Hi!
I apologise that this is going to be a really long one...
My son has always required a vast amount of milk. I breastfed him and he was attached to me literally 24 hours a day. He would fall asleep and if I put him down he would scream. He was weighed and was gaining less than the minimum amount (despite always being at the breast). HV said that him screaming when being put down was his way of telling me he is hungry and he was only falling asleep to conserve energy. After 3 weeks it was diagnosed that he had a tongue restriction. This was cut and I was told he should gain full function of his tounge within 2 weeks, but he didn't. He had blisters on his lips from sucking round the clock and because he couldn't use his tounge, his lips were doing all the work. I started exclusively pumping as I wanted him to have breastmilk and at first it seemed like the answer, super content and slept out of my arms, but his demand for milk grew to the point that he was having up to 60ozs a day and I just wasn't producing more than that. After countless appointments in feeding clinics and doctors appointments, they told me they had nothing to suggest and that he was consuming a huge amount of milk (if we didn't give him this he screamed until he got milk, nothing sufficed). After 6 weeks of having to pump every other hour, day and night, we went over to formula and he was having 5ozs every other hour (bar from 2 feeds in the night). We got to 4 months and I was back at the feeding clinics and doctors with him, because he was literally finishing one bottle and I was making him another one. They again told me it was basically unheard of and they didn't know what to suggest. He was showing all the signs of wanting solids and we eventually decided to wean. I know it's not for everyone, but I am certain it's what he needed. His hunger eventually grew again and he was having purees 3 times a day by 6 months, plus a 6/7oz bottle every 2/3 hours. It was consistent though so we went with it. Moved over to BLW with no issues and this consisted for a couple of months. NOW, over the last month (now a little over 8 months old), he one day started putting food to his mouth, would burst out crying and drop the food. After a couple of days, I started cutting his food up into bite size pieces, in case his teeth were maybe sore and he started eating again, a couple of days later his food intake started to decrease and he was reverting back to not eating and drinking tonnes of milk - Started crying every time we put him down (exactly as he did as a hungry newborn not getting enough food). After much, much, much research, I decided to start offering him food before his milk and like a miracle, he was immediatly content, dropped to 3 bottles a day (2 7ozs and 1 8oz, which I have read is just short of average for this age). As I know how important milk is, I tested my theory and offered him milk first again, which meant he didn't eat his food and became really fussy again - Definitely food first! Back to happy baby all day, eating meals and snacks, drinking the milk offered to him, but definitely not wanting more I.e. might leave half an oz. Now though he is becoming really fussy at bedtime. He has his 8ozs, goes straight to sleep, but then we are in his room every 15 or so minutes for the next couple of hours, topping him up with milk. The odd oz here and the odd half oz there... I have offered him more milk during the days, but it gets outright rejected. I have had suggestions to incorporate a bedtime weet/oatabix with a few ozs of milk, but then he will not drink his bottle and if he has had his bottle first, he won't eat the oatabix. We can't push his bedtime any later than 7pm as he is zonked by then. I'm completely out of ideas and wondered if anyone has any ideas, suggestions, similar situations? We may just need to persist, but its horrible to hear him cry, knowing it's because he is hungry.