Need help feeding my one year old and milk concerns - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

LauraLu · 08-07-2008, 06:13 PM

My one year old daughter has always been on the "bigger side". At one year, she is 24 lbs and almost 31 inches. She's really tall and lean and very strong. Now that she is off of formula, I'm just concerned that she is not getting enough milk. She will drink about 7 oz of milk at 7:30am, and take a morning nap to about 10. Then I put about 3 oz of milk in some baby cereal with fruit and I also give her milk in a cup, but she doesn't want any more milk throughout the day! I'm so paranoid that she's not getting enough!!! I'm so afraid that she's going to dehydrate, so I give in and give her juice or water. I've also been giving her yogurt to hopefully make up for the lack of milk. I've tried heating it up and sometimes this works, but I really think it's because she wants her bottles back and I'm not giving in!!! We've been weaning off bottles this week and she still takes a morning bottle of milk. Is it possible I'm confusing her??
My question is for those of you with older children. What is an example of a feeding schedule that you use? I feel so lost. I know she'll eat when she's hungry, but I just feel like right now it's a battle to get her to eat sometimes...please help!

niknak77 · 08-07-2008, 06:42 PM

Relax, this will pass. I went through the same thing when I weaned my youngest from breastfeeding. He was stubborn and wouldn't drink his milk from a cup for a week or two until he realized he really wasn't going to get to nurse any more. Then he drank it just fine. If I didn't think he was getting enough, I put a little chocolate or strawberry syrup in it. His pediatrician said that it was fine since it is such a small amount of syrup and it is more important that he drank the milk. Be patient and consistent in what you are doing. In time she will adjust and drink her milk. Just be sure she gets plenty of food with calcium, such as yogurt and cottage cheese in the meantime.

luckydarlin · 08-07-2008, 08:22 PM

I agree with niknak - relax and it will work itself out. It's a big change right now and your little one is working herself into it slowly. My daughter sounds like she's right on target with your daughter for height and weight at one year - she's now 16 months old. She wouldn't touch milk at first and I ended up having to put strawberry powder flavoring in it (a small amount) to get her to drink it (like niknak, my pediatrician said it was totally fine to do). My daughter drinks approx. 7 or 8 oz in the morning when she wakes up (basically, one tall sippy cup full) and then again at bedtime. Other than that, she gets other dairy products such as cheese, vanilla pudding made with milk, etc. throughout the day. The only other drink she has all day long is water - she consumes tons -- it sounds like you do this as well. Don't worry about confusing her with the bottle and cup - transitioning slowly works for some kids. It's a big change to milk and away from the bottle at once. Since I used the strawberry flavoring, I switched immediately to the sippy cup, but my daughter was mainly using one at that point so she didn't mind. I'd definitely try giving her the sippy cup as often as possible, but don't sweat it - she's still very young.

As for food - my daughter gets her milk in the morning while I prepare her breakfast and then gets a snack when she wakes up from her morning nap (if she takes one). Her lunch use to be a good healthy meal, but she has become picky lately so I've resorted to some sliced cheese, crackers and fruit. For dinner I am giving her cut up chicken, pasta, rice, mashed potatoes - depending on what she will eat that night I give her one or two of the above and then some more fruit or two Gerber cookies after her meal. She snacks a lot more during the day lately - if we are out she's looking for breadsticks, etc. to munch on.

Hope some of this has helped. Definitely just go with it - it's one thing Iv'e learned, ALL kids are different so go with your gut. Good luck.

simplyheather · 08-11-2008, 12:15 PM

My son is a year, and his schedule is like this:

Wake up at 7am - tall sippy cup of milk *adding strawberry b/c he won't take it any other way* he drinks that on the way to daycare.
At 8:30 his is breakfast, and he'll eat toast, waffles, pancakes, sausage, fruit, etc.... things like that, and he'll be finishing off his morning sippy cup.
At 11:30 is his lunch and he eats whatever the bigger kids eat, and gets about another 1/2 sippy cup of milk.
At 2:30 he has a snack with juice to drink
At 6:30 is his dinner - which is whatever, but at least a protien, carb, fruit, veggie and dessert. He'll drink a little bit of milk with that.

He snacks throught out the day but doesn't have a set schedule on those snacks. If he wants a couple of crackers, or a couple bites of my sandwich or whatever, then he gets it. Other than that, he drinks water, and sometimes I give him the baby flavored water. He seems to like that sometimes. But that's really all he gets.

I read that they should only have like 3 cups of milk a day, and that if you're concerned on how much he/she's getting then measure out 3 cups in the morning and use that for all your cooking, drinking, eating throughout the day and you'll probably find that she's getting enough of what she needs.

Delia79 · 08-11-2008, 02:24 PM

Ella's pedi said that she should get between 2 to 3 cups a day of milk...between 16 and 24 oz. My MIL gives her 16 ounces alone while she has her from 6:00 - 12:45. I try to give her water the rest of the day until it's time for bed when I give her another 6-8 ounces in a bottle. This is the only bottle she takes during the day. The rest of the time she is taking it out of a sippy cup. I worry sometimes that she is getting too much, mainly because my MIL just does what she wants and doesn't really follow instructions. I don't know if you would be confusing her or not with the one bottle a day. Ella doesn't seem to be confused by it, as like I said, she gets all of her milk from a sippy cup except for right before bed. It's hard to know if we are doing the right thing, I worry about it all of the time!!!! I think as long as your DD seems to be growing and is happy, then I wouldn't worry so much and just let things go as they will. I understand your concerns though, I think we all are a little unsure at times whether we are doing things exactly the right way or not. At least I know I do!