How much milk should my 8 month old be on?

[crazypenguinlady]

My son is 8 months old and has been on 3 meals a day for about 2.5 months. He has dropped some milk but I'm wondering how much he should be on.

At the moment, he has a bottle first thing, mid morning, mid afternoon and before bed. Bottles are between 7-8oz but usually leaves a few ounces in each one. So call it 4 bottles of 5-6oz. He also has breakfast, lunch and dinner with fruit/yoghurt/baby crisps or something for after. I'm also trying to introduce snacks.

My HV has said to try and increase solids for snacks and decrease his milk. But he still seems to want his milk a lot. I'd say he has dropped 2 bottles since starting solids.

Just wondering if he should actually only be on 2-3 bottles by now. Should add he loves food and eats most of his meals so it's not as if he's not bothered about solids.

Just seems like he's eating a lot and still having too much milk??

[aeneidbook4]

My 9 month old also has 4 bottles per day. He drinks most of the first bottle and has between 3-5 oz of the others, sometimes a little more for the final one. Overall, he has about 22oz per day and the dietician said this was OK. He won't drink any other fluid, or drink from a cup and it's really worrying me what to do when I need to reduce his milk!

[Wiggles9408]

I’m not 100% sure on the guidelines for 8 months, however my nephew is 12 months and his hv told my sister that if they are eating dairy products then their formula consumption should be reduced because they don’t need so much dairy. However if your baby is happy at this stage and is putting on weight healthily then I wouldn’t worry too much :) if you want to reduce the formula then try making smaller bottles and then offering cool boiled water?

[crazypenguinlady]

Aeneid, that's actually quite reassuring. Most people said their baby was down to 2 or 3 bottles by now.

Wiggles, yeah he has milk in his cereal for breakfast, plus cheese and yoghurt during the day so plenty of dairy. And hes definitely gaining weight well, he's a proper little pudding he's also already in 12-18 trousers and pyjamas because he's so tall

[aeneidbook4]

Actually my LO is really small, only in 3-6 month clothes (!) and the dietician said that based on his weight he should be having 800-1000ml of milk per day so yours may need more if he's bigger.

[wintertravel1980]

Of course, the actual amount will always depend on the baby but the latest Department of Health recommendation for 7 to 9 month babies is around 600mls (20oz).

firststepsnutrition.org/pdfs/How_much_milk%20_is_needed_by_infants_and_young_children_Feb16.pdf

Page 3:

By 7-9 months of age, infants should be getting significant amounts of nutrients from food, and the amount of formula milk consumed should be around 600ml a day. By 10-12 months of age, the amount of milk consumed should be around 400ml per day as food takes over as the main source of energy and nutrients. Breastfed babies will continue to take the amount of milk they need as they obtain increasing energy from food and it is not necessary to know the volume of this.

I have seen very different ranges on different websites and in different books but 600mls is the current official guideline.