6 month old refuses milk now she's on solids

[ChocolateyClaire]

My LO has been on solids for a month now and we have been gradually trying lots of different things from purees to finger food. She's fairly good with food but has completely gone off her milk. She usually has 1 or 2 bottles (150ml + 50ml) at night (which doesn't help the day feeds!) but even if she's only had 40ml at, say 3am, her morning bottle will be 30ml max. She'll have breakfast straight after her bottle and then I'll try another bottle at around 11.30 which she drinks about 60ml of, followed by lunch. I offer another at 3.30 ish and that'll be another 60ml ish. Dinner is then at 5pm

The only guaranteed one is her bedtime one, at 6.30 ish, which is 210ml and she usually drinks it all.

My first child was similar to this and I remember panicking then but can't remember the solution!!

[creations]

Hi there
Three meals is quite a lot for a 6 month old.  I know my own DS was really into solids and went to 3 meals quickly too but I was confident his milk intake didn't drop at all, in fact it increased.  Generally though the guidance is to gradually increase the number of meals from 1 at 6 months to 3 at 8 months. If you are at all concerned about milk intake I would consider cutting back on solids for a while, either much smaller portions or reduce the number of solids meals.  Portion sizes are tiny at this age, a couple of teaspoons counts as a 'meal' so this is worth keeping in mind too.

I would look at the overall milk intake, both day and night, to decide if your LO is getting enough and go from there.  If she is formula fed I would expect one milk feed at night, if there are more you might be able to move some of the milk intake to the day hours.
hope this helps

[ChocolateyClaire]

Well she's not having 3 proper meals a day, we're just sitting her down with us and sometimes she'll have a few mouthfuls and other times barely anything.

Her milk in the day is terrible though. So far today she had a good 120ml this morning but then just 40ml at around 11 and she's just had 30ml. I calculated yesterday's intake and in total it was nearing 600ml BUT that was mainly made up by 180ml at bedtime, 160ml at 10.30 and 110ml at 3.40!

[creations]

Not sure where you are, the guidance on minimum amount of milk varies country to country (and I can't claim to know what/where) but 600ml is pretty much acceptable amount in the UK although I think most babies would be taking more.

I wonder if you stopped giving her breakfast right after her bottle in the morning she would get the idea she needs to fill up on milk first, then breakfast an hour later?

I know you said you are offering a range of foods, anything that might be too filling? any whole grain foods for instance?
Is she eating dairy foods in addition to the milk?  These also count towards the daily intake so if she has a wedge/block of cheese or a pot of yoghurt it all counts.

What if you started to wean that 3.40am feed so that her WU milk increases to a proper feed too?
You can go slowly and still have it done in about 7-10 days without any fuss.

I'll see if Lolly (bottle feeding) can stop by here too.

[Lolly]

Hello!

Has her milk intake always been on the low side? I would expect her to have bigger bottles by now - is the 180ml bottle the most she will take? Are you on the fastest flow teat? Does she have reflux? What is her growth like? Sorry for all the Qs!!

I agree with Creations about dropping the night feed - most babies have dropped that by now and then the dreamfeed gets dropped around 8 months. You can do it by reducing the amount in the bottle by 30ml every 3 nights so she gets used to having less in her tummy. Although given she only takes a small bottle have you tried just resettling rather than feeding?

Laura

[creations]

Thanks for stopping by Laura Much appreciated.

[Vsta]

just yesterday I thought "what a useful topic, hoping to find an answer because I have the same problem with my 7.5m"

but tonight he skipped his NF for the first time:
- I fed him almost 300ml from 3pm to 6pm + some banana+rice cereal
- he woke up around 11pm and definitely it was to early so I gave him teething drops, water and dummy (after 5 attempts to settle him with dummy only)
- he made some noises around 5am but stayed asleep and I fed him just 50ml.
Had to rock him and give water from time to time, around 6.45am when I put in the cot and he woke up - this part isn't very good I know.

So today at 7.30am he already finished 200ml, at 8am he ate 3-4 teaspoons of porridge. At 12pm he got another 180ml which never happened before as I always struggled to feed him with formula during the day but he had a full bottle at bedtime and NF.

Hope you'll find it encouraging

[creations]

Thanks for stopping by with your experience Vsta

ChocolateyClaire - how are things now? Any improvement?