Reduced milk intake

[Lolie14]

My little one started weaning 3 weeks ago. Before that she was having roughly 35oz of milk a day. Since weaning she will only take around 16oz. I always give her a bottle first but she just isn't interested but loves her food!

Do I drop a meal to keep her hungry enough food a full bottle or is she dropping her milk for a reason?

 

[Lucyboo]

How old is your LO? How many meals a day is she on and how many bottles are the 35oz spread over?

My lg started dropping her feeds at 5 months so I dropped one bottle completely for her and offered bigger feeds as she was only on 6oz bottles 5 times a day. At weigh in last month hv told me to drop bottle no 4 and give her just 3 bottles a day so now she has that with 3 meals a day and 1 snack.

She now has approx 6oz in morning, 2 oz on breaky, 6 oz at 2pm and 7oz at 6.45pm.

 

[Lolie14]

She is 6 months. She used to have five 7 oz bottles. She isnt even interested in the first bottle of the day - she goes 10 hours + through the night but will only take 3oz when she wakes. She has three meals a day.

 

[Lucyboo]

Being on 3 meals a day makes it not as bad. Maybe introduce the milk in a meal if you aren't already. Could easily sneak 2-3 oz in porridge/ready break. Maybe see if she improves on taking it over 3-4 bottles, my little girl went back onto her milk after a couple of blips, could she be teething?? I think some babies just automatically drop milk themselves or just aren't huge milk drinkers. I think it makes us worry when you hear other babies are on 9oz feeds. Hopefully she will pick it up again eventually x

 

[Lolie14]

I get just over an oz into her weetabix in the morning but as she is baby led she doesn't get it all in!

She stayed up later last night and took 6oz before bed, then had another 6oz this morning at 8 when she woke so I guess she is just going to be up and down with her milk maybe!

Thank you for your advice - I keep reading that milk is their main nutrition until they are one so it does worry me sometimes.

 

[Ella1979]

You could do part baby-led and part traditional weaning to ensure that she has more milk during the day, as you can make purees with it. I'm trying to remember how much milk they're supposed to have per day once they start weaning. I think it's around 18oz, but I'll see if I can find the actual answer!

EDIT: it is 18-21oz.

 

[Lolie14]

Thanks Ella, she isn't too far off then?

We are doing baby led so she doesnt have purees. I don't want to confuse her by going down the traditional weaning with added finger food route.

 

[Ella1979]

I never did BLW, so wasn't sure if it was do-able adding in purees, but she is taking very close to the recommended amount of milk, so I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[Lolie14]

She has taken a lot more milk today so I'm guessing she is working it out for herself maybe?

Just when I'm used to her routine she throws me a curve ball! Again!

 

[Lucyboo]

Glad she is better with her milk today. Hopefully it was just a blip. x

 

[Ella1979]

Sometimes babies and toddlers adjust their food/drink intake across the week, rather than over a day. I remember being told this by both my daughter's paediatrician and my HV. Certainly my daughter adjusts her intake across a week, so some days she will eat huge amounts and other days she'll pick at things. I've taken ages to get used to it, but not so bad now!

It's probably worth making a note of her intake over the week, then dividing it to get the average daily intake. You'll probably find that she's well within what would be considered "normal".

 

[Lolie14]

Thank you, yes I will. That makes sense