Hi Mamas,
I have no clue where to put this question since it involves so many topics, feel free to move if its wrong. Our 14 mo is completely formula/bottle-fed since 9mo (not by my choice- i was BFAR and she kept rejecting nursing in favor of the bottle, she had done 50/50 since early on in her life,and even with domperidone my meager milk supply could not sustain itself in the face of a nursing strike).
Anyway, that's neither here nor there, it's just some background for the real question. G eats solids pretty well, generally eats a fair amount at breakfast, lunch and dinner, but still requires the same amount of formula each day that she did before she began eating so well. She has a 6 oz bottle usually between 5 and 6 times in a 24 hr period, at 9am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 12am and 4am. That seems like a lot to me to still be eating so much formula even though i know that breastmilk/formula should be her main source of nutrition for the first 2 years of life, I also know that formula does not change nutritionally like breastmilk does so it's an imbalanced nutrient source.
So my first question is, does she really need that much formula or are we giving her comfort in a bottle that would be ok if she was nursing but is too much since it is formula.
My second question is how do I figure out how to nightwean her, even if we just got down to only one bottle at night it would be nice. She is a poor sleeper and lately hasn't been going to sleep until 9:30 despite all best efforts and is getting up at 6:00am (we'd had her on a fabulous schedule of 8pm to 7am with a two hour nap midday for like 3 weeks, it was amazing, but that has all gone away now
). We do co-sleep. I know she isn't getting enough sleep and frankly, neither are we, if we could all get more hrs in a row i think that would help. But she is so busy during the day that she has a hard time sitting down to eat much of her bottles so i think she makes up for it at night.
Gah, I don't know.
I have no clue where to put this question since it involves so many topics, feel free to move if its wrong. Our 14 mo is completely formula/bottle-fed since 9mo (not by my choice- i was BFAR and she kept rejecting nursing in favor of the bottle, she had done 50/50 since early on in her life,and even with domperidone my meager milk supply could not sustain itself in the face of a nursing strike).
Anyway, that's neither here nor there, it's just some background for the real question. G eats solids pretty well, generally eats a fair amount at breakfast, lunch and dinner, but still requires the same amount of formula each day that she did before she began eating so well. She has a 6 oz bottle usually between 5 and 6 times in a 24 hr period, at 9am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 12am and 4am. That seems like a lot to me to still be eating so much formula even though i know that breastmilk/formula should be her main source of nutrition for the first 2 years of life, I also know that formula does not change nutritionally like breastmilk does so it's an imbalanced nutrient source.
So my first question is, does she really need that much formula or are we giving her comfort in a bottle that would be ok if she was nursing but is too much since it is formula.
My second question is how do I figure out how to nightwean her, even if we just got down to only one bottle at night it would be nice. She is a poor sleeper and lately hasn't been going to sleep until 9:30 despite all best efforts and is getting up at 6:00am (we'd had her on a fabulous schedule of 8pm to 7am with a two hour nap midday for like 3 weeks, it was amazing, but that has all gone away now
). We do co-sleep. I know she isn't getting enough sleep and frankly, neither are we, if we could all get more hrs in a row i think that would help. But she is so busy during the day that she has a hard time sitting down to eat much of her bottles so i think she makes up for it at night.Gah, I don't know.
