My daughter is now 10 months old. I have been having a hard time giving her formula. On average she's drinking about 16oz of formula a day. Some are mixed w/ cereal. I should also mention that we give her "Similac Alimentum" since she is allergic to regular formula. The past few days she only has been drinking about 9-10oz a day. We spoke to our pediatrician about it, and she said to keep on trying w/ the alimentum. My question is how can I make my daughter be able to drink her formula and get her at least to drinking 20oz. a day??
Read the ingredients.... she probably is struggling with digestion. How are her bowel movements. What is her diet?
Maybe it being mixed with cereal makes her too full.
Feed her her solids, separately. Unless your Doc told you to put cereal in her bottle.
Give her her bottle FIRST... BEFORE solids. Otherwise, a baby will be too full to drink. Then give solids after.... like an hour after.
Is your daughter sleeping through the night? My son has the same problem. He's gone from drinking 26 oz. to 16 oz. a day and most of what he takes is at night when I dream feed him. He gave up on the bottle during the day a month ago. He eats 3 meals a day (baby food) so I would add 2 oz. of formula in each of his meal mixed in with the baby food. Then at around 10pm while he is asleep I would dream feed him about 6 oz. and at 4am I would dream feed him another 4 oz. or so. He is usually shuffling and sort of awake at 10pm and 4am so that's when I would feed him the bottle when he is half asleep. That is the only way he will take the bottle. Of course if your daughter is sleeping soundly through the night then you might not want to dream feed him in case you do wake her up.
Maybe she doesnt like the taste of the formula. My son at 10 months hated the kind I tried to give so I switched to Babys Only organic (lactose free) toddler formula (same as for baby -ingredients)...try it
Never heard of the "dream feeding" thing....
But I agree with the other poster who says to give the formula as the main "meal" then some foods.
Good luck!
I agree - skip the cereal. Maybe just do some before bed with a spoon, not in the bottle? My son was on Nutramigen (tastes about as good as Alimentum!). Good luck!
My older one had reflux and was tried on Alimentum--it smelled vile (especially if spit up) so I can't imagine it tastes decent. Mine ended up on regular Similac since there were no milk allergies. Maybe there is an alternative type of formula? The dream feeding worked well on my kids when they were smaller babies and not sleeping through the night. I also did a bottle 1st thing in the am and then breakfast an hour or two later. Mine did drink a lot of milk as toddlers but it was organic milk after age 1, not formula.
At 10 months, she is probably also eating solids, and I wouldn't worry about her keeping up the formula intake as long as she's eating. This is a natural progression and it may be her way of telling you she wants more solid food and less liquids. This is a good sign, totally normal developmentally, and nothing to worry about. Some babies get hooked on bottles and refuse to eat solids, so as long as she's eating something, you're both fine! At this stage, you might also start introducing finger foods like cheerios or smaller bits of mushy things that she can pick up herself. I started cooking real food for my kids (soups, stews, etc), and then just chopping it up in the food processor, freezing them in ice cube trays or small containers. Good luck to you and I hope this helps!
I agree that you should give her the formula first. She may be eating more food than you realize and is too full to drink. If she is sleeping through the night, no need to change her pattern just to feed her. It could also be that her tastes are changing and she doesn't like the Alimentum anymore.
She is probably developing taste buds!!!! Have you every tasted
Alimentum. Worked in peds and parents said it was the worst thing
ever. Just an idea.
