Nevada have both said she should drink 16oz to 24oz per day. And since your daughter is growing just fine, there isn't a problem. Especially since she is also getting solid foods. I don't think you should worry.

If she's not taking to the sippy cups, try a regular cup. It's what we did with our DD and she took to it like a dream. She only uses sippy's for car rides, and for story time at night before bed.

She should still be having the formula. Try a sippy cup (no spill) bottles are hard to get rid of. My first was almost three and a half before I was able to put a stop to that. I made my son's cereal in the morning with formula instead of water. That way I knew he was getting the best nutrition. It's really good that she eats "regular" (hehe) food. My son had a problem with food and had to wait until he was almost sixteen months old. It was a pain but he did better when he was older. It won't be long and she'll be ready for milk. As long as she's healthly I wouldn't worry too much. I hope this helps. Good luck!!

Hi M.
With my children I started offering formula in a sippy cup at every meal to increase the formula intake without increasing the bottle. "Nuby" cups make a great cup with pliable silicon tops that dont spill and are soft for training but don't resemble a nipple. My sons took to them easily at 8 months. Good luck!!