My son has hated bottles since he was about 6 months old. We had to resort to feeding him at nap times and bed times so he would be sleepy and relaxed enough to take the bottle. That works until a few weeks ago. It has gotten more and more difficult to get him to drink any formula from a bottle. He will wake up and refuse after about an ounce. He eats baby food 3 times a day, and will drink water or soy milk from the sippy. I have tried different formulas, flavoring the formula, cold, warm, half soy milk half soy formula, etc. he WILL NOT take it! He will not drink formula from the sippy cup either . I tried soy milk and soy formula, but if it has formula, he won't drink it. We let him drink the soy milk from the sippy cup, but he only drinks about 14 oz a day that way, and then maybe 4 oz of formula total from the 3 feeds throughout the day. I am at a loss as to what more to do. His wet diapers are still ok, but they are much less wet than what they were. He is energetic, sleeps through the night, crawling and cruising furniture and happy unless I am forcing him to drink. I follow him around with his sippy trying to get him to take a few sips.
He pediatrician just suggests we keep trying the bottles. But it limits is from going anywhere because he can't fall asleep until I can sit and try a bottle. And every attempt is the same. An ounce and then he wakes up an refuses any more. I am ready to quit counting oz, but everything I read says formula is what they need right now, and 24 oz is the amount he needs to be taking at this age, but I can't get him to take formula! 24 oz seems impossible when we can't even get 6 in 1 day.
Do I just give up and let him drink what he will from the regular soy milk in the sippy? And is 12-16 oz enough for him?
He is my 4th and none of my other kids have me any issues like this. I am tired of worrying about him, but its hard not to when even the pediatrician tells me his brain and body need the formula for development! Ugh!!!
Edited to answer some questions:
To the RD-I have tried to mix the formula with cereal, and as soon as he tastes the formula, he refuses. As for mixing the soy milk and formula, I have also tried that. He will drink it if its a 6oz with 2 oz formula scoop (no water). Even then, its a struggle, it will take me half of the day to get that cup down him. And with only 2oz o formula...is it really worth spending 5 hours working on it when it takes half the time to get an equivalent amount for soy milk without the added formula.
It seems to be more of a "I'm too busy exploring now that I can crawl and cruise around a bit" to take the time to drink. He will drink water or vanilla soy milk, an ounce at a time. Again, I'm having to follow him around to get him to drink a whole cup. The pediatrician suggested a multivitamin, one pediasure a day, and more table foods to add the fats he needs. She is reluctant to ok no formula, but what do you do when they won't take it? This isn't like he doesn't want to wear a hat and I force him to anyway. He closes his lips and refuses. And the more I try the less he wants ANY drink. I made him skip lunch and offered nothing but formula for 5 hours yesterday. And he became increasingly fussy and miserable. So I gave in and fed him dinner later and he gobbled it up along with his sippy of soy milk. He really just HATES formula!
I'm with Jen on this. Steer away from the soy milk and towards either rice, almond or coconut. The most important thing in the formula are the nutrients and you could possibly make that up with a supplemental liquid vitamin. I would also lean towards the sippy or a regular cup since he is having such a hard time with the bottle. Hang in there and don't give up.
Have you tried other kinds of formula? Most of them are not very tasty, so I do not blame him :-) There are formulas for older babies that he may like. And it is great that he is eating solids just fine, he is probably getting lots of nutrition from solids. He sounds ready to move away from the bottle and on to sippy cup and solids.
Some pediatricians give the OK to go ahead with regular milk earlier than 12 months in certain cases. It is controversial though. Maybe you can get a second opinion on this?
http://community.babycenter.com/post/a4118905/whole_milk_...
Some say goat milk is better than cows milk:
http://www.parenting.com/article/ask-dr-sears-advantages-...
Another option may be donated breast milk. I heard about some "unofficial" networks where women producing lots of milk give it to others that need it. Of course you need to be very careful and get to know the person donating, much better if she is a relative or friend of sorts... I actually gave several packages to a friend at work.
I would do some research on soy, it is not good for little boys. I would try formula in his sippy cups, and if he keeps fighting then try rice, coconut, or almond milk with your doctors approval.
Try sneaking in a spoonful of rice cereal into the formula in his sippy cup to change the taste. He may be deciding he doesn't like formula, and that food is tastier. If you make your own baby foods, you can mix the formula into things like mashed bananas.
My brother could not drink formula due to an allergy(they tried ALL of them) to it, and my mother was not producing enough milk, so she introduced solids in the form of cereal mixed with milk(her milk) and made a larger hole in the bottle's nipple when he was little to give him enough nourishment. He loved it, and adjusted more quickly to table foods later, seeing as how he refused baby food from a jar
.
He's 33 now, 5'11, and a real heartbreaker. Just saying, it does work.
Oh, she also mixed formula and blended bananas to make a sippy drink for a friend's baby who was fussy, and she drank it up. Try mixing the formula with different fruits and see what he likes. Those Magic bullet blenders work very well for baby food making, and smoothies.
Hope this helps.
As an RD, I assure you the bottle itself can go, no problem--in fact, it's best to do so by 1 year or so; you'll just be ahead. As for the formula vs. soy milk, is the soy milk sweet? Maybe mix the two...or, what happens if you offer formula and no soy milk throughout the day? (really not needed, and it's common for children to want to replace something important if something more fun comes along) Also, could you use formula to make cereal? It's another way to fit it in without him having to drink quite as much.
Nutritionally for formula vs. soy milk, the formula has iron, vitamins, and lipids (omega 3s and 6s), and sometimes probiotics, all of which are not normally found in milk or soy milk--important things for growth--which is why it is recommended until 1 year of age, a point at which the growth rate declines slightly and the diet is likely to have expanded to include enough foods containing these (and other) required nutrients to foster appropriate growth and development.
Some mothers (and occasionally health professionals) will say it's ok to discontinue formula, that their children did so and turned out just fine; however, anemia and vitamin deficiencies may have been present but undetected, the immune system may not have been quite as strong as possible, and the lipids important for brain development may not have been consumed at the same levels--while everything turned out fine, i.e. no grave physical or mental problems, the child could have gotten even better nutrition and we can't say what further positive effects that may have had. The soy milk has its place (though I'm not thrilled with the fact that most is sweetened--do we really want our children to get used to always getting sweet things, particularly sweet drinks?); just wait on it (and/or limit it) for a few months longer.
Ultimately, you are in charge of what he has access to, so it's important to make it count--especially if he seems to be preferential toward something at the expense of something he needs. (You wouldn't let your child always eat apple pie instead of actual plain fruit, would you?) Normal children will not starve themselves, even if they don't get exactly what they want, and will eventually try/eat what is offered.
Good luck!
He is not breast fed. Formula only since 5 months
Is it possible he's breastfeeding also and just rejecting formula?
I know that I'll get a bunch of people who don't agree, but whatev.
I switched both my sons to whole milk at about 10 months. I started with just 2oz a day for a couple of weeks, then 4, then 6...etc., etc..
Neither of them have allergies, neither is obese (they're actually quite thin).
Consider beginning to switch him to REAL food.
This idea that babies have to be a certain age to start cereal, solids, milk, etc., is nonsense. Nonsense advice used to sell a product. My oldest was born in Germany. He was eating cereal, in his bottle (gasp...yes!) at about 4 or 5 weeks. He was eating from a spoon at about 2 months, and drinking from a REAL cup (not a sippy) at about 6-7 months. My younger child was born in the US, but things happened on about the same timeframe.
My point is, don't take everything "they" advise as the gospel truth. Just be sure that your baby is getting the fats and vitamins he needs to grow, since formula is fortified with lots of vitamins and he's not getting that. It sounds to me like the boy has good taste. :-)
Best of luck!
You didn't say what the reason for the soy formula/milk is for. Is he allergic to milk? If not then give him the whole or Vit D milk. When we were weaning off of the formula at 10 months we'd fill a sippy cup with half formula and half milk. Then gradually used less formula. Maybe the formula isn't dissolving all the way if you are using powder. If the formula wasn't dissolved all the way my girls didn't like it either. They also liked it cold and not warm. So I'd make a batch each morning and use it thru the day. I don't know if you've ever tried the soy formula, but it is nasty tasting and smelling. He may not like the taste. Plain soy milk isn't that great either. The vanilla is better. If he has an intolerance to milk then try the vanilla soy with the soy formula. It might help the taste. And he may not like the powder at all, he may like the liquid pre-mixed formula. I don't know if any of this will help. But like I said earlier, my girls were getting weaned from formula at 10 months along with the bottle. Actually we cut them off of the bottle at 10 months since they were able to hold their sippy by themselves. Good luck and God Bless.
