Food vs milk, how do you know when to reduce milk and increase the food?

[YoniMitchell]

Hello, DS is 6 months next week and we've been weaning for a good few weeks and it seems to be going well, and he's rejecting virtually nothing in terms of flavours so far. Currently our day looks something like this:

6am - 7oz bottle
9am - baby porridge, sometimes with fruit purée or just fruit purée + 7oz bottle (not always finished)
12.30 (ish) - veg purée, getting thicker + 7oz bottle (not always finished)
4pm (ish) - veg purée, getting thicker + 7oz bottle
7.30pm - 7oz bottle

This weekend we're going to try some basic finger foods with the 9am and lunchtime feeds and see how it goes, then gradually extend this over the next week or so. We also plan to start introducing some protein to the lunch and tea time 'meals' over the next month.

My question is, how do we do this and still make sure he's getting enough milk? How much does he still need? When do we reduce milk (is it frequency of bottles or reduced amount across the same number?)?

Sorry, that's more than one question!

This is all so confusing! Any advice or ideas based on what you do would be great!

Thanks.

[fledermaus]

I would separate out the milk and food, so maybe bottle, breakfast, bottle lunch, bottle, tea, bottle. You'll probably find the bottles in the day will either reduce in volume, or you can substitute one for a snack.

As a guide they need to have 17-21oz formula a day until around 12 months.

[RunningOutOfIdeas]

Keep the first and last bottles each day at 7oz and the others can gradually reduce. Your DS is already starting to tell you that he doesn't need 2 of the bottles to be so big because he is not always finishing them. So you can follow his lead and reduce those by an oz or 2. He might then want to eat more food at the next meal time.

So long as there are 2 good bottles of milk and a range of food he will be getting all he needs.

[YoniMitchell]

Thanks both, we've reduced his 9am and 12pm bottles by an ounce and he's enjoying throwing on the floor trying some finger foods.

I'm feeling a bit braver too and trusting my interpretation of what I think he's trying to tell me!