How much milk?

[Murphy29]

Hi, I searched and found some old threads on this topic but they were coming from the angle of looking to drop milk whereas I'm worried DS isn't taking enough.

He's 6mo and we started weaning a few weeks ago (in line with bliss guidelines for preemies) as he was getting worse and worse with bottles, physically shoving them away and thankfully his motor skills have caught up so he had all the signs of being ready. He's taking food really well but still fighting bottles unless fed whilst asleep

An average day is looking like this at the moment:

8am - 5oz milk then baby rice with fruit purée mixed in
12pm - 4oz milk
4pm - 5oz milk then a full pouch of food
8pm - 5oz milk
3am - 8oz milk

I don't know if I just worry because we had so long in hospital having to force a few ml down him or it went down the ng tube and so we've always been very aware of his milk intake. Any thoughts or advice much appreciated.

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

Ours is a bottle hater too, unless its a nightfeed, but what we discovered a week or so ago is that he will wolf a bottle down if he is sat in his bouncer for a feed. Im not sure if he just dislikes being held for a feed.

Could you try that?

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Sorry, I have no experience of premmies. Hope someone comes along soon

[RatOnnaStick]

The amount of milk is fine. Anywhere between 20 and 30oz (600-900ml) a day is normal and he's having around 27oz. The bottle thing is a pain but theres no reason you couldn't try it in a sippy cup now. If his.motor skills have caught up he should be able to manage it.
Ds2 was an ebf bottle hater, never once accepted more than a couple of mouthfuls, but he was very happy with. A sippy cup.

[icklekid]

Sounds very much like my ds who as soon as food was introduced (early because of not taking much milk) was not interested. I've decided to try hard not to stress about milk as I have done almost all his life! He has now at 9 months pretty much dropped to 2 7oz bottles morning and night. I try and give him another in the day but rarely will he take it... health visitor has been fab and his weight is fine. He's just a boy who knows when he's hungry and when he's not and just grateful food has gone better - he started eating 3 good meals quite quickly. ..

[WishUponAStar88]

Have you had him weighed recently? I'm also weaning my (term) 6 month old and she doesn't seem to be taking as much milk although is bf so not sure on volumes. Although initially on mainly fruit and veg I have started to give more in terms of yoghurt, cheese etc for nutrients and she's weeing/ pooing and had put on weight last wewk so I'm not too worried. This is just my opinion though, perhaps see your hv if worried?

[Murphy29]

Thanks everyone that's reassuring. He was weighed 3 weeks ago just before we starting weaning at a walk in and was 14.5lb so just above 25th corrected.

I'll try and get the HV to come just to make sure as we were meant to have extra visits for him being so small at birth but not had a visit since January. They don't seem to understand preemies though.

Definitely can't drop the night feed anytime soon though as it's the only decent one!

[Murphy29]

Good idea about the sippy cup too, at the moment he has the tommee tippee first sips but he just chews on the teat. It seems a funny texture so I'll maybe get a different one and try that.