Buying Bigger Bottles???

Hi
While your doc may tell you it is fine to start cereal, my studies have shown that starting grains early on may cause food sensitivities later on. Grains are difficult to digest and turn to sugar. You want to keep her intestines clean and free from sugary, starchy foods as long as possible and breastfeeding is the best way to do that. Breastfeeding puts all the good microflora into the intestines and helps build a strong immune system. Once we begin adding sugary foods we feed the candida yeast and too much of that will cause problems. My suggestion for a first cereal is Ancient Harvest Organic Quinoa Flakes...available at Whole foods. It takes a minute to make and it is very digestable. Next try Pocono Buckwheat...also at Whole Foods. My babies grew up on these and still eat them today with fresh fruit or veggies. Both are extremely healthy and more of a grain like seed. Also, pureed sweet potatos and winter squash are great first foods for babies... and avocado is also very healthy. Just remember the 3 day wait period after trying a new food.
Good Luck to you and your healthy baby.

Like everyone else has said breastfed babies are different. Take a look at kellymom.com. There is some great breastfeeding advice, charts, calculators that will help you figure out how much breastmilk your baby needs. You may be reading info geared toward formula babies. And you don't have to supplement her with formula . That will only decrease your milk supply. And you don't have to use formula to mix with the cereal. I always used breastmilk with my son's cereal. Breastfeeding is supply and demand. She may be nursing more so you will increase your supply-doesn't mean you don't have enough! She just is getting your body to make more! She is probably going thru a growth spurt and that's what babies do to increase your supply-they nurse and nurse and nurse! Alot of moms never pump as much as their little one is actually taking in because the baby is so much more efficient at emptying the breast. Good luck and congratulations on being a breastfeeding mommy!

Hi D., i hope i can be of some help. I have 5 children and breast fed them all. I have a few tiring tricks to bring more milk in ha! Well the milk comes in for supply and demand so as your baby your grows and wants more milk it will produce more. When your breast feeding you really don't know how much they are getting unless your pumping it out and feeding, you want to nurse more than pumping. My girls nursed both breast and would go to sleep and then i would take a pump out and pump each breast to make sure my breast were empty and it gives that extra stimulation for the milk production. If you want to supplement for the cereal thats fine. but you should still nurse on demand and if she is sleeping through a feeding make sure you pump still so you can keep on track. Breast fed babies are different than formula fed babies, so those ounces are basically more towards formula fed babies, since breast fed babies they can't say how much a baby gets in a feeding, they eat until they are full. I hope this helps a little, I know its hard, because every time i had a baby i had to remember everything. I hope this helps!
S. Mommy to 5 beautiful children, 16yrs,8yrs almost 9 next week!, 6yrs, 2yrs,and 11 months see my sons journey at www.liamlockhart.com

You DON'T have to start you daughter on cereal at all. Many babies skip that step all-together. If you daughter is healthy exclusively breastfeeding, I don't know why the doctor would encourage you to change that routine. If you want to start introducing solids why not, acorn squash, apples, bananas, green peas, pears, or sweet potatoes? There is a book called So Easy Baby Food by Joan Ahlers and Cheryl Tallman that is a great resource for starting your 6 month old on solids. Cereal is definitely unnecessary and does not possess nutritional value, its mostly filler. Do you still latch your baby on to nurse, or are you just pumping? If you don't latch baby on, try that for a few days and it will build your supply right back up and you can probably start pumping more. I use my hand pump on the opposite breast while my daughter eats and I get about 4-6 oz from each breast. Medela lids will also fit normal sized 8 oz bottles as long as the lip is "standard". Medela only makes the smaller bottles for storage and re-heat reasons. Once breastmilk has been re-heated you want to use it within a few hours, its much healthier to heat only 5 oz and need to heat more than heat 8 oz and have to throw out the rest. If your daughter is a healthy weight, I say let the pediatrician keep his cereal opinions to himself and keep on what you are doing.

If you haven't started solids, you are probably making plenty of milk still. Why would you want to feed your child something less than healthy for her growing body? Formula is no more than isolated vitamins, palm oil and powdered cow's milk. Look at the Ingredients label on a can of formula and think about it before you decide to go that route. That's what I did and that's what kept me breastfeeding both of my girls past the age of 1.

I introduced solids at around 6 months and started with avacado slices, banana slices and blueberries and allowed my kids to self feed. These foods are high nutrient foods and are easily mushed with their gums. This is what Dr. William Sears (author of "The Baby Book") recommends. Powdered cereals are nothing more than refined carbs...not really a healthy choice. And they taste terrible!

I highly recommend "Disease Proof Your Child" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman if you are looking for a good book on kid's nutrition.

Whole foods nutrition is soooo important for growing bodies.

G. G.
Family Wellness Coach
Winter Park, FL

I breastfeed both of my daughters for over a year.Once you start them on solids they drink less because they get full from the solids.All babies are different.Some drnk 8 oz other 4, there is no set amount. My daughters loved to breastfeed so they would never drink more then 1-2 oz at a time from a bottle, they wanted the breast. My first daughter would even refuse bottles, she was lucky to eat 5 oz a day. Of course they made up for it at night. I had so much stored milk because of it. I mixed breastmilk or water with the cereal.I bought 8oz bottles and never used them. Breastfeed babies do tend to drink less then formula feed. I would start solids and see how things go and what she eats. I would hold off on buying 8oz bottles, I would expect her to eat less when you start solids.

If you're breastfeeding, you don't need extra large bottles and formula to supplement. just nurse longer and more frequently and your milk supply will automatically adjust for whatever your baby needs. It is pretty amazing!!!

Have her latch on as much as she wants and for as long as possible. As long as she is growing well and has enough wet & poopy diapers a day then you don't need to actually measure what she eats. Just nurse "on demand".

My ds bf until 2 yr old and my dd (the first) until 13 months. my ds didn't even have an interest in solid food until after 7 months. My dd started at 5 months.

I hope this helps!!

have a great day!

I think they mainly sell the smaller bottles because EBF babies tend to drink less. Formula fed babies regularly increase what they drink as they grow, but EBF babies do not need to increase since our breastmilk changes as they grow to fit their needs. Generally, EBF babies don't start to drink more till about 6 months so that sounds about right for your little one.
Also, Medela DOES make larger bottles. I've seen them at Target.
As for the cereal, I doubt the brand makes much difference, just make sure it's rice cereal you start with. I think it's Gerber that is making a cereal now that is enriched with DHA/ARA! Pretty cool!

Cereal at 5 1/2 months is just about right. I started cereal a little sooner, but every baby is different. Go down the baby aisle and choose a cereal. There are not many to choose from. Some moms say that it's best to start on oatmeal, while other say rice is best. If your baby has a reaction to one, then try the other. I breastfed exclusively my first two daughters but, I used water or juice to mix into the cereal. The first time I gave my them cereal, I started out with a tablespoon of cereal and just enough liquid to make it thin but not too watery. If they were hungry after that, I mixed another tablespoon and yet another if they were still hungry. Once your daughter has finished (meaning that she doens't want anymore food), offer her your breast (or bottle). How much she eats or drinks will always vary. The 6-8 oz you are referring to is a guideline. Now, with my last child who is 25 months old, I could not exclusively breastfeed him. I had to supplement with formula because he had a weak suck and wasn't gaining weight and I ultimately lost my milk supply. When my ped suggested that my son should consume so many ounces at a feeding, I got myself worried because sometimes he would drink more, other times drink less. It's just a guideline, a starting point so don't worry so much about how much she should eat or drink. Babies have this wonderful way of letting us know when they are full. They simply refuse to eat anymore or they turn away from a bottle, or they unlatch themselves from the breast. The whole bottle feeding was very new to me with my third and last child because with my daughters, I never gave them a bottle. I breastfed them only.

As for the size bottles, I wouldn't waste your money to go out an buy bigger bottles. I used the Avent bottles (since I had an Avent breastpump) and the bottles came in 4 oz and 9 oz sizes. Rarely did my son ever consume all 9 oz all at once. I hope this helps.

I would not worry about buying bigger bottles unless you WANT to switch to formula. If you can continue EBF, you most likely will not need them. The caloric value of breastmilk can very drammatically from woman to woman and change as your baby gets older. I hardly never pumped more than 4 oz. at a time, but a friend of mine always got 8-9oz and both babies were big! I never had extra pumped milk, so instead I mixed the rice cereal with applesauce or bananas. My sons seems to prefer the thicker texture anyways. Hope this helps!
~B.

Not sure about the Medela bottles, sorry! But for what it is worth, if you are going to start the cereal, Beechnut is a lot smoother for babies than Gerber. Gerber is lumpy. I think that is why all three of mine would never eat Gerber. I know rice is the recommended flavor to try and again, none of mine would eat it. All three of mine loved the oatmeal flavor. My middle child slept like a champ during the night after having a bowl of oatmeal mixed with formula. I wish you the best! Enjoy these priceless times with your daughter.

R.

Wow...Slow down mom. You are SO AWESOME for breastfeeding your baby. Unless your baby is going to be in daycare or with another caregiver for long periods of time, you don't need to pump at all. Breastfed ( BF) babies eat smaller amounts more frequently because your milk is easier to digest than formula. You don't need to suppliment and if you do offer bottles instead of nursing when you are available to her, she is losing the benefit of nursing until she is just full and will start to eat until the bottle is empty, causing her to develop the need to feel stuffed, which can lead to obesity in older years. As for cereal, you can pump about 2-3 ounces per day ( in the morning is the best time) and use that for her cereal, or you can add pureed applesauce with a little water, she will really like that. She doesn't need the cereal, it will only allow her to start eating more solid foods so she is nursing less often, giving you a break, but BF babies don't NEED food until they are about a year, all earlier foods are just for training. If mom is eating a well balanced diet and taking your prenatal vitamins, than your body will adjust daily to meet her nutritional needs. Think about it, formula doesn't change from newborn until they are a year. AS for the bottle size. If she is drinking 10 ounces at a feeding, which she will probably never do, that would be five ounces on each side. So pumping two or three ounces per side will give her an adequate amount. I used to store up to 5-6 ounces in a bag and that was plenty. If she is eating more than that at a feeding it is because she is getting the milk too fast through a bottle and being pushed to drink it all ( less waste of precious milk) and then goes too long in between feedings. She should at this age be drinking 4-5 ounces every three hours or so. You can offer her an ounce or so to take the edge off her hunger and then offer her two tablespoons or so of cereal and then follow up with the remaining 3-4 ounces of milk and she should be a pretty full baby. I pumped just so I could give my husband a chance to feed our daughter and have a supply in case I was sick and needed medication or was just dying for a margarita ;-). I BF all four of my children and what I have learned over the last 14 years and from other successful moms is to relax, feed the baby from the breast as much as possible, feed her when she wants, how often she wants and know that she is as healthy as possible and that this time will be over so so fast, let them be babies and spend this year ( or two...or three) enjoying every minute that you get to stop everything, get comfy on the counch or in bed and nurse and hold you baby. Yesterday my 8 yr old wouldn't let me hug him before school...sniff sniff...what I would give to be nursing his tiny self again, now he's mastering playstation games, and my oldest just started highschool and my youngest is potty trained and is doing EVERYTHING by herself!!! Best wishes, take it easy and don't stress, it will only diminish your milk supply.

That is funny that they don't make bigger bottles--especially since you have to throw out what they don't use. You could always just put 4 oz in your Medela bottles--so two bottles would equal 8 oz. Or just start supplementing with formula where you go through one bottle of BM and then mix up formula if she wants more--with the powder you can mix it 2oz at a time...
I wouldn't bother buying new bottles though--as you introduce solids, she will gradually take less bm/formula-and by 8-10 months she will be able to hold a sippy and at 1 year she should be off of BM and formula on onto whole milk in sippies--wow they grow fast--don't they?

Good Morning~ As your little one grows, she's going to get a bigger appetite. I think buying larger bottles will be a good investment. My daughter is a pig, but when I feed her out of the 6 oz playtex bottle vs. the 8 oz Dr. Brown's bottle, she gets mad at me because the last 2 oz aren't there. I absolutely love the Dr. Brown's bottles. They're a different design and have more pieces, but it's much better than dealing with a plastic liner. If you get them, you might want to invest in the container that goes in the dishwasher (if you have one)that holds all the pieces. We just got a dishwasher and it saves so much time trying to clean all the bottles and parts. Also, because your daughter is almost 6 months, think about step 2 nipples vs. step 1. Step 2 nipples are just a little bigger and as her appetite increases, it'll make it easier for her to pull the substance in and not have to try so hard.

Don't freak out about the specific amount she's eating and calculating that the total fits in whatever she's "supposed" to eat. All of the "supposed" to's can drive you crazy and the fact is as long as she's eating, healthy, and gaining size everything is ok.

Regarding what to buy innitially: First, I started Taylor off with Stage 1 food at 4 mos. A lot of moms disagree with starting them off with food before 6 mos- 1 yr, but she needed more than formula or breast milk to satisfy her. It's all about your child, not what everyone else's child did. It is so fun introducing your little one to new tastes and experiences. I've had a ball over the last 4-5 months with the stage 1 snacks (some dissolve, so there's less chance of choking) AND it's been a huge help to tide my monster over until I can get her bottle or food ready. Buy one grain cereal or oatmeal. As long as it's one grain, her little digestive system can handle it. Obviously, I started with Stage 1 food, but I quickly changed to stage 2 food because of Taylor's appetite. Stage 2 is generally just bigger containers. While in Stage 1 foods, I would mix some of the single grain rice cereal/oatmeal with the stage 1 food and microwave it for like 10-15 seconds. She LOVED it.

She's 9 months old today and insists she eat off of my plate (not for a complete meal, though). Of course, I either give her mashed potatoes, small pasta, or mush up whatever else, but just watching her face with new tastes is so exciting!

Soak up the time you spend with her especially in the next few months because everything is new and exciting and it'll make you feel like a kid again (with a mortgage :)
E.

you don't have to start with cereal. the food is 'just' to give them a chance to get used to eating- the main source of nutrition for the 1st year is breast milk or formula.
here's a post I wrote about this- scroll down to see the post by me, L. H:
http://www.mamasource.com/request/16303018883021799425

and
a great breastfeeding resource site: http://www.kellymom.com/
and there's a 'milk calculator' where you can figure out how many ounces of expresed milk your baby should be getting http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html#calculator

I can't really give you breastfeeding advice. I only did it for a short time. But the type of cereal to start her on would be rice. Plain rice cereal. It's least likely to cause any allergic reaction and you're not really giving it to her for nutritional purposes. It's meant to teach her about different textures and how to swallow food. It could take a while for her to get the hang of it, and she may act like she doesn't like it at first. But I would go ahead and mix it with your breastmilk. Good luck!

My son is 9 months old and still only takes 6 oz per feeding (5 times a day) He's 22+ lbs. (Of course, now he's formula fed and I realize that could make a big difference.)
I probably wouldn't buy more bottles, just make do with what you have. In a few months when you introduce more solids, your baby's milk consumption will drop off again when baby food starts filling her belly. You'll also be buying sippy cups in a few months to introduce water and juice. So just hold on...
I found it was difficult to defrost breastmilk or make formula to mix with cereal... inconvenient. Instead, I used watered down juice. (Either a Gerber juice or Motts for Tots) and mixed the rice or oatmeal cereal with that. Initially, you'll use a single grain cereal... usually rice... then oatmeal. After a box or two then you can switch to a fruit blended version. I prefer the BeechNut brand to Gerber, but I buy what is on sale.

T. B
Mom to Matthew 9 months (and crawling!)
and Katelyn 2+ years (and potty training!)

Hi D.....I know exactly what you mean...why do they make only the 5 oz bottles and in our case, with using Playtex, the liners never hold 8 oz of formula without having to buy the more expensive l0oz liners, etc...I have come to learn that each child is different and what the books, doctors, friends, etc. say, is always great advice, our children are the best indicators in how much food they need, etc. Our almost 7 mos old has been on solids since he was 4 mos and is now on Stage 2 foods; a fruit and veggie at lunch and dinner with oatmeal/cereal in the morning. He still only drinks a 4-6oz bottle with each meal, but drinks 8-10 oz before bed. My other son was drinking 8 oz bottles at each meal at this age. I know it's expensive, but in the long run worth stepping up to the 8 oz bottles. Anything to save time and energy at this point is worth it and you don't want to have to be washing extra bottles, packing twice as many, etc. I don't know if this has helped, but it's always interesting to see what other moms are doing. Good luck to you and your beautiful little girl---T.
P.S. I would try the Gerber or Beech Nut single grain rice cereal to start and make it pretty thin; she'll probably love it and be ready for more new and exciting tastes. Good luck

Iam a great-grandmother of 11. When my children came along (5 of them) we used our own judgement about things a lot. We didn't have bottles to feed them their food in, and we fed them with a baby spoon. If a baby wasn't satisfied with the formula we started feeding them baby foods (starting with cereals). I usually asked the doctor if it was O.K. with the 1st one, and didn't always need to all of the time.They were drinking regular milk by 3 or 4 months, and all grew up very healthy. If you feel that you need to use the feeding bottle just put more in it after it is empty.

I am guessing that Medela was probably thinking about the mother in this area. Would you want to lug around a holder twice the size of the one you have with bottles of milk in it?

I know I wouldn't!

I suggest using the breastmilk freezer bags as they conform easily to being stuck in tight spots unlike a bottle can. I used them a lot when I was breastfeeding and my last little man breastfed for 16 months. I plan on doing the same thing with my little girl I am expecting any week now.

HTH

S.
www.gourmetcandlemom.scent-team.com