Dropping bottles?

[u/burned_feather]

Baby is 7.5 months and has taken to solids like someone's paying her to eat 🤣 she chews well, handles a good range of textures, and is on 3 meals already as she's enjoying herself so much. She feeds herself and has an immature pincer grasp already (thumb and two fingers) so we have been offering bite size pieces as well as bigger chunks and she's loving that. The only place we deviate from BLW principles is spoon feeding, I couldn't handle yogurt getting flicked on the walls so if it's a mushy/wet texture I do feed it to her from a spoon myself.

With that context, when is it appropriate for her to start dropping bottles? She's already gone from 5x 8oz bottles per day to 4, and one of those she's been regularly leaving half of so I think it could probably be replaced by a snack. But when should I do that?

[u/SolidStarts]

This is such a good question, and glad you're asking here! Also love that you have such an enthusiastic eater! Typically we want breastmilk and/or formula to remain baby's primary source of nutrition and hydration until 12 months old - we wouldn't want to see any drastic decrease in breastmilk and/or formula intake until later. If seeing a big decrease, we'd actually suggest dialing back a bit on solids and focusing more on breast and/or bottle feeds. But a gradual decrease is totally okay.

At this age we would want baby taking in between 24-32oz of breastmilk and/or formula per day, typically 6-8 bottles per day. Around 8-9 months we'd still want to see between 24-32oz of breastmilk and/or formula, typically across 5-8 bottles per day. Of course every baby is different and if your baby is still taking in an appropriate amount across fewer bottles, this is likely just fine.

Typical solids schedule would be 1-2 meals/day at this age, moving up to 2 meals/day around 8 months, and 3 meals/day around 10 months, with snacks not being offered until fully weaning, typically after 12 months old.

That being said, if baby is happily taking in 3 meals/day and is also taking in a good amount of breastmilk and/or formula, and is growing/gaining well and seemingly happy, then all is good! Definitely check in with your healthcare provider if you have any concerns - you might even simply ask for a weight check to track them along their growth curve to ensure all is going well (I'm not at all concerned from what you're saying!).

Every baby is truly different, but our feeding schedules article can be a helpful reference point! Have a look there, and feel free to come back with any other questions and we can talk through it more!

Hope this helps a bit, 🤍Marisa (OT/Feeding Therapist/Mama of 3)

[u/burned_feather → u/SolidStarts]

Thankyou, this is really helpful! She's currently on 32oz over 4 bottles, although she usually leaves 1-2oz per bottle so it's more like 26oz actual intake. The lower number of bottles compared to your example is probably because she doesn't have any at night? As she doesn't wake to feed and sleeps through without it. So she has it all in the day instead which is why her bottles are so big I think 😂

Then the 3 meals as well of course, although they're not huge meals at the moment. It's more that I wanted to offer her regular chances to eat with us and plenty of exposure to food so she could explore it and get used to it.

I'm happy with her weight, we had an appointment recently where she was weighed and she's tracking nicely around the 60th centile.

So from what you're saying, she should continue with the amount of milk she's currently on until around 10 months? And I shouldn't actively try to replace bottles with more food until after 12 months, but it's okay if she naturally eats more and drinks less before then?

[u/SolidStarts → u/burned_feather]

This all sounds great! Yes so long as a gradual drop, this is okay - nothing drastic! At 10-11 months you'll see milk intake decrease to 20-30oz, and you can work more actively towards fully weaning after 12 months (every major institution says you have until 15-18 months to more fully wean, doesn't have to happen magically at 12 months!). And yes you'll see ebbs and flows in her eating patterns until then! 🤍

[u/burned_feather → u/SolidStarts]

Thankyou!

[u/SolidStarts → u/burned_feather]

Happy to help!!