BLW - cutting down the milk

[oldnewmummy]

My son is 10.5 months and BLWd. Seems to like a wide variety of food, but doesn't eat huge quantities so still has about 5 bottles per day.

Do I need to actively cut some out as he approaches 1, or will he start to lose interest in milk as time goes on?

[Wordwitch]

Hi there oldnewmummy.
My son is 6 months and still has 4 bottles a day along with 3 solids meals. He is starting to lose interest slightly (as are his peers) in the milk, but appareently they tend to need a bit of enouragement to make the leap. The way I see it is look out for the bottle he is least interested in and start phasing that one out. For example, the one my son never finishes is the 11 am ish one, so that's the first one we'll do away with. Gradually.
The baby nutritionist suggests 18 oz a day milk needed until 1 year old. That's 3 feeds, so as long as he's getting that much, he will be fine. Also getting less milk will mean he will naturally eat more solids, even if the portions are small at the moment. Apparently babies are surprisingly good at figuring out what they need.
If you're worried about the jump to solids, hide formula in them, e.g. mix it into baby porridge or baby rice, weetabix etc to make the transition easier.
Does that help?

[KermAitchTheFrog]

my experience was that dd was on 4-5 bottles a day until 14 months and then dropped back quite sharply to 2. HVs say that it should be no about 18 - 30 oz per day under one, i think. all the while dd's food intake went steadily up, she was healthy, happy etc so i was okay with waiting for her to sort it out for herself. you shoudl do whatever you feel most comfortable with.