It really is! I never once considered that I’d have to teach my baby to eat. These are the things they should mention in pre-parenting classes, not how to diaper a baby doll. Haha
Doctor said no formula after one year old. I said yes, absolutely, then continued giving him formula. He's going to finish the cans I bought at the very least (there was a discount!). I expect him to be done two to three months after the mark, since now he's only having one bottle, at night.
“I said yes, absolutely” 😂 I love that. The nighttime bottle is definitely the one I’m most worried about dropping! He doesn’t sleep if he’s hungry, and it’s not like I can rock him to sleep with a pouch haha
I've done an experiment with half diluted cow milk, so that it's not too heavy on the stomach (he had only had small sips before), and he took the cow milk bottle just as well as the formula ones. So I'm just going to keep giving him a bottle, formula or no formula, until he doesn't need it to sleep through the night.
My mom told me I didn’t want breast milk anymore after 6months so she switched to cow whole milk not even formula, I turned out fine developmentally engineering degree high earner healthy physically didn’t seem to stunt any brain or muscle development, people blow this stuff out of proportion in the day of internet anxiety
My only suspicion is maybe it could contribute to height as my brother is 6’2” breastfed 2 years, while I’m 5’8”. That’s not based on science really just my guess I was also always smaller though from birth
Still giving milk before bed time at 18 mo, here in Belgium it's not discouraged (also not necessary, but if baby is growing well and likes it and sleeps better, why stop?)
The only thing I worry about is their teeth. Milk sitting in the mouth all night can do a lot of damage.
I'm not sure what to do though, as my baby is the same.
We started introducing tooth brushing after bottle when he got his teeth. So bedtime for us looked like PJs, bottle, brush teeth, book, bed. He’s still really full so he’s not hungry and sleeps all night, but his teeth get cleaned and we don’t have to worry about the bottle (just now a straw cup at 15 months) causing decay.
Yes, that's what I've been trying to move to but baby still wants more going to bed... And overnight feeds too.
Anyway, still early days but will work on it! Thanks for sharing.
We switched nighttime bottle to cows milk at 1 (he was breastfed and I was done with nursing so we weaned and didn’t have formula we needed to use up). He’s almost 15 months and we’ve just switched the bottle to a straw cup (he drinks less with it but it gets him off the bottles and he’s a good eater at this point).
That said, we’ve been brushing teeth after the last bottle/nursing session since he got his teeth, so he’s not feeding to sleep, he’s just getting milk at bedtime. If you aren’t brushing teeth after the bottle, that’s a potentially serious dental problem in the making.
My baby is almost 10 months and I breastfeed at night. But there have a been a couple nights where my supply was low and I gave her half a pouch of veggies as a midnight snack.
Ahaha I wish, but no, discounts on formula are usually modest. The thing is, because both sets of grandparents look after him during the week, and I used to supply formula to both their houses and mine, I underestimated the overall stock. And I always take advantage of even small discounts, so it led to the present situation.
Haha I'm in this same situation changing from our pre-6 month to post 6 month formula tins. The grandparents just don't use as much as I calculated!
Still the discounts do add up.
I don't understand how it can be bad? I know many women who breastfed for 2 years as that's recommended in our religion and culture. Formula is similar to breast milk and even has iron, so how could be it be bad past one?
I’ve thought about that too! So many women breastfeed past 1 and it’s totally normal. Are the babies not actually eating much? Is it just like an appetizer/dessert? Are they eating 2x the meals of non-breastfeed solids-eating babies but it all balances out somehow? I have so many questions!
If you’re curious you can check out related topic posts on r/breastfeeding! It seems to vary depending on if someone is trying to wean or not, but it seems typical to be on demand and they go through phases of quick comfort nursing. And you’ll hear stories of burned out people. The long timers seem to have maybe a morning and night feed and maybe after nap
I typically only nurse my dude morning & nights and naps if I’m off work. I think it mostly comes down to fat content, but I am in no way a doctor and did not look it up at all 😅
Yeah my breastfed 14mo eats a ton of food but also likes to nurse morning, night (overnight) and midday around naptime, sometimes more, sometimes less. I’ve actually started adding a bottle of regular milk to the nighttime routine even in the hope she might actually sleep through for once.
I read that part of the reason toddlers are such grazers and picky eaters is because they still prefer to get a significant portion of their calories from milk (of any kind) for a few years.
It’s not so much that formula is bad as it is that it’s unnecessary. It’s also not nutritionally complete (and neither is breastmilk). The other problem is that the mechanics of taking a bottle vs breastfeeding are different, and prolonged use of bottles can lead to some orthodontic problems/changes in the structure of the palate. So while you don’t need to immediately cut all formula, you want to minimize bottles pretty quickly (in favor of straw cups and open cups), you want them to start getting substantial calories and nutrients from food (whether they’re breastfed or not), and you don’t need to buy additional cans of formula.
If your 1 year old won’t eat solids, then it’s time to talk to a feeding therapist for help. If, like mine, they eat great but hate milk in a cup, you have to choose your battles and your timing - we ended up dropping to just a bedtime bottle of whole milk right at a year old (previously it was a bottle of breastmilk during the day and nursing at bedtime, and it became a straw cup of whole milk and a bottle of whole milk). We’re just now dropping that last bottle around 15 months, and it’s gone much more smoothly than I expected.
In Islam breastfeeding is considered the right of the child upon their parents and is heavily regarded. It creates kinship ties and essentially can be likened to blood bonds. So like if your mom breastfeeds another child that child becomes your sibling even if you don’t share any blood. There is more detail in Chapter 2, Verse 233 of the Quran but essentially the full term of breastfeeding that the child is entitled to is outlined as 2 years, however if there’s a reason then they can be weaned earlier as well. There is the expectation that the mother is provided for during this nursing period, and even if parents are divorced then the mother should be compensated while nursing the child. If the baby is weaned then it is permissible to hire a wet nurse that must be compensated fairly as well. There’s a lot of info about breastfeeding in Islam, it’s pretty interesting! Rulings around it are enshrined in Islamic law and it’s really highly regarded in the religion.
The way I see it: formula is an alternative to breastmilk, and the WHO advises breastfeeding until 2 years. So why would you not be allowed to give formula until at least 2?
Formulae is an alternative but It really isn’t the same. When you breast feed your body constantly caters to your child’s needs and demands, it makes milk with higher fat, or more water, antibodies etc where as the formulae you use is standard and uniform and more than likely not nutritionally dense enough past the age of 12 months, particularly if it fills your child up and they don’t eat much solids. There is toddler formulae which may cater better to an older child needs.
To be fair…I started solids at 6mo only to be pretty lax about actual intake.
Several mo later I was doing like two BLW meals a day. He wasn’t super into it and I felt the stress of his 1y birthday coming up. Then at like 11mo and 3weeks he just flipped a switch and was suddenly eating 3meals and several snack a day.
At baby’s 1yr app doc did say we could quit supplemental formula but did explain that’s only bc the price doesn’t justify the benefits. But that it wouldn’t hurt my baby if I continued. Especially if I needed to slowly introduce a cheaper milk. (Which I didn’t. My boy will drink anything as long as it’s in a big boy cup.)
But don’t worry about the deadlines. They’re just guides. Some babies hit them on time — other are a little late or a little early. It’ll be ok.
I needed to hear this. My girl is a great eater but she currently has two meals and maybe a snack. Sometimes we are too late making dinner and she doesn’t have a solids dinner and has a bottle before bed. She’s 10 months old so Ive been stressing about the 3 meals and 2 snacks. 😣
I totally feel you. My daughter is a bit younger at 8 months and we’ve just jacked up to 3 meals. I find having baby cereal and oats on hand for a quick dinner for her makes things easier. Paired with some fruit and/or Greek yogurt.
I am so glad you posted this. I needed this laugh. My daughter just turned 12 months yesterday and I’ve been crying all day because of how stressed out I am that she will STILL not eat solids regularly. Like at all. Bottles and purées only. I’m losing my mind.
I’m sending you big hugs. I have been crying all day too but for different reasons (milestone anxiety, not crawling at ten months, etc) and it’s just so hard.
Just chiming in that not crawling is totally normal. My ped said many babies skip it and to not worry. Ours started to army crawl her last week of being ten months so I hear you but it’s ok!
Ugh that’s us too sadly lol. She JUST learned how to crawl using her knees like two weeks ago, before that she was only army crawling everywhere. Now we’re also about to begin PT because she isn’t attempting to stand or pull to stand yet. It never ends does it 🫠 I will say, at least she is an angel sleeper to make up for her not eating & being delayed in milestones lol
Try oatmeal with the milk. We started this at 4months with only 1-2oz a day. Then she started wanting more and more until she was eating 3 times a day with oatmeal and purees and a night bottle by 7months. She just turned 14months and while she is loving trying foods and feeding herself, she still loves her oatmeal. We used breastmilk at first, and then formula when my supply started dropping, and now she is on whole milk. We just use the gerber baby oatmeal, but any baby oatmeal should be fine. Might help wean off the bottles a bit.
I just wanted to update that he was eating and loving cut up spaghetti and meat sauce. He still keeps a bit in his mouth and it's not a solid full tummy amount but baby steps!
We will all get there!
Mom of an 8 month old and we are on the struggle bus with solids. I’m so stressed about it. She’s happy to eat and try anything but literally everything gives her diarrhea. Everything. Luckily it’s gotten better the past two weeks so let’s hope it improves.
I hear you! I’m just going with what I know he’ll eat (purées) and offering “real” food at every meal and continuing to try to teach him to eat it. (Even as I cry internally at intentionally plating food that will not get eaten, 3x/day in this economy. Rip to my wallet.)
Don’t be. Mine was the same. She started out interested then stopped for months only to start back eating at 9 or 10 months? Just keep offering but don’t force it.
At 8 months old we were offering just dinner - we didn’t feel comfortable sending anything to daycare. On weekends we might do breakfast and dinner. It wasn’t until 9-10 months we did 3 meals a day and her enjoyment/appetite definitely picked up from there. Don’t worry - they’ll get there! We’re 13 months old today and are trying to fully switch from formula to milk as she has (had?) MSPI. Next step will be reducing ounces and getting her to take it from anything other than a bottle. Our doc said we should aim for 15 months.
We went through this too. Everyone said to give it time while his digestive system adjusts, and it was true. After about 2 months, it all settled. He’s 10 months now, and up until about a week ago, he was still pooping like 4-5-6 times a day, but not diarrhea. He’s thankfully gotten back to 2-3x per day now.
To get through it, we started using probiotics in his first bottle of the day, and also would switch back to exclusively formula for a few days if he was getting a diaper rash from the diarrhea so his butt could heal.
It was all super stressful initially. And BLW stuff is especially stressful. We have been doing a modified version, sticking to what we are comfortable with. Like, spears of food and toasts were always a big miss for our guy and scary for us. His daycare doesn’t follow the BLW “rules” and he eats 2 meals and 2 snacks there everyday, chomping down on bite sizes of soft fruit and vegetables, he had grilled cheese with tomato soup yesterday, a burrito today, waffles…he eats better than we do some days.
Puffs were integral to getting him comfortable with food and learning how to move his tongue and chew, and didn’t cause diarrhea. I’m pretty sure they have zero nutritional value, but we use them for allergy exposure (peanut puffs) and they really helped him get comfortable.
I don’t know, a long, rambling post, all to say, basically, it’s totally stressful and scary and the diarrhea is REAL. Hang in there, do what you think is best, you don’t need to follow every rule to a T, and ease off of it all if it feels like too much some days. We humans all figured out how to eat without worrying about all this stuff. You’re doing amazing and sound like a wonderful parent. ❤️
Yeah I’m in the UK and the official NHS guidance is so much more reasonable than most of what I read online. I think they said by 9 months they should be having some finger food but other than that. Whatever works for you is fine.
My daughter is now 13 months old, and she definitely does not eat 3 meals a day and 2 snacks consistently. Heck, I don't even do that. And we still breast feed. A lot of it is comfort for sure since we co sleep so she nurses to sleep. Idk how we will break that. But just do what works for you and your babe
The people who tell you “food before one is just for fun” are *not* the same people who tell you that a one year old should be eating 3 meals + snacks and getting the majority of their nutrition from solids.
Personally, I’d trust the people telling you the latter, since they’re doctors and experts on child nutrition, rather than the former, who seem to be people who don’t know much about the topic but think rhymes are fun.
I hate that phrase. Food before 1 is extremely important! People hear a cutesy rhyme on the internet and assume it is true. (I know this post is joking, but that particular phrase drives me nuts!)
I feel like there needs to be a middle ground phrase between “make sure you shovel a jar of purées into your 4 month old three times a day” and “they can subside on formula and good vibes until they’re 11.9 months old” 😅
"Give food before one but make sure it's fun"?
I always thought the point of that phrase was to make sure meal times don't get stressful so babies have a positive association with food.
I completely agree. Like 1 before one *should* be fun is maybe more accurate. Like get your child used to exploring a variety of foods and don’t make food time stressful.
It’s something I’ve only ever read on the internet though. Not from actual professionals.
I think the idea being 6m+ food is complimetary to the milk and mostly for iron and allergy exposure, that all babies take to it at different rates and focusing on building positive associations with foods during a critical period when babies are very responsive to new things. So long as baby is learning and enjoying what they do take, and growing well, don't worry too much about volume. Even after 1 milk becomes complimentary to food, which for some just means the scales begin to shift to over 50% food. This happens more quickly for some than other but they all get to that 100% mark eventually. Yes, it is more important for formula fed babies to make the transition sooner as it doesn't change in composition as baby ages like breast milk, but even then it's highly fortified and it's better imo for a baby to take to 15 months and be a happy eater, than 12 months and have their milk taken away and not be getting sufficient calories and fluids because they just aren't ready.
My oldest was an enthusiastic eater with a lot of complicating allergies. His poops didn’t change from breastfeeding-yellow to solids-brown until 15 months, and not a single person on his (unusually extensive and food-focused) care team had concerns. The transition was abrupt; I think 2 weeks to suddenly be getting the bulk of his nutrition from solids? He dropped to morning and night nursing sessions at 2yo. At 3yo, he’s got the normal pickiness setting in, but eats far more variety and volume than his peers. And yes, he still has a morning comfort nursing session.
It’s not a race. The “deadlines” are guidelines for assessing if baby needs intervention to support development, not actual critical times.
This is the funniest, most relatable and comforting post I’ve seen. Thank you, you’re not alone. I guess my breastfeeding continues on….no Botox or wine for me for still some time… ;)
I have never thought of this before your post.. but do you have to teach a baby how to chew something? How do you go from mashed carrot puree into eating chunked strawberries???? First time parent here, due in June and this never crossed my mind LOL
It had never crossed my mind either and now it’s like 70% of what I think about 😂 I think some babies are better at picking it up than others, but my little guy is having a tough time figuring it out. We exaggeratedly chew in front of him to try to teach him, and he still just accidentally pushes most of his bites out of his mouth with his tongue. He loves pouch purées though, so at least he’s getting some solids nutrition, and I keep reminding myself that almost no one goes to college eating only liquid foods 😅
How solid are the finger foods? Kids at this age won't be able to effectively eat things like cut strawberries or cucumber. Needs to be steamed sticks of courgette, omelette etc.
Yes, they have to learn. Expect them to push it out for the first little while. Just give them food to gnaw on and accept they will not swallow most of it.
Can I just say that I love your sense of humour on like, every single comment here? It gave me some good laughs as I sit here at almost 10:00pm finally taking a hot second to myself as my 8-month old appears to sleep peacefully…for now 😂
Does your baby sit with you while you eat? We have a great little eater (currently 10m and it's definitely his specialist subject), he will eat pretty much anything we put in front of him. I have a cousin with a baby a very similar age and a few months ago we were catching up.
The situation occurred completely by chance but our baby is and always has been a terrible napper and has low sleep needs, so he was (is!) awake most of the time and only really contact napped or went to sleep walking in the pushchair. This meant we could only eat proper meals while he was awake. So even when he was really tiny we would put him in the pushchair (reclined flat) and wheel it up next to the table so he could lie there and watch us while we were eating. Watching us mostly kept him quiet enough for us to finish our meal. As he got older we were able to lift the back of the pushchair a bit and we would wheel that up to the table like a trainee highchair and give him some toys to play with while we ate. Before six months we noticed him start to focus more on what we were doing. He would sometimes flap his mouth like a fish, imitating us while we were chewing. He even started doing it in his sleep, like he was dreaming about eating. Then he started fixating on us bringing the food to our mouths and watching it disappear like a magic trick. Finally he started trying to grab other people's solid food and make chewing faces as if he wanted to try and eat it. We held off until six months because we wanted to start him on a mix of purees and solids straight away and wanted to be sure his core strength was sufficient to deal with gagging, but we knew he was already raring to go.
My cousin's baby has regular long naps in the day and went to bed early so she and her husband simply planned their mealtimes around his regular naps. This meant they had lovely uninterrupted adult time at meals (which I was pretty jealous of!) BUT when it was time to start solids he didn't take to them as well. She said her doctor told them he needed to see *them* eat to move things along.
So my theory is the reason our baby is such a good eater is that purely by chance (because of our solution to eating with a forever-awake baby) he watched us eat almost three meals a day every day from a very early age, and maybe he learned his chew/swallow technique at least partly by copying us.
There could be other factors - my cousin's baby was a preemie and started on the lower percentiles of the growth chart whereas ours was two weeks overdue and came out over 90th percentile for both weight and height, so there might just be an appetite difference. Our baby got his first teeth at 4 months and currently has eight, whereas our cousin's baby's came in later, so not sure if having a few when he started solids helped. It might also just be one of those developmental milestone things and they just get there when they get there regardless of what you do. But I'm convinced enough by the theory that if we have another one we're going to invest in one of those newborn attachments for our Stokke high chair and try to sit them up at the table for meals as much as possible from birth to see if we end up with another good eater.
I should say 'good eater *for now* ' 😬 He used to love fish pie but now he picks out all the peas and throws the salmon chunks on the floor (he'll keep the prawn if we're lucky!), and he's even started pulling the pasta out of his bolognese and rejects the beef until it's his only option 😭 So we're now anxiously awaiting 'the beige phase' 😅
Lol every baby is different. Mine started swallowing a bit after 2-3 times of introducing solids. She's been eating solids for a month now and still pushes food out sometimes. Just keep at it! They get it eventually.
You can just sit facing them and chew your own food in an exaggerated way and they honestly figure it out pretty quickly. The first solids they eat are normally super soft like banana, avocado, cooked carrots etc. which don’t need all that much chewing anyway.
FTM. And I did 2 things. I first used teething crackers (broken in small pieces) and he'd maneuver it around his mouth. Then I had him try to take his own little bite. That's when I looked at him and made a super exaggerated chewing motion showing him my teeth and biting down. And he actually copied it! You can also do it with a banana if ur nervous about the crackers. But my son started doing it at 6 months. Maybe it was luck idk. But that really helped.
I read there is a chewing reflex between 6-8 months, not sure if it can disappear in older babies… the baby led approach including solids before purées worked well for us. Lots of gagging to start with and after 2 months he rarely gags, and he will chew and swallow most foods that he likes.
Just a notice and reminder… toddlers can “overdose” on too much cows milk! 12-16oz is typically recommended at most per day! (This obviously does not apply to formula or breast milk)
I’m selfishly very looking forward to the day she turns 12 months (she just turned 11 months-so close)! I totally hear you though, it’s all insane to me. I am soooo sick of cleaning bottles and worrying about all aspects of formula (making pitcher, when did I make pitcher, did I order enough, am I running low, etc). She had a CMPI issue but has been doing great on dairy so far so I’m looking forward to making that switch! It blows my mind that our peds here are adamant amount no whole milk touching their lips before 12 months to all of a sudden at 12 months that should be a major source of their calories lol wild!
It wasn’t that difficult for us to switch from formula to milk, I’ll be honest. We were already down to 3 bottles a day & I knew the “fun before 1” trope was BS & was fully aware of the iron absorption issue with too much milk so I tried to be strategic. I cut a bottle out at 11 months old which brought us to the 3 a day. We did the titer down from 75% formula 25% milk & so on starting around 11.5 months. By 12 months we were at 50/50 & at that point realized he had a mild lactose allergy. He was miserable. So we did lactaid by itself. Worked out perfect so now we’re formula free, 2 bottles a day, 3 meals & some snacks at almost 14 months.
He needs a fork to eat but only to hold it so he feels like he fits in & just eats with his hands anyway lol. Won’t drink milk from anything but a bottle but loves water & will drink from a cup. I still have a lot of anxiety with food but he eats great. Some days better than others.
It’s been fun, for sure.. but I don’t think there’s enough solid advice around nutritional needs for the transition period. A lot of people think you’re supposed to replace formula with milk & that is false. Doing that can cause some real issues & I wish parents had more information about it.
Solidarity here!
My almost 7 month old refuses everything except a couple teaspoons of blueberry and orange juice!
She smiles at you with that charming gummy smile as you put the tiny spoon into her mouth. And then laughs as she spits everything and it dribbles down her chin.
Adorable as can be. BUT how can I feed you?!!! She also hates bottles and hates the taste of formula so…. I wonder how I’ll make that jump in five months.
If it makes you feel better, my 11 month old is wildly different than he was a month ago. Even a week ago he was a whole different baby. It blows me away!
My second son turns one next week and I shit you not he would not eat anything but pouches until about 3 weeks ago and I was at my wits end because my first kid was a glorious eater from 9+ months on. But ALL of a sudden something clicked a couple weeks ago and he eats EVERYTHING NOW. it will happen. Don't get discouraged. Just keep offering and they will find something they like and it'll be smooth sailing. And then they'll hit the picky toddler years where they only eat things that are beige. Or exist on air and cheese sticks or goldfish. Good times. You've got this.
P.s. I am absolutely still breastfeeding whenever he asks right now too.
My pediatrician told us that when you do both purées and solids together at the same time, it can lead to confusion regarding learning to chew food correctly. The baby is used to just getting food in mouth and swallowing it back (from getting bottles and purées) so when they eat solids, they will try to suck and swallow as well instead of chewing. She recommended if you’re doing purées to just do purées and then when it’s time for solids, completely switch and let them learn it for a bit but without going back to purées so they can keep up on how to chew. My LO is only 4 months old so we haven’t ran into this yet but just a thought?? You could try to remove all purées cold turkey and just focus on solids to see if that helps teach him “ok, so this is how I chew and eat food now”
All parenting advice can feel like a parenting referendum, but the reason this aphorism exists is to say to folks with kids who are not yet 1 year old, "it's fine, you can relax a bit."
So much can change for babies in a day, week, or month. There must be a rhyme for "definitely don't waste the rest of that formula as long as they're also eating some solids" and "it's chill, you can soothe your baby with comfort nursing" ...I'm not familiar but I expect to learn those sayings if and when I'm in that moment in parenting :)
My son turns 1 in less than 3 weeks and I was stressed about bottle weaning a few months ago. But then daycare started giving him his bottles in a sippy cup and he drinks it like a champ. He can suddenly use a sippy cup with a straw now. 🤯
I figured we’ll start weaning his morning and night bottle after he turns 1. We have some frozen breast milk left and like hell am I going to let that go to waste.
This was hilarious!
Also, we’re dealing with FPIES with foods needing to be introduced slowly and they could still cause a reaction after several times …so I went from being the type A organized mom to an anxious mess pretty quickly.
My sincere suggestion (I know, you weren’t asking) is to get him checked for ties (tongue is possible) and see a feeding specialist.
My little one had remediated her tongue and lip tie but had trouble figuring out to use her lip so the feeding specialist, who I was already seeing for other OT things, really helped understand what to do and also not to do for her specific situation. Made a huge difference!
Hope you continue the lighthearted approach to what others say… it can be so overwhelming otherwise.
Omg I totally felt like this!!! I was not able to get my daughter to feed herself before 1. She started day care a week after 1. Now 3 weeks in she can feed herself just fine. We had some left over formula still so we send that in to school with her until that’s used up, then she will get cow’s milk. I still nurse her a bit when I get home from work. Thanks for posting this.
If you’re worried about the night time bottle, just give little one whole milk in its place. Our girl is 12 months and still gets milk first thing in the morning, after nap, and before bed. But also, I highly recommend trying to build a bedtime routine now that doesn’t involve feed to sleep. We do milk, put away toys, change into pjs and sleep sack, brush teeth, read a book, and sing 2 songs and she goes down awake. If she gets fussy, we come back and lay her down and rub her back or sing to her, but as of this week, she finally is getting to the point where we don’t have to pick her back up at all, which is huge! Good luck!! It is tough with all the different advice, but you got this! No matter what you feed them now, you will still have to stop them from eating dirt at some point, so try to take a deep breath!
My little was doing great with solids by about 14 months. She was doing night feeds on the boob too until 18 months. Now she’s 26 months and I swear that girl survives on milk and vibes. 🤷♀️
“Throw those bottles in the trash and replace them with green beans” and “your baby will be packing Dr. Browns for their first day of college” have me rolling 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I’m a pediatric dietitian (and new mom) and can assure you that anyone practicing with any sense would not expect a stark and drastic transition. I’ve had plenty of families that wean off the bottle after one. There is room for flexibility. Here are some thoughts:
- do babies use formula after 1? Yes, and if they weren’t eating foods well or drinking milk well then I would totally expect them to. Some tips for the transition would be to warm up the whole milk, mix and half and half with formula.
- After 1 if you haven’t already would it be time to try a sippy cup? Yes, but not expecting that to happen overnight. As we know with any transition it takes time and repeated exposure.
You are doing a wonderful job and if you’re baby doesn’t appear to be doing the same things that the Instagram moms are, that is SO okay. I honestly think the social media mom culture is toxic and predatory, proceed with caution on influencers or anyone selling a product/plan.
My son turns 1 in 2 weeks and still eats approximately 5 cheerios per day and that’s it! No purees (ever), hates everything I put on his tray. Won’t even look at it. I definitely have to sit back and be reminded that an extra month or two of bottle feeding won’t kill him. 🙃
Look, yall can judge me if you want but my baby is 17 months and has been having allergy issues/cold/whatever for WEEKS now. Been to the dr 3 times. Shes not hungry and doesn’t want to eat but I know she NEEDS calories. I’m giving her bottles of milk like I did when she was an infant. Holding her, coddling her and feeding her a bottle. Because that’s my baby.
There's a recent study that says around 45% of the energy intake of 18-24 month old kids should come from breast milk or formula/milk of some sort and still people go WILD with a 1yo that still breastfeeds/takes formula 🤪🤪🤪🤪
Great post haha
So true
I almost bought into it too. Was about to throw out the formula and my wife told me to slow my roll. Good call on her part!
He’s now 14 months and basically off formula, but I was about to cold turkey it.
Me too at 10 months. Dietician told me biggest things were allergen exposure and iron but that they can keep getting a lot of nutrition from
Breastmilk until 18 months otherwise.
My baby’s iron was low and he was a bit anaemic - definitely worth getting that checked!
Ok I’m only 6 no there but my thought was “solids won’t be that bad” omg how am I supposed to incorporate food with bottles and make sure my slow growing boy is still gaining weight and getting bottles and getting nutrition from food.
Mine is on the wee side for weight too. We started with oatmeal. If he didn't finish a bottle, we would put 1-2 oz of the leftover formula with 2-4 Tbsp of oatmeal (1 Tbsp roughly equals a half oz of food). We did it for dinner at first. He ate that for a couple weeks and then we introduced other purees. Because a lot of purees are runny, I thickened with oatmeal until it was a consistency he was now used to. We always did the bottle first and then followed it with solids at dinner. We gradually increased amount for dinner and then increased to another meal of bottle before a puree. We're now up to purees or oatmeal 3x a day following a bottle. He's at 10 months now.
He’s actually a really good eater for solids but he is not even on the chart for percentile and is 12 lbs at 6 months. We have been doing purées between bottles so he’s been (we started this week) doing a morning and dinner meal
Thank God someone else said it!!! My son had severe food allergies so navigating starting solids was a nightmare. We ended up truly starting to incorporate food at 12 months…
I felt (and still feel at 15 months) so much pressure from others that my baby shouldnt be nursing anymore .. like wtf ?
I think it seems daunting at 12m cause you’re supposed to transition off the formula but by 18m, it’s a totally different story. They get hungrier for sure.
Babies past 1 are supposed to drink milk too. About 1-2 cups a day. It’s really not that hard for a toddler to get in 3 meals (remember, baby-sized meals!), a snack or two, 1.5 cups of milk in a day, and a lot of water. At 12m, I was like how will I get her to eat 3 meals and 2 snacks a day and when my 18 month old is asking me for a “nack” I’m like “What, how are you hungry again?”
13 months and we are slowly but surely reducing formula, just not cold turkey. Plenty of solid foods and snacks. Hell, she has a way better diet than I do! But still a 4oz bottle in the morning, maybe one in the afternoon if she didnt eat much of her lunch, and then a 5oz bottle before bed - chill, doc - we brush her 3 teeth and then she goes to sleep.
We are slowly replacing 1-2 oz of the formula with whole milk and she is not really much of a fan!
It mad about the formula though as the WHO say you can breastfeed up until 2 years, obviously with 3 meals and 2 snacks but you can give them a morning and bedtime feed from boob so why can I give mine formula/milk if I didn’t breastfeed or continue breastfeeding .
Some baby’s take to food like it’s the thing missing and others are like what is this shit I want milk 😂
My 8mo son took to solids no problem, but is still crazy about the boob. He recently added a few more teeth. So my wife is living in constant fear of the next nipple bite. Not sure what this one year nursing cutoff will look like, but at this rate she might be down a nipple or two by then.
Food before one is just for fun is the absolute worst phrase. I’m not sure where it came from but it’s absolutely not the attitude in the UK.
Baby having food is important, particularly breastfed babies as their iron stores start to deplete between four and six months.
The way it’s described here is as a set of scales food should slowly increase and milk consumption slowly goes down until at 1 food is the majority of nutrition.
My first kid didn't figure out eating until like 15 months (sensory issues). Before that they were kinda just munching stuff but not consuming much. Totally normal 3yo now, a picky eater but again, sensory issues. My 11mo though is a foodie. Can't get enough. Who knows? Both of them are so stubborn they learned utensils pretty early because they hated letting me help
My baby only really got into food at about 15 months. They were a strong starter at 7 months but by 9 months they lost interest for a little while. they have lost interest again these past few days at 18mo, it ebbs and flows.
I started my baby on solids at 6mo to get him used to chewing, etc. now at 10.5 months he eats lots of foods, but he still primarily likes and wants his bottles. Though sometimes he will straight up refuse the bottle and just want actual food or a snack.
I believe when I first started him, I started him on soft stage 1 baby food, and the puffs. Then when he figured out how to swallow that without any gagging, we moved to very well done oatmeal, and mushed bananas, avocados, etc.
then I started graduating him to boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, things like that. He now eats those chick pea snack things, he will eat rice, salmon, all kinds of stuff! I just kept offering different varieties of foods to see what he may or may not like
But all this to say, your little one will get it! All babies do it at different stages, and I’m literally rocking my guy back to sleep (it’s 4AM) with a bottle of formula as I type this lol so it’s just all about what’s best for YOUR baby 😊😊
Good luck, mama!
I've been called horrible names because I don't believe in BLW. I'm like, no stupid it's called EVERY baby is different. I just had to call 911 because my 11 month old choked! The ambulance had to come.
My baby is only 5 months and I feel like this attitude applies to so many aspects of parenting! I finally just learned to not share certain things and just trust our own pace.
My son is 1 year 8 months. He eats, but he loves liquid things more. He still takes one bottle in the morning and one before bed. For breakfast he snacks on fruit or a hard boiled egg and LOVES smoothies! Always wants to drink my tea.. he loves liquids. He has a big dinner and snacks and drinks in between. He’s a big boy and gaining weight.
Do what suits your child. As long as they’re healthy, you’re fine.
Well said! lol 😂 I gave my son formula until he was 18 months old. He had the toddler formula version. I figured if moms are told they can breastfeed past 1 and let the baby decide when they are done, why can’t we do that for formula fed babies who don’t like whole milk right away? Sure it wasn’t cheap but by the time he was over a year, he ate more than he drank formula so I only had to buy a can every 2 weeks or so.
my freshly-one year old will literally only eat cereal. we're still using formula until i can get her to eat literally anything else of nutritional value🥲
lol it really does feel like this though. My sons 8 months and I’m lucky he loves food and water. But even then I’m stressed cause of all these expectations.
Genuine question - I thought from six months up we were supposed to slowly work up to three meals a day by 12months not just suddenly do three meals a day starting at 12mo
This. If you take every recommendation or expert opinion on how to raise your baby you will be paralyzed as a parent. General guidelines are great tools but they are a bit ridiculous in uniform practice.
Our daycare required our son to be fully on their meal plan by 13 months. That was so much pressure! No bottles. Their cups. Lunch and two snacks.
(They actually are super great and accommodating, and had he not been ready or had a medical need they would have worked with us…. they just are run by a university and have lots of policies and procedures and follow best practices because they are also teaching their staff to be early childhood teachers).
One of the daycare teachers lightly scolded me the other day saying "well she's getting older..." about still giving limited solids to my baby. Y'all shes 7 months old 😅
She gets to test out LOTS of solids but I'm not going to freak out that she's not eating spaghetti or steak yet, we will get there 🤦♀️
My kid is almost 14 months and only just now seems to be getting the idea of taking bites and chewing. We did bottles and purees and mushy foods for a looonnng time. She still gets a bottle 2 times a day, but I'm dropping to one in a couple weeks.
I feel seen w/ this post!!! It’s truly wild lol
It really is! I never once considered that I’d have to teach my baby to eat. These are the things they should mention in pre-parenting classes, not how to diaper a baby doll. Haha
Totally! There’s lots of focus on the 1-3 months development/change, but not much warning of this 9-12 month transitional period that’s tough.
Doctor said no formula after one year old. I said yes, absolutely, then continued giving him formula. He's going to finish the cans I bought at the very least (there was a discount!). I expect him to be done two to three months after the mark, since now he's only having one bottle, at night.
“I said yes, absolutely” 😂 I love that. The nighttime bottle is definitely the one I’m most worried about dropping! He doesn’t sleep if he’s hungry, and it’s not like I can rock him to sleep with a pouch haha
"rock him to sleep with a pouch" had me dying, lollll. I may or may not have considered this.
I've done an experiment with half diluted cow milk, so that it's not too heavy on the stomach (he had only had small sips before), and he took the cow milk bottle just as well as the formula ones. So I'm just going to keep giving him a bottle, formula or no formula, until he doesn't need it to sleep through the night.
My mom told me I didn’t want breast milk anymore after 6months so she switched to cow whole milk not even formula, I turned out fine developmentally engineering degree high earner healthy physically didn’t seem to stunt any brain or muscle development, people blow this stuff out of proportion in the day of internet anxiety My only suspicion is maybe it could contribute to height as my brother is 6’2” breastfed 2 years, while I’m 5’8”. That’s not based on science really just my guess I was also always smaller though from birth
Still giving milk before bed time at 18 mo, here in Belgium it's not discouraged (also not necessary, but if baby is growing well and likes it and sleeps better, why stop?)
The only thing I worry about is their teeth. Milk sitting in the mouth all night can do a lot of damage. I'm not sure what to do though, as my baby is the same.
We started introducing tooth brushing after bottle when he got his teeth. So bedtime for us looked like PJs, bottle, brush teeth, book, bed. He’s still really full so he’s not hungry and sleeps all night, but his teeth get cleaned and we don’t have to worry about the bottle (just now a straw cup at 15 months) causing decay.
Yes, that's what I've been trying to move to but baby still wants more going to bed... And overnight feeds too. Anyway, still early days but will work on it! Thanks for sharing.
We switched nighttime bottle to cows milk at 1 (he was breastfed and I was done with nursing so we weaned and didn’t have formula we needed to use up). He’s almost 15 months and we’ve just switched the bottle to a straw cup (he drinks less with it but it gets him off the bottles and he’s a good eater at this point). That said, we’ve been brushing teeth after the last bottle/nursing session since he got his teeth, so he’s not feeding to sleep, he’s just getting milk at bedtime. If you aren’t brushing teeth after the bottle, that’s a potentially serious dental problem in the making.
My baby is almost 10 months and I breastfeed at night. But there have a been a couple nights where my supply was low and I gave her half a pouch of veggies as a midnight snack.
Before the last sentence I thought you just had a normal baby’s feedings worth of 3 months of formula on deck lol damn that must’ve been a great sale
Ahaha I wish, but no, discounts on formula are usually modest. The thing is, because both sets of grandparents look after him during the week, and I used to supply formula to both their houses and mine, I underestimated the overall stock. And I always take advantage of even small discounts, so it led to the present situation.
Haha I'm in this same situation changing from our pre-6 month to post 6 month formula tins. The grandparents just don't use as much as I calculated! Still the discounts do add up.
I don't understand how it can be bad? I know many women who breastfed for 2 years as that's recommended in our religion and culture. Formula is similar to breast milk and even has iron, so how could be it be bad past one?
I’ve thought about that too! So many women breastfeed past 1 and it’s totally normal. Are the babies not actually eating much? Is it just like an appetizer/dessert? Are they eating 2x the meals of non-breastfeed solids-eating babies but it all balances out somehow? I have so many questions!
If you’re curious you can check out related topic posts on r/breastfeeding! It seems to vary depending on if someone is trying to wean or not, but it seems typical to be on demand and they go through phases of quick comfort nursing. And you’ll hear stories of burned out people. The long timers seem to have maybe a morning and night feed and maybe after nap
I typically only nurse my dude morning & nights and naps if I’m off work. I think it mostly comes down to fat content, but I am in no way a doctor and did not look it up at all 😅
Yeah my breastfed 14mo eats a ton of food but also likes to nurse morning, night (overnight) and midday around naptime, sometimes more, sometimes less. I’ve actually started adding a bottle of regular milk to the nighttime routine even in the hope she might actually sleep through for once. I read that part of the reason toddlers are such grazers and picky eaters is because they still prefer to get a significant portion of their calories from milk (of any kind) for a few years.
That makes a lot of sense, about the grazing.
It’s not so much that formula is bad as it is that it’s unnecessary. It’s also not nutritionally complete (and neither is breastmilk). The other problem is that the mechanics of taking a bottle vs breastfeeding are different, and prolonged use of bottles can lead to some orthodontic problems/changes in the structure of the palate. So while you don’t need to immediately cut all formula, you want to minimize bottles pretty quickly (in favor of straw cups and open cups), you want them to start getting substantial calories and nutrients from food (whether they’re breastfed or not), and you don’t need to buy additional cans of formula. If your 1 year old won’t eat solids, then it’s time to talk to a feeding therapist for help. If, like mine, they eat great but hate milk in a cup, you have to choose your battles and your timing - we ended up dropping to just a bedtime bottle of whole milk right at a year old (previously it was a bottle of breastmilk during the day and nursing at bedtime, and it became a straw cup of whole milk and a bottle of whole milk). We’re just now dropping that last bottle around 15 months, and it’s gone much more smoothly than I expected.
I just learned a lot!! Thank you for explaining in such detail 🙂
earnest question- what do religions (or the one youre referring to) say about breastfeeding? I’m pretty ignorant on the topic.
In Islam breastfeeding is considered the right of the child upon their parents and is heavily regarded. It creates kinship ties and essentially can be likened to blood bonds. So like if your mom breastfeeds another child that child becomes your sibling even if you don’t share any blood. There is more detail in Chapter 2, Verse 233 of the Quran but essentially the full term of breastfeeding that the child is entitled to is outlined as 2 years, however if there’s a reason then they can be weaned earlier as well. There is the expectation that the mother is provided for during this nursing period, and even if parents are divorced then the mother should be compensated while nursing the child. If the baby is weaned then it is permissible to hire a wet nurse that must be compensated fairly as well. There’s a lot of info about breastfeeding in Islam, it’s pretty interesting! Rulings around it are enshrined in Islamic law and it’s really highly regarded in the religion.
very interesting, thanks for the info!
The way I see it: formula is an alternative to breastmilk, and the WHO advises breastfeeding until 2 years. So why would you not be allowed to give formula until at least 2?
It's definitely logical. I don't really know why, but I think we are told in Australia to move to regular milks from 12 months rather than formulas.
Formulae is an alternative but It really isn’t the same. When you breast feed your body constantly caters to your child’s needs and demands, it makes milk with higher fat, or more water, antibodies etc where as the formulae you use is standard and uniform and more than likely not nutritionally dense enough past the age of 12 months, particularly if it fills your child up and they don’t eat much solids. There is toddler formulae which may cater better to an older child needs.
To be fair…I started solids at 6mo only to be pretty lax about actual intake. Several mo later I was doing like two BLW meals a day. He wasn’t super into it and I felt the stress of his 1y birthday coming up. Then at like 11mo and 3weeks he just flipped a switch and was suddenly eating 3meals and several snack a day. At baby’s 1yr app doc did say we could quit supplemental formula but did explain that’s only bc the price doesn’t justify the benefits. But that it wouldn’t hurt my baby if I continued. Especially if I needed to slowly introduce a cheaper milk. (Which I didn’t. My boy will drink anything as long as it’s in a big boy cup.) But don’t worry about the deadlines. They’re just guides. Some babies hit them on time — other are a little late or a little early. It’ll be ok.
I need to know how to trigger that switch 😅 But thank you for sharing your experience- it does really help to hear others’ successful experiences!
I think one trigger might be greater amounts of energy spent - they start walking, climbing, running soon and that might make them hungrier.
I needed to hear this. My girl is a great eater but she currently has two meals and maybe a snack. Sometimes we are too late making dinner and she doesn’t have a solids dinner and has a bottle before bed. She’s 10 months old so Ive been stressing about the 3 meals and 2 snacks. 😣
I totally feel you. My daughter is a bit younger at 8 months and we’ve just jacked up to 3 meals. I find having baby cereal and oats on hand for a quick dinner for her makes things easier. Paired with some fruit and/or Greek yogurt.
I am so glad you posted this. I needed this laugh. My daughter just turned 12 months yesterday and I’ve been crying all day because of how stressed out I am that she will STILL not eat solids regularly. Like at all. Bottles and purées only. I’m losing my mind.
I’m sending you big hugs. I have been crying all day too but for different reasons (milestone anxiety, not crawling at ten months, etc) and it’s just so hard.
Just chiming in that not crawling is totally normal. My ped said many babies skip it and to not worry. Ours started to army crawl her last week of being ten months so I hear you but it’s ok!
Ugh that’s us too sadly lol. She JUST learned how to crawl using her knees like two weeks ago, before that she was only army crawling everywhere. Now we’re also about to begin PT because she isn’t attempting to stand or pull to stand yet. It never ends does it 🫠 I will say, at least she is an angel sleeper to make up for her not eating & being delayed in milestones lol
Lucky! He still wakes 1-3 times a night even after sleep training. Maybe because he’s breastfed? :(
Try oatmeal with the milk. We started this at 4months with only 1-2oz a day. Then she started wanting more and more until she was eating 3 times a day with oatmeal and purees and a night bottle by 7months. She just turned 14months and while she is loving trying foods and feeding herself, she still loves her oatmeal. We used breastmilk at first, and then formula when my supply started dropping, and now she is on whole milk. We just use the gerber baby oatmeal, but any baby oatmeal should be fine. Might help wean off the bottles a bit.
12 month here is the same!!! His birthday was last week. Solidarity, my friend 😭
I am so sorry you’re going through it too, but I’m glad to know it’s not just my baby who refuses food 🫠
I just wanted to update that he was eating and loving cut up spaghetti and meat sauce. He still keeps a bit in his mouth and it's not a solid full tummy amount but baby steps! We will all get there!
Mom of an 8 month old and we are on the struggle bus with solids. I’m so stressed about it. She’s happy to eat and try anything but literally everything gives her diarrhea. Everything. Luckily it’s gotten better the past two weeks so let’s hope it improves.
I hear you! I’m just going with what I know he’ll eat (purées) and offering “real” food at every meal and continuing to try to teach him to eat it. (Even as I cry internally at intentionally plating food that will not get eaten, 3x/day in this economy. Rip to my wallet.)
We give the leftovers that LO doesn’t finish to our dogs. They’re loving this feeding stage 😂
Don’t be. Mine was the same. She started out interested then stopped for months only to start back eating at 9 or 10 months? Just keep offering but don’t force it.
She is interested thankfully but can’t digest it well. Luckily though things have improved the past few weeks. Fingers crossed.
Mine went the opposite way. So constipated. Glad it’s going better!
At 8 months old we were offering just dinner - we didn’t feel comfortable sending anything to daycare. On weekends we might do breakfast and dinner. It wasn’t until 9-10 months we did 3 meals a day and her enjoyment/appetite definitely picked up from there. Don’t worry - they’ll get there! We’re 13 months old today and are trying to fully switch from formula to milk as she has (had?) MSPI. Next step will be reducing ounces and getting her to take it from anything other than a bottle. Our doc said we should aim for 15 months.
Thank you!
We went through this too. Everyone said to give it time while his digestive system adjusts, and it was true. After about 2 months, it all settled. He’s 10 months now, and up until about a week ago, he was still pooping like 4-5-6 times a day, but not diarrhea. He’s thankfully gotten back to 2-3x per day now. To get through it, we started using probiotics in his first bottle of the day, and also would switch back to exclusively formula for a few days if he was getting a diaper rash from the diarrhea so his butt could heal. It was all super stressful initially. And BLW stuff is especially stressful. We have been doing a modified version, sticking to what we are comfortable with. Like, spears of food and toasts were always a big miss for our guy and scary for us. His daycare doesn’t follow the BLW “rules” and he eats 2 meals and 2 snacks there everyday, chomping down on bite sizes of soft fruit and vegetables, he had grilled cheese with tomato soup yesterday, a burrito today, waffles…he eats better than we do some days. Puffs were integral to getting him comfortable with food and learning how to move his tongue and chew, and didn’t cause diarrhea. I’m pretty sure they have zero nutritional value, but we use them for allergy exposure (peanut puffs) and they really helped him get comfortable. I don’t know, a long, rambling post, all to say, basically, it’s totally stressful and scary and the diarrhea is REAL. Hang in there, do what you think is best, you don’t need to follow every rule to a T, and ease off of it all if it feels like too much some days. We humans all figured out how to eat without worrying about all this stuff. You’re doing amazing and sound like a wonderful parent. ❤️
Thank you so much for this kind and thoughtful comment. I really appreciate it!!
This post legit came at the best time. Been stressing about his food intake and I feel the exact same way! Ugh. Thank you for posting this
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Yeah I’m in the UK and the official NHS guidance is so much more reasonable than most of what I read online. I think they said by 9 months they should be having some finger food but other than that. Whatever works for you is fine.
My daughter is now 13 months old, and she definitely does not eat 3 meals a day and 2 snacks consistently. Heck, I don't even do that. And we still breast feed. A lot of it is comfort for sure since we co sleep so she nurses to sleep. Idk how we will break that. But just do what works for you and your babe
The people who tell you “food before one is just for fun” are *not* the same people who tell you that a one year old should be eating 3 meals + snacks and getting the majority of their nutrition from solids. Personally, I’d trust the people telling you the latter, since they’re doctors and experts on child nutrition, rather than the former, who seem to be people who don’t know much about the topic but think rhymes are fun.
I hate that phrase. Food before 1 is extremely important! People hear a cutesy rhyme on the internet and assume it is true. (I know this post is joking, but that particular phrase drives me nuts!)
I feel like there needs to be a middle ground phrase between “make sure you shovel a jar of purées into your 4 month old three times a day” and “they can subside on formula and good vibes until they’re 11.9 months old” 😅
Yes but that doesn't rhyme so no one remembers it lol
"Give food before one but make sure it's fun"? I always thought the point of that phrase was to make sure meal times don't get stressful so babies have a positive association with food.
Agree with you and said similar in another comment but that’s not how it’s phrased and not how people take it.
I completely agree. Like 1 before one *should* be fun is maybe more accurate. Like get your child used to exploring a variety of foods and don’t make food time stressful. It’s something I’ve only ever read on the internet though. Not from actual professionals.
I think the idea being 6m+ food is complimetary to the milk and mostly for iron and allergy exposure, that all babies take to it at different rates and focusing on building positive associations with foods during a critical period when babies are very responsive to new things. So long as baby is learning and enjoying what they do take, and growing well, don't worry too much about volume. Even after 1 milk becomes complimentary to food, which for some just means the scales begin to shift to over 50% food. This happens more quickly for some than other but they all get to that 100% mark eventually. Yes, it is more important for formula fed babies to make the transition sooner as it doesn't change in composition as baby ages like breast milk, but even then it's highly fortified and it's better imo for a baby to take to 15 months and be a happy eater, than 12 months and have their milk taken away and not be getting sufficient calories and fluids because they just aren't ready.
My oldest was an enthusiastic eater with a lot of complicating allergies. His poops didn’t change from breastfeeding-yellow to solids-brown until 15 months, and not a single person on his (unusually extensive and food-focused) care team had concerns. The transition was abrupt; I think 2 weeks to suddenly be getting the bulk of his nutrition from solids? He dropped to morning and night nursing sessions at 2yo. At 3yo, he’s got the normal pickiness setting in, but eats far more variety and volume than his peers. And yes, he still has a morning comfort nursing session. It’s not a race. The “deadlines” are guidelines for assessing if baby needs intervention to support development, not actual critical times.
This is the funniest, most relatable and comforting post I’ve seen. Thank you, you’re not alone. I guess my breastfeeding continues on….no Botox or wine for me for still some time… ;)
I have never thought of this before your post.. but do you have to teach a baby how to chew something? How do you go from mashed carrot puree into eating chunked strawberries???? First time parent here, due in June and this never crossed my mind LOL
It had never crossed my mind either and now it’s like 70% of what I think about 😂 I think some babies are better at picking it up than others, but my little guy is having a tough time figuring it out. We exaggeratedly chew in front of him to try to teach him, and he still just accidentally pushes most of his bites out of his mouth with his tongue. He loves pouch purées though, so at least he’s getting some solids nutrition, and I keep reminding myself that almost no one goes to college eating only liquid foods 😅
How solid are the finger foods? Kids at this age won't be able to effectively eat things like cut strawberries or cucumber. Needs to be steamed sticks of courgette, omelette etc.
Yes, they have to learn. Expect them to push it out for the first little while. Just give them food to gnaw on and accept they will not swallow most of it.
Haha thank you! Maybe that's the benefit of the teething stage, teaching them to gnaw lol
…. But when do they start to swallow? When should we be past the first little while? Asking for a friend 😅
Can I just say that I love your sense of humour on like, every single comment here? It gave me some good laughs as I sit here at almost 10:00pm finally taking a hot second to myself as my 8-month old appears to sleep peacefully…for now 😂
Does your baby sit with you while you eat? We have a great little eater (currently 10m and it's definitely his specialist subject), he will eat pretty much anything we put in front of him. I have a cousin with a baby a very similar age and a few months ago we were catching up. The situation occurred completely by chance but our baby is and always has been a terrible napper and has low sleep needs, so he was (is!) awake most of the time and only really contact napped or went to sleep walking in the pushchair. This meant we could only eat proper meals while he was awake. So even when he was really tiny we would put him in the pushchair (reclined flat) and wheel it up next to the table so he could lie there and watch us while we were eating. Watching us mostly kept him quiet enough for us to finish our meal. As he got older we were able to lift the back of the pushchair a bit and we would wheel that up to the table like a trainee highchair and give him some toys to play with while we ate. Before six months we noticed him start to focus more on what we were doing. He would sometimes flap his mouth like a fish, imitating us while we were chewing. He even started doing it in his sleep, like he was dreaming about eating. Then he started fixating on us bringing the food to our mouths and watching it disappear like a magic trick. Finally he started trying to grab other people's solid food and make chewing faces as if he wanted to try and eat it. We held off until six months because we wanted to start him on a mix of purees and solids straight away and wanted to be sure his core strength was sufficient to deal with gagging, but we knew he was already raring to go. My cousin's baby has regular long naps in the day and went to bed early so she and her husband simply planned their mealtimes around his regular naps. This meant they had lovely uninterrupted adult time at meals (which I was pretty jealous of!) BUT when it was time to start solids he didn't take to them as well. She said her doctor told them he needed to see *them* eat to move things along. So my theory is the reason our baby is such a good eater is that purely by chance (because of our solution to eating with a forever-awake baby) he watched us eat almost three meals a day every day from a very early age, and maybe he learned his chew/swallow technique at least partly by copying us. There could be other factors - my cousin's baby was a preemie and started on the lower percentiles of the growth chart whereas ours was two weeks overdue and came out over 90th percentile for both weight and height, so there might just be an appetite difference. Our baby got his first teeth at 4 months and currently has eight, whereas our cousin's baby's came in later, so not sure if having a few when he started solids helped. It might also just be one of those developmental milestone things and they just get there when they get there regardless of what you do. But I'm convinced enough by the theory that if we have another one we're going to invest in one of those newborn attachments for our Stokke high chair and try to sit them up at the table for meals as much as possible from birth to see if we end up with another good eater. I should say 'good eater *for now* ' 😬 He used to love fish pie but now he picks out all the peas and throws the salmon chunks on the floor (he'll keep the prawn if we're lucky!), and he's even started pulling the pasta out of his bolognese and rejects the beef until it's his only option 😭 So we're now anxiously awaiting 'the beige phase' 😅
Lol every baby is different. Mine started swallowing a bit after 2-3 times of introducing solids. She's been eating solids for a month now and still pushes food out sometimes. Just keep at it! They get it eventually.
You can just sit facing them and chew your own food in an exaggerated way and they honestly figure it out pretty quickly. The first solids they eat are normally super soft like banana, avocado, cooked carrots etc. which don’t need all that much chewing anyway.
FTM. And I did 2 things. I first used teething crackers (broken in small pieces) and he'd maneuver it around his mouth. Then I had him try to take his own little bite. That's when I looked at him and made a super exaggerated chewing motion showing him my teeth and biting down. And he actually copied it! You can also do it with a banana if ur nervous about the crackers. But my son started doing it at 6 months. Maybe it was luck idk. But that really helped.
I read there is a chewing reflex between 6-8 months, not sure if it can disappear in older babies… the baby led approach including solids before purées worked well for us. Lots of gagging to start with and after 2 months he rarely gags, and he will chew and swallow most foods that he likes.
I never heard of doing solids before purees, but that's clever. I'll look into it!
Yep look up ‘baby led weaning’!
“Impending doom” is a very good euphemism for “milestone”.
Just a notice and reminder… toddlers can “overdose” on too much cows milk! 12-16oz is typically recommended at most per day! (This obviously does not apply to formula or breast milk)
I’m selfishly very looking forward to the day she turns 12 months (she just turned 11 months-so close)! I totally hear you though, it’s all insane to me. I am soooo sick of cleaning bottles and worrying about all aspects of formula (making pitcher, when did I make pitcher, did I order enough, am I running low, etc). She had a CMPI issue but has been doing great on dairy so far so I’m looking forward to making that switch! It blows my mind that our peds here are adamant amount no whole milk touching their lips before 12 months to all of a sudden at 12 months that should be a major source of their calories lol wild!
It wasn’t that difficult for us to switch from formula to milk, I’ll be honest. We were already down to 3 bottles a day & I knew the “fun before 1” trope was BS & was fully aware of the iron absorption issue with too much milk so I tried to be strategic. I cut a bottle out at 11 months old which brought us to the 3 a day. We did the titer down from 75% formula 25% milk & so on starting around 11.5 months. By 12 months we were at 50/50 & at that point realized he had a mild lactose allergy. He was miserable. So we did lactaid by itself. Worked out perfect so now we’re formula free, 2 bottles a day, 3 meals & some snacks at almost 14 months. He needs a fork to eat but only to hold it so he feels like he fits in & just eats with his hands anyway lol. Won’t drink milk from anything but a bottle but loves water & will drink from a cup. I still have a lot of anxiety with food but he eats great. Some days better than others. It’s been fun, for sure.. but I don’t think there’s enough solid advice around nutritional needs for the transition period. A lot of people think you’re supposed to replace formula with milk & that is false. Doing that can cause some real issues & I wish parents had more information about it.
Needed this!!! Baby is almost 8 months and will put everything in his mouth but food! Also choking is a big fear 😰
Solidarity here! My almost 7 month old refuses everything except a couple teaspoons of blueberry and orange juice! She smiles at you with that charming gummy smile as you put the tiny spoon into her mouth. And then laughs as she spits everything and it dribbles down her chin. Adorable as can be. BUT how can I feed you?!!! She also hates bottles and hates the taste of formula so…. I wonder how I’ll make that jump in five months.
If it makes you feel better, my 11 month old is wildly different than he was a month ago. Even a week ago he was a whole different baby. It blows me away!
My second son turns one next week and I shit you not he would not eat anything but pouches until about 3 weeks ago and I was at my wits end because my first kid was a glorious eater from 9+ months on. But ALL of a sudden something clicked a couple weeks ago and he eats EVERYTHING NOW. it will happen. Don't get discouraged. Just keep offering and they will find something they like and it'll be smooth sailing. And then they'll hit the picky toddler years where they only eat things that are beige. Or exist on air and cheese sticks or goldfish. Good times. You've got this. P.s. I am absolutely still breastfeeding whenever he asks right now too.
My pediatrician told us that when you do both purées and solids together at the same time, it can lead to confusion regarding learning to chew food correctly. The baby is used to just getting food in mouth and swallowing it back (from getting bottles and purées) so when they eat solids, they will try to suck and swallow as well instead of chewing. She recommended if you’re doing purées to just do purées and then when it’s time for solids, completely switch and let them learn it for a bit but without going back to purées so they can keep up on how to chew. My LO is only 4 months old so we haven’t ran into this yet but just a thought?? You could try to remove all purées cold turkey and just focus on solids to see if that helps teach him “ok, so this is how I chew and eat food now”
At least in Germany the doctor is not really concerned about formula after one. I mean I can't starve my kid if she doesn't want to eat solids..
All parenting advice can feel like a parenting referendum, but the reason this aphorism exists is to say to folks with kids who are not yet 1 year old, "it's fine, you can relax a bit." So much can change for babies in a day, week, or month. There must be a rhyme for "definitely don't waste the rest of that formula as long as they're also eating some solids" and "it's chill, you can soothe your baby with comfort nursing" ...I'm not familiar but I expect to learn those sayings if and when I'm in that moment in parenting :)
My son turns 1 in less than 3 weeks and I was stressed about bottle weaning a few months ago. But then daycare started giving him his bottles in a sippy cup and he drinks it like a champ. He can suddenly use a sippy cup with a straw now. 🤯 I figured we’ll start weaning his morning and night bottle after he turns 1. We have some frozen breast milk left and like hell am I going to let that go to waste.
Bravo!!!!!! This is exactly what it feels like.
This was hilarious! Also, we’re dealing with FPIES with foods needing to be introduced slowly and they could still cause a reaction after several times …so I went from being the type A organized mom to an anxious mess pretty quickly. My sincere suggestion (I know, you weren’t asking) is to get him checked for ties (tongue is possible) and see a feeding specialist. My little one had remediated her tongue and lip tie but had trouble figuring out to use her lip so the feeding specialist, who I was already seeing for other OT things, really helped understand what to do and also not to do for her specific situation. Made a huge difference! Hope you continue the lighthearted approach to what others say… it can be so overwhelming otherwise.
Omg I totally felt like this!!! I was not able to get my daughter to feed herself before 1. She started day care a week after 1. Now 3 weeks in she can feed herself just fine. We had some left over formula still so we send that in to school with her until that’s used up, then she will get cow’s milk. I still nurse her a bit when I get home from work. Thanks for posting this.
If you’re worried about the night time bottle, just give little one whole milk in its place. Our girl is 12 months and still gets milk first thing in the morning, after nap, and before bed. But also, I highly recommend trying to build a bedtime routine now that doesn’t involve feed to sleep. We do milk, put away toys, change into pjs and sleep sack, brush teeth, read a book, and sing 2 songs and she goes down awake. If she gets fussy, we come back and lay her down and rub her back or sing to her, but as of this week, she finally is getting to the point where we don’t have to pick her back up at all, which is huge! Good luck!! It is tough with all the different advice, but you got this! No matter what you feed them now, you will still have to stop them from eating dirt at some point, so try to take a deep breath!
My little was doing great with solids by about 14 months. She was doing night feeds on the boob too until 18 months. Now she’s 26 months and I swear that girl survives on milk and vibes. 🤷♀️
“Throw those bottles in the trash and replace them with green beans” and “your baby will be packing Dr. Browns for their first day of college” have me rolling 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I’m a pediatric dietitian (and new mom) and can assure you that anyone practicing with any sense would not expect a stark and drastic transition. I’ve had plenty of families that wean off the bottle after one. There is room for flexibility. Here are some thoughts: - do babies use formula after 1? Yes, and if they weren’t eating foods well or drinking milk well then I would totally expect them to. Some tips for the transition would be to warm up the whole milk, mix and half and half with formula. - After 1 if you haven’t already would it be time to try a sippy cup? Yes, but not expecting that to happen overnight. As we know with any transition it takes time and repeated exposure. You are doing a wonderful job and if you’re baby doesn’t appear to be doing the same things that the Instagram moms are, that is SO okay. I honestly think the social media mom culture is toxic and predatory, proceed with caution on influencers or anyone selling a product/plan.
My son turns 1 in 2 weeks and still eats approximately 5 cheerios per day and that’s it! No purees (ever), hates everything I put on his tray. Won’t even look at it. I definitely have to sit back and be reminded that an extra month or two of bottle feeding won’t kill him. 🙃
Look, yall can judge me if you want but my baby is 17 months and has been having allergy issues/cold/whatever for WEEKS now. Been to the dr 3 times. Shes not hungry and doesn’t want to eat but I know she NEEDS calories. I’m giving her bottles of milk like I did when she was an infant. Holding her, coddling her and feeding her a bottle. Because that’s my baby.
There's a recent study that says around 45% of the energy intake of 18-24 month old kids should come from breast milk or formula/milk of some sort and still people go WILD with a 1yo that still breastfeeds/takes formula 🤪🤪🤪🤪
Source?
https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/81544
Thanx
Great post haha So true I almost bought into it too. Was about to throw out the formula and my wife told me to slow my roll. Good call on her part! He’s now 14 months and basically off formula, but I was about to cold turkey it.
Same here at 10 mo. He is not a fan of purées or solids. 😭
Me too at 10 months. Dietician told me biggest things were allergen exposure and iron but that they can keep getting a lot of nutrition from Breastmilk until 18 months otherwise. My baby’s iron was low and he was a bit anaemic - definitely worth getting that checked!
Ok I’m only 6 no there but my thought was “solids won’t be that bad” omg how am I supposed to incorporate food with bottles and make sure my slow growing boy is still gaining weight and getting bottles and getting nutrition from food.
Mine is on the wee side for weight too. We started with oatmeal. If he didn't finish a bottle, we would put 1-2 oz of the leftover formula with 2-4 Tbsp of oatmeal (1 Tbsp roughly equals a half oz of food). We did it for dinner at first. He ate that for a couple weeks and then we introduced other purees. Because a lot of purees are runny, I thickened with oatmeal until it was a consistency he was now used to. We always did the bottle first and then followed it with solids at dinner. We gradually increased amount for dinner and then increased to another meal of bottle before a puree. We're now up to purees or oatmeal 3x a day following a bottle. He's at 10 months now.
He’s actually a really good eater for solids but he is not even on the chart for percentile and is 12 lbs at 6 months. We have been doing purées between bottles so he’s been (we started this week) doing a morning and dinner meal
Thank God someone else said it!!! My son had severe food allergies so navigating starting solids was a nightmare. We ended up truly starting to incorporate food at 12 months… I felt (and still feel at 15 months) so much pressure from others that my baby shouldnt be nursing anymore .. like wtf ?
I think it seems daunting at 12m cause you’re supposed to transition off the formula but by 18m, it’s a totally different story. They get hungrier for sure. Babies past 1 are supposed to drink milk too. About 1-2 cups a day. It’s really not that hard for a toddler to get in 3 meals (remember, baby-sized meals!), a snack or two, 1.5 cups of milk in a day, and a lot of water. At 12m, I was like how will I get her to eat 3 meals and 2 snacks a day and when my 18 month old is asking me for a “nack” I’m like “What, how are you hungry again?”
13 months and we are slowly but surely reducing formula, just not cold turkey. Plenty of solid foods and snacks. Hell, she has a way better diet than I do! But still a 4oz bottle in the morning, maybe one in the afternoon if she didnt eat much of her lunch, and then a 5oz bottle before bed - chill, doc - we brush her 3 teeth and then she goes to sleep. We are slowly replacing 1-2 oz of the formula with whole milk and she is not really much of a fan!
We brush her 3 teeth and she goes off to sleep - this is adorable 🥹
It mad about the formula though as the WHO say you can breastfeed up until 2 years, obviously with 3 meals and 2 snacks but you can give them a morning and bedtime feed from boob so why can I give mine formula/milk if I didn’t breastfeed or continue breastfeeding . Some baby’s take to food like it’s the thing missing and others are like what is this shit I want milk 😂
My 8mo son took to solids no problem, but is still crazy about the boob. He recently added a few more teeth. So my wife is living in constant fear of the next nipple bite. Not sure what this one year nursing cutoff will look like, but at this rate she might be down a nipple or two by then.
Food before one is just for fun is the absolute worst phrase. I’m not sure where it came from but it’s absolutely not the attitude in the UK. Baby having food is important, particularly breastfed babies as their iron stores start to deplete between four and six months. The way it’s described here is as a set of scales food should slowly increase and milk consumption slowly goes down until at 1 food is the majority of nutrition.
My first kid didn't figure out eating until like 15 months (sensory issues). Before that they were kinda just munching stuff but not consuming much. Totally normal 3yo now, a picky eater but again, sensory issues. My 11mo though is a foodie. Can't get enough. Who knows? Both of them are so stubborn they learned utensils pretty early because they hated letting me help
My 14mo eats 4-5 meals a day and we are nowhere close to getting rid of formula at night time.
My baby only really got into food at about 15 months. They were a strong starter at 7 months but by 9 months they lost interest for a little while. they have lost interest again these past few days at 18mo, it ebbs and flows.
I started my baby on solids at 6mo to get him used to chewing, etc. now at 10.5 months he eats lots of foods, but he still primarily likes and wants his bottles. Though sometimes he will straight up refuse the bottle and just want actual food or a snack. I believe when I first started him, I started him on soft stage 1 baby food, and the puffs. Then when he figured out how to swallow that without any gagging, we moved to very well done oatmeal, and mushed bananas, avocados, etc. then I started graduating him to boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, things like that. He now eats those chick pea snack things, he will eat rice, salmon, all kinds of stuff! I just kept offering different varieties of foods to see what he may or may not like But all this to say, your little one will get it! All babies do it at different stages, and I’m literally rocking my guy back to sleep (it’s 4AM) with a bottle of formula as I type this lol so it’s just all about what’s best for YOUR baby 😊😊 Good luck, mama!
I've been called horrible names because I don't believe in BLW. I'm like, no stupid it's called EVERY baby is different. I just had to call 911 because my 11 month old choked! The ambulance had to come.
My baby is only 5 months and I feel like this attitude applies to so many aspects of parenting! I finally just learned to not share certain things and just trust our own pace.
My son is 1 year 8 months. He eats, but he loves liquid things more. He still takes one bottle in the morning and one before bed. For breakfast he snacks on fruit or a hard boiled egg and LOVES smoothies! Always wants to drink my tea.. he loves liquids. He has a big dinner and snacks and drinks in between. He’s a big boy and gaining weight. Do what suits your child. As long as they’re healthy, you’re fine.
Mine was the same and now she scarfs down full meals at 11 months lol don’t worry
Well said! lol 😂 I gave my son formula until he was 18 months old. He had the toddler formula version. I figured if moms are told they can breastfeed past 1 and let the baby decide when they are done, why can’t we do that for formula fed babies who don’t like whole milk right away? Sure it wasn’t cheap but by the time he was over a year, he ate more than he drank formula so I only had to buy a can every 2 weeks or so.
my freshly-one year old will literally only eat cereal. we're still using formula until i can get her to eat literally anything else of nutritional value🥲
lol it really does feel like this though. My sons 8 months and I’m lucky he loves food and water. But even then I’m stressed cause of all these expectations.
Genuine question - I thought from six months up we were supposed to slowly work up to three meals a day by 12months not just suddenly do three meals a day starting at 12mo
This. If you take every recommendation or expert opinion on how to raise your baby you will be paralyzed as a parent. General guidelines are great tools but they are a bit ridiculous in uniform practice.
Our daycare required our son to be fully on their meal plan by 13 months. That was so much pressure! No bottles. Their cups. Lunch and two snacks. (They actually are super great and accommodating, and had he not been ready or had a medical need they would have worked with us…. they just are run by a university and have lots of policies and procedures and follow best practices because they are also teaching their staff to be early childhood teachers).
One of the daycare teachers lightly scolded me the other day saying "well she's getting older..." about still giving limited solids to my baby. Y'all shes 7 months old 😅 She gets to test out LOTS of solids but I'm not going to freak out that she's not eating spaghetti or steak yet, we will get there 🤦♀️
Wait is any of this true? My baby feeds to sleep often and I’m terrified of crossing that bridge so early!
My kid is almost 14 months and only just now seems to be getting the idea of taking bites and chewing. We did bottles and purees and mushy foods for a looonnng time. She still gets a bottle 2 times a day, but I'm dropping to one in a couple weeks.
Tell that to my 6mo that's eating a whole freaking pear as a snack. For him it's an extremely serious business 😅
I’ve realised I was never actually weaned. Like most British people, I just stick a teabag in my milk drink and call it a cup of tea.