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Visit with the public health nurse...

812 views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  MorgansMomma 
#1 ·
Morgan had a visit with the health nurse 2 days ago. He had his needle, which went fine and a small 'screening'. He did most of the things fine, out blocks into a cup...picked out a color...clapped his hands, etc.

The nurses eyes went wide-eyed though when I told her that he still drinks 5 bottles of 8 ounces of formula a day. She thinks I am crowding him from eating his solids.

He will eat 1-2 minigo's a day. A slice of cheese, some cheerio's as a snack. He usually eats 2-3 ounces of cereal in the morning, 4-8 ounces of food twice a day. He's "right on" with his growing, meaning he's right on track according to the "charts".

She told me I should also switch to whole milk...but I tried him with it and he'll barely do a sip. He won't take it from his bottle at all.

He's barely a year old (turned one on Tuesday).

Has anyone here had problems getting their babies to drink whole milk? I try to offer some everyday, hoping he'll take to it eventually. Did I wait too long in offering it to him? Am I really crowding out his diet and should I withhold his formula to make him hungry to eat more solids? THAT part to me sounds redicilous but she is making it sound like he'll never eat any solids if I don't start doing that now.

She basically made me feel like I'm totally doing wrong by allowing him to choose when he wants to switch to solids/whole milk and not forcing him to do it.

Will he eventually switch or do I HAVE to make the switch for him??

I'm posting this is both forums to see if I'll have any luck getting any responses. Thank you in advance if you have any advice/guidance to offer.
 
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#2 ·
Hello. You don't have to switch to whole milk if you don't want to. But on the other hand, you can. If you do want to, I'd just try and do so slowly by mixing 2oz. whole milk w/ 6oz. formula, and so on until it's all whole milk.
However, I would probably cut back on the formula at this point to about 3 8oz. bottles per day (24oz.) That way he won't fill up on it as much, and will hopefully eat more food. When you do make the switch to all whole milk you want to make sure that he's not taking any more than that (24oz.) per day, because it could lead to aniemia. hth.
 
#3 ·
well, i would assume you could follow the same path as a breastfeeding mom and offer the table food first and when he finishes with that, then give the bottle.
i don't know that i would push whole milk on such a young child. milk is still pretty hard to digest, and the formula is pre-broken down for them.
 
#4 ·
Well...here is the plan I've devised...

He gets his bottle at 7:30am after he wakes up...his tummy is rumbling so no way I'm getting rid of that one...at 8 he usually get his breakfast...he's always been a good breakfast eater so I'm not worried about weaning him off this morning bottle just yet...

At 10:30 he use to get a bottle...from now on...I'm going to try a mid-morning snack of a yogurt and/or cheese...fruit and juice/water. I'll offer the bottle after that...and if after a few days he seems to not want much of it, I'll cut that one out.

He gets his din-din at noonish usually...now after a few days of not having his 10:30 bottle he may be more hungry at lunch and eat more...

He gets a bottle at 1-1:30 usually and goes down for a nap...I'll continue with that bottle as well.

At 4, instead of a bottle, I will try and mid-evening snack routine again, starting at 3:30. Offer the bottle and if after a few days of not wanting it...I'll cut this one out.

At around 5:30-6 is when he gets his dinner generally so I assume that after not having his 4pm bottle for a few days he'll start to eat more as well...

He'll get his evening bottle at around 8:30...before he goes to bed...

Well...that will cut him down to 3 8 ounce bottles today.

Once he's on this for a while and seems adjusted...maybe I'll start trying to get him into whole milk...
 
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