9 month old advice!!!! Weaning, sleeping?! Please help!!

[mummy2lola]

Hi there.
Need some advice on our 9 month old dd.
Firstly, i started weaning at 6 months & she's only just moved on to slightly lumpy food, but will happily eat finger foods e.g. Toast soldiers etc..
I'm worried that by 12months they're not supposed to have any daytime feeds, and so far I've only managed to knock out 1 bottle which is her 3pm afternoon bottle replaced by her tea. Her routine goes like this on average:

6am 6oz feed then back to bed
8am 1/2 pot porridge & 1 round of bread or toast with cheese spread/marmite
12- savoury Ella's kitchen stage 2 (about 10 mouthfuls)
Offered a 6pz bottle
3pm- cheese sandwich, fruit, yoghurt
6pm- 8oz bedtime bottle
6.30pm bed

She doesn't usually wake at night, and usually sleeps from 6pm-7am but lately she's been waking at 11pm and 1am crying and wailing. I thought this was hunger, but it might be teething, as her top two teeth are coming through- am I right?

What bottles do I cut out next, & how many bottles should she be having by her first birthday? I'm so confused
Anybody with advice, is really appreciate it. Thank u

lola who has told you that you should be cutting down the bottles? This simply isn't true. At this age most of her nutrition should be from her milk, solids are more about exploring taste and texture.

The guidelines say that 20floz of first stage milk a day is a minimum until they are one. Once your Lo has turned one you can ditch the bottles and formula and offer 10 floz of full fat cows milk per day.

I'd put back the bottle you've already dropped, then you will know that if she's still waking, its unlikely to be from hunger.

If its teething that is causing the waking, have you tried ibruprofen?

There is also a massive sleep regression around 9 months that could be making her wake up, and there very little you can do about that sorry but be there for her. There's more info here and if you go to the wonder weeks website they have information on developmental leaps too

Don't worry the food schedule is fine there is no hard and fast rule about when they reduce bottles/feeds. as it happens the day time bottle is the easiest/most logical to drop as the morning and night one tend to be most wanted by baby. The waking is unlikely to be hunger and very likely to be either teething or the 9 month sleep regression (sorry). So use calpol or just give sympathy and wait for it to pass.

Thanks Jilted,
It's my mother telling me this, and she does stress me out with. Waning advice, as it completely contradicts everything I'm doing.so does my routine look ok to you?
I might give her the 3pmbottle again then, seeing as she doesn't drink all 6oz of each bottle anyway.

What is a 9 month sleep regression? WE've never had any sleep regressions yet.
Thank you

Your routine looks fine to me. There is no rush to cut down the bottles other than to make life a little easier with regard washing / sterilising. They should be getting most of their nutrition from milk before 1yo anyway and food before then is to experiment and try lots of tastes and fill up hungry tummies. There is no hard and fast rule. Ds1 had medical problems and feeding phobia and didn't even start weaning until he was 15mo and even then he only ate yoghurt and biscuits. That obviously isn't ideal, but your lo will be fine even if she prefers to continue more milk than some babies until she is a little older. Dd2 is 9 1/2 mo and has 3 solid meals and 4 7oz bottles a day. My only difference is that for lunch she has sandwiches or toast to munch on plus some savoury puree followed by some fruit puree or a nectarine or some fruit to eat with her hands, and again savoury followed by either fruit or yoghurt for supper. But she eats small volumes of these so probably isn't eating more solids than your lo.

Your DM sounds like she has your best interests at heart, and not giving daytime feeds was probably the advice she was given when you were a baby. In the last 20 to 30 years since you were born there has been much more research carried out and now its widely believed that a baby between 6 and 12 months needs to get their nutrition from the milk and "food should be for fun until you are one".

The wakings could well be a sleep regression. These usually happen around 4 months, 9 months, 13 and 18 months and it's when a baby usually starts to wake more than they did before. There is more about sleep regressions if you click here.

Does dd like milk before her naps and before bedtime? How many naps is she on now?

Have you read the MN weaning info? I think you might find the information on milk useful. The NHS info on solids is here. It doesn't say anything about dropping feeds now in preparation for no milk feeds in the day at 12 months. What it does say is that as you baby has more solid food they might want less milk or drop a milk feed altogether. So really you should take your lead from dd. If she is happy to drop a bottle that's fine, but don't think you have to force the issue and don't forget 20floz of first stage formula is the minimum she should be having until she's one

Thought you might like this thread too

Agree with what the others have said but will also add about the milk feeds: the 20oz thing can be quite worrying and stressful, but ultimately you cannot force feed your baby milk.

My DS is now nearly 9mo. Started weaning at 5mo. I have followed his lead and have only stopped giving bottles when he has stopped drinking them. He is quite clear: pusbes bottle away when soesnt want it. i persever for a week or ao but when he consistently pushes a bottle away i know that one has been 'dropped'. if your LO still drinks some milk then continue to offer the feed.

This week DS has now 'dropped' his mid afternoon bottle (having dropped his mid morning one at 7mo). So he is now only having milk on waking at 6.30am and before bed at 6.30pm. He has 14oz in total during the day.

He also has a few oz of cows milk on his weetabix in the morning, a yoghurt after lunch and at least one of his meals every day has a large cheese component. So I think he is doing ok with his calcium needs. I feel pretty stressed every time I read something on these boards saying that DS should be getting a minimum of 20oz of formula a day, but ultimately - like so much else to do with being a mum- you have to be led by your baby and acknowledge that the Department of Health's guidelines might not be possible to apply to your baby.

I have told my HV what my baby eats/drinks and he is not concerned. I am not going to start removing food from his day and giving him milk feeds back (which he probably would refuse anyway) because ultimately he is a little person who now eats breakfast lunch and dinner with me and DH and that's what he has chosen to do.