How common is this? -- re: feeding babies

[sunnygir1]

I have recently become acquainted with a 7 month old baby.  She gets a bottle of formula in the morning and another in the evening.  Throughout the day she pretty much eats baby food with an occasional bottle.  The baby's doctor apparently thinks this pattern is fine.  I don't know what nighttime is like, maybe she gets bottles in the night?  Is this how most Americans feed their babies?

Now, that seems strange to me, but maybe only because of who I am and where I come from.  My babies (granted, they were premature by 5 weeks) were barely getting a taste of food by that age, and weren't eating mostly food until 10 months to a year.  Even at 12-18 months, they nursed much more than a couple times a day.  We didn't really do purees, though, so maybe they would have eaten a lot more food earlier if I'd helped them get it in more.

Really just curious.

ETA:  I have heard that doctors generally recommend that babes get formula for at least a year before switching to cow's milk(!).  So, I guess it might make sense to reduce by that much at 7 months, but it just seems that she should still be getting mostly milk, not mostly food.

[Knitting Mama]

I think it mostly depends on the baby and the parenting style. At 7 months Cecilia hardly ate anything-- hell, at 12 months she still hardly eats anything-- but I also wasn't pushing it hard. Other people start their babies on solids at 4 months old (or earlier), and so I can see how they'd be eating a lot of baby food at 7 months in that situation, whether I agree with it or not.

[Ginger Bean]

How big are these bottles? So she gets at least 3 or 4 of them? I guess that's... adequate. What kind of food does she eat?

What you describe sounds horrendous to me, but I think it's fairly common. A lot of people start their babies on that rice cereal stuff at 3-4 months old, even putting it in their bottles.

My son is 7 months old. He swallows maybe 1/2 tsp of food a day. :) The rest (feels like a huge amount) goes on his face, his clothes and the floor... BLW is fun though!

[Terrilein]

My little man was starving at 4 months and we started him on solids then. He's almost 9 months now and usually eats 3 meals with us every day. But I still nurse on demand all day and night. I wouldn't feel right if my baby didn't have any milk all day long. It wouldn't bother me a bit if he skipped a solids meal, though. I'd just nurse him! I've just got it in my head that (mama) milk is supposed to be a baby's main source of nutrition for the first 12 months. Everything else is just experimental and simply not as beneficial as milk.

My dd on the other hand was ebf for 10 months and only started regularly eating one "solids" meal per day when she was 18 months and started daycare. I nursed her prior to going to dcp and then nursed her there when I went to pick her up in the afternoon. At that age I didn't pump anymore and therefore didn't send any milk to daycare with her.

So, as far as solids consumption and nursing frequency is concerned, I think you're going to find a very wide variety as being normal. Still, I think it odd that this child is only getting two bottles a day. But I think there must be some details missing.

[MamaofLiam]

Originally Posted by Cecilia's Mama 

I think it mostly depends on the baby and the parenting style. At 7 months Cecilia hardly ate anything-- hell, at 12 months she still hardly eats anything-- but I also wasn't pushing it hard. Other people start their babies on solids at 4 months old (or earlier), and so I can see how they'd be eating a lot of baby food at 7 months in that situation, whether I agree with it or not.

 Even now at 13 months, Liam hardly eats anything some days. We don't push food too hard though. But I think even if we did we'd still have the same result. The times that I have really pushed food (which has only been twice), he adamently refused the food shutting his mouth so hard and crying that we don't push it like that at all anymore. The only thing I have to add is that I think it can come heavily down to the baby and his/her individual personality, as well as the parenting style. Maybe the baby really doesn't like her formula? And prefers food? In our case Liam still prefers breastmilk to food much of the time.

[newmamalizzy]

DD has been formula fed most of her life and at 12 months still has a bottle upon waking in the morning and every 3 hours through the day, with one overnight.  I'll join the "my baby hardly eats any solids" camp, but we started late, don't push it, and purees just didn't work for us.  I think what you describe is more typical of the "scheduled" baby, rather than the on-demand variety, though it still seems very young to only have 2 bottles per day. 

[love4bob]

I haven't breastfed my babies successfully unfortunately although I would have liked to. They were on formula from about 3-4 months on depending on the baby. At 7 months mine were eating 3 8 ounce bottles a day, by choice. They wanted to eat that much. Before they were having 6 ounce and wanting more, so I upped it to 8. I don't push solids either, but most of mine wanted solids around that age. They would reach for it on their own, find ways to get it. lol I don't do purees, so they just ate what they were able to as a solid. My friends baby however, eats less formula at each feeding, and she has more frequent bottles. I think it greatly depends on the baby and what they want to eat.

[NiteNicole]

It depends on the baby and parent.  My ped said no solids before six months and then use common sense and follow her interest (if she wasn't interested, don't worry about it, if she was all over it - go for it!).  My daughter was hardly interested in food till over a year, my niece was just gobbling it up at five and six months and way way reduced how much milk she wanted.  My daughter would try a few bites, my niece would eat whole servings.  I am sure there are people who are ready to get the baby onto food as soon as possible and push it, just like I know there are people who put it off for a long time.  It seems the norm is to follow what the baby wants or shows an interest in.

It's also generational.  I know that not too long ago (ten years, fifteen maybe), moms were encouraged to keep babies on JUST breast milk or formula till a year.  My aunt kept going on and on about how nervous it made her to watch my daughter pick up pieces of banana and feed herself where as to me, if she can pick it up, she can get it in her mouth, she's interested, she can sit - she's ready.

[new2this]

DD gets around 24oz of formula a day sometimes more. She still only drinks 4-6oz at a time anymore then that she she spits it up even though when the bottle is gone she freaks out for a moment. She also gets 6-8oz of solids a day. She was very interested in food around 5 months. The Ped said it was fine just use common sense introduce certain ones and go from there. We do spoon feed but also let her feed herself. Her milk interest hasn't decreased. She just now moved up to 2 solid feedings a day about a month ago. I am sure we could go to three but I still would like her to get  most of her nutrition from the formula. The rest is just for taste, textures and stuff like that and really I just followed her lead. She was grabbing for stuff off our plates and things like that. So we tried it. I wasn't pushy with it and just let her lead. 

[MsFortune]

I think it's very baby and parent specific, but I don't see anything dangerous about that.

DS ate very little solids - was mostly a snacker - until way after his first birthday. He would take a bite or so and then be done.

DD - who is 7 mos - eats solid food all day and always wants more. She will grab my hand with the spoon and push it into her mouth. She loves food. She probably eats three "meals" per day. I try to make it a varied / balanced diet but I don't worry about it too much.

[secondimpression]

Outside of the AP/NP community, I think it's pretty common. I know another mama who did the rice cereal bottles at 2 weeks, started spoon feeding at 3 months and nixed the formula altogether at 6 months with both of her boys. They're both perfectly healthy.

With my DD, we've gone purist on the BLW and not discouraging anything (within reason). She started self-feeding at 4 months and granted, it was only a nibble or two every couple of days but now at 7.5 months, she's very interested in foods (there is *nothing* she doesn't like, even meats!) and self-feeding 6-10 ounces each day. Outside of the self-feeding, she's strictly BFing, no spoons and no bottles (she won't have a part in either). I have noticed though that whenever she has a sudden increase in the amount of solids she's eating, she also has an increase in night nursing. She goes up to 5 hours without nursing during the day now but also no longer STTN. When DS was the same age, he wanted nothing to do with solids beyond a taste here and there.

I agree with other posters that it's really two-pronged; part of it is the baby's temperment and part of it is the parent's attitude (probably the bigger part). And yeah, the number of bottles per day has a lot to do with what size bottles they are.

[sunnygir1]

Thanks for all your responses.  I guess it makes sense that there is a wide range of eating/feeding behavior among parents.  I just thought that most doctors were recommending that babes get mostly breast milk or formula for the first year.

She gets 6-7oz bottles, and her dad said that if she is still hungry/fussy after two containers of baby food he will sometimes make her a 4 oz bottle.  So that is 18oz a day at best -- IF she's not getting a bottle in the night.

Anyway, I was just curious about other experiences.  She seems totally healthy and happy.

[secondimpression]

Originally Posted by sunnygir1 

Thanks for all your responses.  I guess it makes sense that there is a wide range of eating/feeding behavior among parents.  I just thought that most doctors were recommending that babes get mostly breast milk or formula for the first year.

She gets 6-7oz bottles, and her dad said that if she is still hungry/fussy after two containers of baby food he will sometimes make her a 4 oz bottle.  So that is 18oz a day at best -- IF she's not getting a bottle in the night.

Anyway, I was just curious about other experiences.  She seems totally healthy and happy.

Something else just occured to me regarding doctors and their recommendations. If you had a doctor tell you to switch to cow milk at 1 year or wean completely by 2 years, you'd probably just blow them off, right? On the opposite end of the spectrum, the same is true. I haven't run across a pedi that doesn't tell parents not to put rice in bottles and yet still hear lots of parents doing just that.