cutting down milk feed... help

[bhk3]

my dd 7 mo just turns away her face when i give her a milk feed. she doesnt take more than 2oz at a time except her bedtime & dream feed at 1am. she seems to be teething froma long time how long does it take to appear the 1st tooth... any idea??? she's so irritated and gnawing on everything not keen on taking solid foods too.
another thing is her sleep routines she wakes at 4.45 or 5.00 in morning
wakes at 6
nap at 9 am , 11, 1pm ,4pm and bed time 7pm. her nap times dont let me take her out as she gets upset if i take her out in her nap times. please help

[BlueBumedFly]

There are lots of naps there, I am guessing her early waking may be a result of too many short naps. Would it be possible to push her out to a 9.30am, 12.30pm and 4? Sort of short term pain for a long term gain?

First teething seems to go on for ever! How about offering safe finger foods? Carrot or Cucumber sticks so she can gnaw and get the hang of solids?

Do feel for you, it can feel like you are tied to your own house and all you do is nap settle and fight over food at the age eh? It does get better I promise!

[bhk3]

i did try to give her cucumber sticks but she's confused what to do with it she just drops it down.

[BlueBumedFly]

It will come, she is still very small. I started DD on rice cakes of all things, was worried she would gag but she loved having something she could do for herself. I ate lots too! Just sat with her and munched one (euw!) and she soon got the hang of it, she preferred the apple ones.

Thinking back I think DD cut down on milk at about the same age. I was frantic but aparently they do go through this at time to time. I think she had a growth spurt at about 9 months when the milk ramped up. I had a non-eater until about a month ago. Many MNers have listened to me panic, my DD could live on 15oz of milk and a few rice cakes right up to 14 months. She terrified me. One or two mouthfuls of food and that was it, done for the day. However, she was just fine and is not a fridge hoover! Many MNers assured me she would do this and at the time I never thought she would but she did.

This too shall pass as they say, another month and hopefully you can get her down to just 2 or 3 naps so you can get out and about. Just by being out and doing stuff her appetite will ramp up. Also she will start thinking about crawling in the next 2-3 months or so and that will help too.

Good luck, I feel for you. I never thought it would change but it does, hang on it there. I was told to find a food she would eat and keep on giving it to her, no matter how daft. For us it was mashed banana and avocado, she lived on that for about a month!