Schedule now that I've introduced solids - Advice Needed!

[ladytiffany24]

Hi ladies...

So I need some advice. DD is doing great with solids. So far we've only been feeding her solids (purees) at dinner time. I'd like to introduce them a 2nd time (and then eventually move to a third of course). I think I most like the idea of adding a meal around lunch time. However, things have gotten a little wonky so here's where I could use some advice.

So, DD's normal feeding schedule goes a little something like this:

Nurse between 5-5:30am before sitter
Booby milk bottle at sitter 8-8:30am
Booby milk bottle at sitter 11-11:30am
Booby milk bottle at sitter 2pm
Booby milk bottle at sitter 4:45pm
Nurse at home around 6:30pm, followed by puree around 6:45-7pm.

So, my issue is that when she has that last bottle at the sitter, she's not always super hungry when I go to nurse her around 6:30pm before I feed her solids. I know I'm supposed to always offer breastmilk first because that's where she gets the majority of her nutrients. So where do you think might be the best time to give her some lunchtime pureed food that might help her to avoid that last feeding at the sitter (the 4:45pm one) so maybe I could just nurse her when I get home around 5:10pm and then feed her the solids at 6:30pm?

Do you think throwing in the puree between the 11 and 2pm feeding would be best? Or should we maybe try to offer it after the 2pm feeding? Thoughts?

If at all possible, I'd like to stick with feeding her dinner (solids) around 6:30-6:45pm because this is the beginning of our bedtime routine.

[hbrockman01]

I think you could do a lunch food (solid puree) around 11am then follow it with a bottle, and readjust the last bottle at the sitters around 3p or 330p. When does she nap? It would be best to fill her up before nap time then she will nap longer (at least that is what they do in daycare - lunch at 11am, nap to follow).

[mrscatfarmer13]

I'm having a hard time remembering what we did at that stage, I'm sorry if this isn't helpful.

I would check with your DCP to see if she has a recommendation about when the solid should be offered. There may be a certain time/feeding where DD seems like she wants more food, that would be a good time to offer solids. Babies do weird things when they are not with mom/dad, so what she does on the weekend with you may be different than through the week with DCP.

How big are the 4 bottles she takes during the day? If DD really doesn't seem interested in solids after any bottles then depending on how much she's drinking while you're away you may be able to play with the oz per a feeding and offer a smaller bottle+solids. Another idea (baby allowing) is to consolidate to 3 bottles and offer 1 meal without a bottle.

If I'm giving bad advice, or it seems I've lost my marbles, please let me know. Like I said I'm having trouble remembering what we did, it's like I just blocked this whole process out, lol.

[JoBub]

We offer purees shortly after bottles. That way if he's not hungry he can refuse the puree rather than the bottle, and he's usually hungry again for another bottle after 3-4 hours. I nurse in the morning, he gets 3 bottles at daycare, with purees shortly after the first 2. His last bottle is at 4, then we do dinner at home around 5:30 and then nurse before bed. I would suggest adding solids after her 11:00 bottle. It might push the 2:00 back a little and end up eliminating the last bottle.

[sstwinklinglites]

What JoBub said.

We FF, but I give an 8 oz bottle first, and follow with solids within the hour. We do three bottles and three meals a day. I started with dinner, then added breakfast, and last was lunch.

[vlagroupie]

Jan 27, 2015 19:51:16 GMT -5 JoBub said:

We offer purees shortly after bottles. That way if he's not hungry he can refuse the puree rather than the bottle, and he's usually hungry again for another bottle after 3-4 hours. I nurse in the morning, he gets 3 bottles at daycare, with purees shortly after the first 2. His last bottle is at 4, then we do dinner at home around 5:30 and then nurse before bed. I would suggest adding solids after her 11:00 bottle. It might push the 2:00 back a little and end up eliminating the last bottle.

This is great advice. We also FF but we always offered purees after a bottle so LO is getting the nutrition needed from the bottle and not the solids. There are more calories in BM or Formula than purees so it would take way more solids to equal the calories.

[ladytiffany24]

Thank you everyone!

I think I'm going to have the sitter offer the solids after her 11am bottle. We'll see if it ends up pushing back the 2pm bottle and eliminating the last bottle of the day at the sitter.

[JoBub]

Another thing we learned:

Be sure to communicate to your sitter the logic behind doing purees after bottles, so if there's ever a day where the routine gets messed up for any reason, she can make a judgement call about meals. Also let her know that you're ok with moving the 2pm bottle back. When we first started with purees at daycare, they were still trying to keep him on the same bottle schedule, and a few times tried to give him a bottle when he wasn't hungry yet and it ended up going to waste. I know it's easiest for them to have a feeding schedule, but after we talked about it, they started waiting until he seemed hungry before they gave him the next bottle and it only took about a week before they had a new schedule that worked.

Also, let the sitter know what you want her to do if she refuses the purees. My LO used to eat anything and everything, but lately has been refusing his lunchtime puree. At first, they threw out the leftovers, and I asked them to save it and I use it for dinner.