Time to wean? My baby is going off her milk and getting nowhere near recommended amount of formula

[Sportswearclaire]

Hi there. I've only ever posted one question before so forgive me laboriously longhand message!

Over the past three days my baby girl hasn't been finishing bottles/showing any interest in drinking her milk. I normally make up 5 x 7oz a day and she will drink the whole amount twice out if five bottles if I'm lucky. I dream feed her at 11 and she eats between 3 and 7 ounces, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it, but never wakes up hungry.

I'm moved her morning bottle to 8am, just because if I try feeding her any earlier she will only take 3oz. Yesterday was her worst day yet - no more than 4oz in each of her four feeds, then she had a bit of a meltdown last night and wouldn't drink any of her 11pm feed. I thought she'd wake up starving but at 8.30 I finally managed to get her to eat (the full 7oz, thank goodness).

I know the guidelines are very rough and each baby is different, but my little one is getting considerably less than the 2.5-2.7 times her weight. Do babies go off their milk/drink less when they're ready to wean or do you think I'm worrying unneccessarily? I'm going to go and see my health visitor next week, but unfortunately she's only in one day a week and in between I'd like some reassurance because I'm very worried/stressed!

how old is your baby?

Five months almost to the day

she could be ready but by guess is that she is just ready to give up the dream feed. Do you need to wake her up for it?
I think babies are usually considered ready when they are having four full bottles a day and still hungary, and show all the other signs (grabbing your food etc. )

Is she sitting up unaided?

I wonder if she's got a tummy bug brewing, or some other change - I'd wait and see what's going on with her.

Yes, I was thinking of trying that after some sisterly advice, but my only worry is that last night she didn't have her 11pm feed and STILL didn't wake up hungry! She's never been a greedy baby, but trying to cram four feeds into the day is very hard as it is... she goes four hours easily and if I try and feed her earlier (to get the four bottles in) she will only have 3/4oz (and is quite happy to wait another four hours for next bottle). She's not grabbing for my food at all, so I think you're right about weaning...

A few suggestions:

Could you drop the 11pm feed completely? 5 months is quite old to still be having this feed imo.

Your baby might also need a faster flowing teat on the bottle - that can often be the key to getting a baby to drink more milk at each feed. They tend to get frustrated if the milk isnt flowing fast enough.

Offering a bottle more often, even if she only drinks a couple of ozs at a time might also help with the total quantity of milk she drinks in a day.

Other things to consider is whether there is anything physical affecting her feeding - does she have thrush in her mouth? Is there any signs of her teething which can make feeding painful? Is she showing any signs of illness in any other way - often babies go right off feeding when they are ill and this will pick up again when they are feeling better. Maybe a check up with your GP would be a good place to start if other things don't work?

No, not sitting up unaided... but she is chewing on my finger so much that it hurts (and grabbing for my finger to chew on if it's anywhere near her mouth), so definitely think she is teething. Does this put babies off their food? Might explain the meltdown last night (and two nights previously), which is very out of character for her, she's normally pretty good at going to sleep.

I've switched to faster flowing teats as soon as I've been allowed (she's on a no.3 now), for that reason. As soon as I went from no.2 to no.3 she started drinking more. Will drop 11pm feed this eve and see how it goes. I'm going to monitor her over the weekend and see how she is, but she's showing no other signs of illness (she's been very happy/smiley/giggly this morning). If she doesn't change over the weekend I'm book to see GP asap.

i think you need to give her calpol,nurofen 2 hours after calpol, and buy a tube of baby bonjela........this can be used every 30 mins,if she is teething her gums will be swollen and sore so she may not like the feel of her bottle in her mouth at the moment

Will check her gums when she wakes up... my boyfriend suggested Calpol last night but I don't want to give it to her unnecessarily. Off out to buy teething remedies asap!

nowt wrong with giving calpol to a fractious baby

My second DD was never that into her bottles of either formula or expressed BM. I struggled with her to get what I felt was sufficient into her. In the end though I came to accept that it was just her level of appetite - hard when DD#1 was such a piggy from the word go and I had to put her onto hungry baby formula!!! With DD#2 I found she took more in a feed if we spaced them out a bit more, so we basically went to 4 bottles a day (24hrs) and even then she often didn't finish them. What matters the most is how they are in themselves - are they well, are they active, are they growing and putting on weight. If all those are favourable answers then just accept her choice for amounts. DD#2 is now 16 months old and a little pig! Once she got active her appetite changed dramatically. She thoroughly enjoys her bottles of milk so she was not a milk hater either.
I also agree with the poster who wrote about teat sizes - they made a huge difference for us too. We moved up sizes before she was the recommended age and she coped very well with the bigger holes. She was on a size 2 from a week old.