Miss Gioia

Thursday, February 7, 2008

A Serious Question

When we picked up Gioia from the orphanage, we were handed a new packet of Nestle Nestogen 2 and a new bag of rice cereal. The feeding instructions were as follows: six 200 ml bottles a day (about 36 oz), each made with six scoops of formula and three scoops of rice cereal. Baby likes it hot and thick. Yes, she does.

Now here is our problem. The books say that she should be getting 24-32 oz of formula a day and simultaneously learning how to eat solids. So now she is drinking too much formula (I think - this is the essence of the question) and needs to spend more time with big girl mushy food. If we cut her down from 6 bottles a day to 5 (by eliminating the night bottle), then she is getting 800 ml a day, or 32 oz. She seems to eat really well at breakfast - rice cereal, baby food, small sweet potato puffs, so I think she could succeed with the less formula more food route.

I really don't want to blindly cut back too much on the formula though. Here is the essence of the problem: we have no idea how many scoops should normally go into a 200 ml bottle. That is because the bag instructions are in Chinese. When I google "Nestle Nestogen instructions," all I get are angry websites talking about a boycott. Because breast is best. OK, fine, I get that, but I am not able to breastfeed her. She has way too many teeth and a habit of testing them out on everything she sticks in her mouth. So no.

Now that we have established that I am not going to breast feed, can somebody please help me find some Nestogen instructions in English? Pretty please?

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6 Comments:

Blogger Liz & Chris said...

You might have to estimate--it may depend on the size of the scoop. When we used that formula it came with a smaller scoop for the #1 formula (like a tablespoon) and a larger scoop for the #2 formula (like 2 tbsp). We mixed 2:1 parts of formula and rice cereal, the rice cereal/formula mixture made up about 1/3 of the bottle and then we added water to the top line of the bottle. If it doesn't seem thick enough, add more. I remember sometimes having the formula/rice cereal mixture be almost half the bottle. You also may need to open up the hole in the nipple a bit or get a fast flow nipple.
It's true that your baby may not want to eat as much if they are getting a lot of calories from the rice cereal and formula. You might want to try to cut down the number of bottles and keep encouraging food. Except for the morning bottle, you might want to try to offer food first, and then offer the bottle second. Just some ideas--I can't even remember how I found your blog! Your daughter is beautiful. Congratulations!

February 7, 2008 11:49 AM  
Blogger rebx said...

Nestle's company site doesn't seem ot have any specific product info, but I did find something on one of the many Anti-Nestle sites that might be useful for you - It's an image of the feeding table from a container of Nestogen 1 from the Philipines;
http://www.babymilkaction.org/pics/photographs/philippines06/nestlephilippinesif06b.jpg
here's the page it's on, in case that link doesn't work:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/CEM/cemnov06labels.html

Hope that helps.

February 7, 2008 4:00 PM  
Blogger Karrie said...

Try this site:

http://www.verybestbaby.com/GoodStart/PrepStorage.aspx?ProductId=108F6251-3DFA-4BF2-9C48-79D2C7E451EA

It may be helpful.

Gioia is GORGEOUS!!
Best wishes!

Karrie in IN

February 8, 2008 1:04 AM  
Blogger Beverly said...

You can get the Nestle equivalent in the US. Good Start is what we used. Base the amount of formula off a can of US formula. If you are still in China as the guide to help you. Are you home?

Beverly

February 8, 2008 6:46 AM  
Blogger BevS97 said...

1 scoop per 30 ml works out at 6 scoops per 180ml plus a bit more water for the rice cereal, and that's what we used to use for our formula - obviously if the scoop is a different size then that won't work, but if you made up 30ml with 1 scoop it should look like milk, it should be pretty obvious if it's too thick.

In the UK, we wouldn't add rice cereal to the formula, that would be served as a 'solid', mixed with a little bit of the formula milk in a bowl and given with a spoon.

However, if she's used to thick formula, she's probably going to object if you go straight to milk, so I'd reduce the rice gradually until you are just offering milk (reducing it over a month or so)

I'm not sure how old she is, but I'd maybe offer some finger foods too, pieces of fruit to chew on were popular with my girls. They don't get much nutrition from it, but it gets then used to the idea that food is something you eat rather than drink.

Congratulations on your beautiful baby, I came over to your blog to read patchwork instructions a while back, but have been following your story to Miss Gioia, you must both be over the moon.

February 9, 2008 6:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi,
I was doing a google search for the Nestogen formula from China and came across your website. We adopted a baby from China and I thought I saved a empty bag of this Nestogen formula for my daughter's scrapbook but I can't find it anyplace. I wondered if you by any chance saved the package from any of the bags you got from China? Thanks! Linda

October 2, 2008 10:30 AM  

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