Feeding Questions & Switching from Bottle to Sippy Cup

Yes, you are doing fine! In general, the baby will tell you if he needs more food or more formula. You can't go wrong feeding him a little more formula than baby food, though. It sounds like you are doing fine. They don't really "need" real food at this point. It is just to get them used to eating solid things. Yes, 12 months is the best time to switch to regular milk. It is hard on their digestive systems to do it too much before that, and they need the extra nutrients in the formula now. You can give him a sippy whenever you want. At first he will just play with it anyway, but introducing it now is a great idea. Then he will be used to it by the time you need to take his bottle away. (around 12 months) Just don't expect him to really drink that much out of it for a while. Eventually he will, though. I love the Nuby sippys with the handles. They have soft spouts so babies like the transition a little better, and the handles help them learn to hold them. Good luck! You are doing fine!

My pediatrician said to introduce the sippy cup at 6 months and avoid doing all whole milk (keep formula) until age 1. Now, your son will probably not be able to do a sippy cup immediately (my son never did the ones without the straws, he was only able to do the Playtex and Nubee ones with straws, which I have heard is better for them long run anyway). Around 11 months, I started to introduce the sippy cup with whole milk (after he had consumed all formula since they need this source of iron until age 1 or they risk becoming anemic but I figured I would give him the practice at the milk so it wasn't hard to transition at age 1 from formula), and then on his first birthday we threw out all bottles, formula, and pacifiers cold turkey. He had no problem and never looked back! Stick with more formula than baby food until age 1, and always feed food after the formula. My doc said 1 serving of fruit and oatmeal for breakfast, 1 serving of fruit and veggie for lunch and 1 serving of veggie and rice for dinner. I tried to get him off of pureed baby food by 10 months or so (just super soft steamed veggies/fruits) so that he didn't get stuck on pureed baby food. Hope this helps!

Personally, the thing that comes to my mind is use your best judgement. Every child is different and it seems that what you are doing is fine, if you think that maybe he needs more food than forumula then go for it. From personall experiece, my daughter didnt have very many ear infections except maybe twice when she was very little ( thank heavens ), though the first one was when she was first holding her bottle and we would let her lay down with it and I think that caused it, the second was when we switched from formula to cow's milk around 12 months. She isnt lactose intollerant but it wasnt cared for so we just started giving her more yogurt,cheese and fortified calcium food and juice and gave her more food and she took to the sippy cup just fine, we got the rocking one first that rights itself when knocked over but once she got the hang of that it was all a go go !
I'd just see out of trial and error how you son dose and dont stress, so long as he is developing fine and sleeps through most of the night I think your good to go!
Have a good holiday!

Hope this helps!

J.

I introduced a sippy at age 5 months. We got the nuby kind with the soft spout and handles. They leak, but she was breastfed, so the shape of the spout worked best for us. She took to it right away and has never done bottles. I breastfed until 11 1/2 months and then we switched to whole milk mixed with Enfamil next step toddler formula for added nutrients.
As far as the baby food, it's really up to you. At 9 months our pedi. said to feed her table food 3-4 times a day (breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner), and to continue with the breastmilk until 11 months old.
My baby never liked pureed food, so we went total table food at 7 months. I fed her breastmilk upon waking, then after about an hour made her some oatmeal or toast along with 1/2 of a banana or peaches and then for lunch would feed her some gerber graduates meat sticks with some carrots or fruit, a cookie for snack at around 3pm, followed by breastmilk, dinner around 6pm, and breastmilk again at around 8pm for bed. It worked out wonderfully for us so that when we transitioned her to whole milk after I weaned her, she stayed on the same eating schedule.
Sorry this is long. Hope it helps!