Feeding Schedule: 12-18m olds

[pinotnoir]

Coming out of the woodwork, trying to post more.. I'd love some insight into what you did/are feeding your 12-18month olds.  DS2 just turned 1 in February, and we are struggling to get him to transition from bottle to sippy cups. He seems to have no problem going from formula to whole milk, but when I try to substitute a sippy for a bottle, he barely drinks anything. This in turn is affecting his night sleeping- causing our once great sleeper to be up multiple times at night. He does great eating table food, but I'm trying to cut back on the amount of whole milk to the 16-24oz amount but he seems hungry. !This is my second baby, but DS1 did not care about this transition- causing me to feel even dumber because I've been through this.

Daily schedule is (approx)
6A: wake, 6-8oz bottle whole milk
6:30A: breakfast (eggs, whole milk yogurt, cottage cheese, ww toast w/ pb, fruit)
9A: AM nap
10-10:30A: 6-8oz bottle whole milk, small snack
noon: lunch (chopped protein, vegs, fruit, etc)
1P: 6-8oz bottle whole milk
1:30-2P: nap
4P: 6-8oz bottle whole milk
5-5:30: dinner (variation like dinner)
7-7:30: 6-8oz bottle whole milk & bed
anywhere between 12:30-2AM- wake up, 8oz bottle whole milk

Appreciate the feedback!

[ilikedonuts]

That's a lot of milk.

DD1 is getting 5 oz of milk in the morning. Breakfast. a snack. lunch. couple snacks. 5 oz of milk and dinner. and maybe a snack before bed. She's 16 months.

It was the same at 12 months except she still got one 5 oz formula bottle before bed. That went away at 13 1/2 months.

[ilikedonuts]

Have you read up on Iron Deficiency Anemia?

[oswin]

We found that DD would fill up on milk if we let her, so she gets a straw cup of milk first thing in the morning and some solids before daycare (then daycare gives a snack of regular solid food not much later). Then for the rest of the day she can have water any time, but she only gets milk after she's had most of her solid meals. She gets meals around 9am, noon, snack at 3:30pm, dinner at 5:30 or 6:00, sometimes she finishes off her dinnertime milk closer to 7 (her bedtime recently got later). No milk overnight, very occasionally she gets water MOTN.

[pinotnoir]

Mar 17, 2015 13:36:45 GMT -5 ilikedonuts said:

Have you read up on Iron Deficiency Anemia?

Yikes- no, but I just did. But reading symptoms (pale skin, tiredness, rapid heartbeat, irritability, loss of appetite, brittle nails, and a sore or swollen tongue) do not describe him. I wonder if it would be worthwhile to some bloodwork to test.

[kitty]

DS is nearly 15 months and this is his schedule:

7:00 wake up nurse
7:30 small breakfast (waffle or eggs or cheerios, fruit) with water
10:00 snack (like cheese and crackers) with water
10:30-11:30 nap
11:45 lunch with 5oz WCM
2:00 snack with 5oz WCM
2:30-3:30 nap
5:00 5oz WCM
6:00 dinner with water
7:30 nurse to sleep

Usually one wakeup, sometimes I nurse him sometimes I don't

So 15oz WCM and 2-3 nursing sessions total.*

*ETA: I don't think he gets a lot while nursing because my supply seems to be dwindling lately.

[pinotnoir]

Mar 17, 2015 13:38:08 GMT -5 @mrswindycity said:

There is a lot of developmental stuff (and teething) happening at 13 months so there is a good chance he's waking up for that and not because he's hungry.

I would definitely decrease the milk, and I would add an afternoon snack. As far as the meals/snacks is he eating until he decides he's done?

At that age my kids were drinking about 2 cups of milk and eating 3 meals and 2 snacks.

Yes, we don't rush at mealtimes, he usually starts shaking his head and throwing food so we know he is done. I think we will try to decrease milk amounts at meal times and drop middle of the day milk for snacks instead.

[Deleted]

Well at 12 months my milk junky was also eating just about ALL the solids.  He tapered off a bit around 18 months but we had a few very hungry months. He still allegedly eats everything in sight at day care but for me he's picky.

At 12-18 months he was in the "older infant" room so here was his weekday schedule:

Wake up at 7: Drink 5 oz of WCM in a sippy. We use Nuk btw, it's the only one he likes.  Maybe have a pouch or some puffs.
Daycare at 8:30: Breakfast - fruit and waffles, toast, eggs, etc.  Another 5 oz milk sippy.
Daycare 11:30 - Lunch varied.  Followed by 5 oz sippy.
Daycare 2:30 - Snack, maybe another sippy.
Home at 5:30 - Dinner varied.  Sippy before bed.
Bedtime at 7 - we went through a few month period in that time where he'd wake up in the MOTN and demand a sippy but we weaned him off of that at 18 months. He still drinks about 20 oz of milk a day, sometimes more.

[pinotnoir]

Mar 17, 2015 13:38:58 GMT -5 oswin said:

We found that DD would fill up on milk if we let her, so she gets a straw cup of milk first thing in the morning and some solids before daycare (then daycare gives a snack of regular solid food not much later). Then for the rest of the day she can have water any time, but she only gets milk after she's had most of her solid meals. She gets meals around 9am, noon, snack at 3:30pm, dinner at 5:30 or 6:00, sometimes she finishes off her dinnertime milk closer to 7 (her bedtime recently got later). No milk overnight, very occasionally she gets water MOTN.

This is a great idea. He doesn't seem to "get" the straw cup but last night with a nuby brand he seemed to get more than a few swallows.

[oswin]

Mar 17, 2015 13:43:46 GMT -5 pinotnoir said:

Mar 17, 2015 13:38:58 GMT -5 oswin said:

We found that DD would fill up on milk if we let her, so she gets a straw cup of milk first thing in the morning and some solids before daycare (then daycare gives a snack of regular solid food not much later). Then for the rest of the day she can have water any time, but she only gets milk after she's had most of her solid meals. She gets meals around 9am, noon, snack at 3:30pm, dinner at 5:30 or 6:00, sometimes she finishes off her dinnertime milk closer to 7 (her bedtime recently got later). No milk overnight, very occasionally she gets water MOTN.

This is a great idea. He doesn't seem to "get" the straw cup but last night with a nuby brand he seemed to get more than a few swallows.

For straw cups I think we started with the Take n Toss ones, which are very easy to drink from because there's no valve, but they also leak and can easily burst open if dropped. Once she had figured out how to suck on straws, we switched to 2 different kinds of Munchkin straw cups which leak less (they still leak a little sometimes but at least they don't burst open) but take a little more effort to drink from because of the anti-leaking valve. DD never had any luck with any leakproof sippy cups because they were too hard to drink from (at least the kind we tried).

[swarley]

I have a 12 month old.

6 am - 5 oz WCM, waffle at home
8 am - 4 oz WCM, breakfast at daycare (grain + fruit)
11 am - 4 oz WCM, lunch at daycare (protein + fruit + veggie)
11:30 - 2 pm - nap
2 pm - sippy of water, snack
6 pm - 5 oz WCM, dinner (what we had the night before + veggie + fruit pouch)

I'm going to have to add another snack in around the time I pick him up at 5 because he just melts down and I can't get dinner on the table fast enough. I've tried to give him his milk early but he just fills up on it and refuses dinner.

Daycare uses the Take and Toss sippys but I have zero patience for those because he throws them and they burst open. He does well with them at daycare though. I bought these and he does well with them at home.

[jeaniebueller]

As far as bottle/sippy transition--first, there is no rule that he *has* to drink out of a sippy, so you could try offering just a regular cup with meals. Second, if you do want to do sippy cups, there will be a transition period where he drinks little liquids until he gets the hang of the sippy cup. With my DS, it took several days for him to get it.

[Deleted]

My girls just turned 1 and this is their schedule:

6am nurse
730 breakfast (ww waffle,coconut butter, fruit, coconut milk yogurt with coconut cream and flax seed)
930 nurse
between 11 and 12 lunch (ww with sunbutter, turkey or chicken etc. Fruit, veggie)
230 nurse
4 nurse and snack
5 dinner (whatever we are eating and usually an extra pouch with coconut cream and flax seed, sometimes baby oatmeal mixed in too, split between them)
7/730 nurse

*girls have allergies so no wcm or dairy. I didn't list their nap times because they are currently all over the place with naps as they attempt to drop to one nap.

My kids still nurse a lot but I'd estimate they are only taking in about 2 to 3oz a session. They usually nurse at least twice at night too.

[booboo173]

My 13.5 month old nurses at 6am (I doubt he is getting much)
Gets about 7 oz of milk at daycare and is offered another 5oz sippy prior to bed though he doesn't always drink it

[vcubergirl]

DS is 17 months and we only give him milk after meals because he was drinking too much of it. He was still drinking quite a lot, so we went to a straw cup right before nap and one right before bed, and only water at meals. We run a relatively late schedule around here:
8:00 wake up, breakfast
10:30 sometimes we have a snack
12:00 lunch
1:30 cup of milk, nap
4:30 snack
6:30 dinner
8:00 cup of milk, bed

[shelbyann]

I'm in the opposite situation (WCM refuser) but I'll play anyway. DD will be 13 months this week. She gets a straw cup with water at all meals and snacks and whenever she grabs for it throughout the day.

7am - wake, nurse

8am - breakfast (eggs, yogurt, fruit, etc)

10am - snack (pouch, fruit, yogurt, or cheese)

11am- nurse

11am to 1pm - nap

1:30pm - lunch (meat, veggie, fruit, avocado, sometimes pasta or toast)

3pm - snack (same as am)

5pm - nurse

7pm - dinner (whatever we are having)

8pm - nurse and bed

On days that I work she gets a bottle of frozen BM before nap, but my stash is almost out so I'm not sure what we will do then. Maybe an extra yogurt snack or something if she still refuses WCM.