stopping night feeds

[littlemuckypups]

I recently visited the clinic to weigh my 7 month old DD.
I asked the lady about weaning as i was having problems getting my DD to eat baby food.
It turned out we was feeding her too much formula and needed to cut down by a lot (in other words from 6x7oz milks to just 2x7oz milks) 1 in the morning and 1 at bedtime food in between.
What she forgot to mention is what am i suppose to do at night when she wakes up? she wont settle without formula so if i give her some then she will be going over what was recommended.
To make things worse the lady said if i gave her too much she will become a fat baby and wont want to crawl
These words have stuck with me and now i'm becoming paranoid about how much food i'm giving her
What would any of you do?

Ignore. She's talking bollocks. I'd give five feeds a day (I BF so don't know about quantities) with 1-2 solid meals, building up to a third over a month or two. By 9 months you can drop to three feeds provided she's established on solids and having decent snacks.

I'd also still give night feeds if she wants them but you can cut down gradually an ounce at a time as she gets established onto solids.

Cutting out milk so dramatically when she's so young is madness. Milk is the most important thing when under age 12 months.

As for being fat - babies are supposed to br chubby in my opinion! My DS was a fatty but was crawling by 7 months then walking by 10. His weight didn't hold him back

At 7 months I cut out the night feeds all together and did controlled crying to get my DS to sleep thought the night. However if you do want to continue to feed at night I would carry on as you have been. Your baby will not get fat and will crawl when she is ready.

The time it takes for a baby to learn to crawl has nothing to do with the amount she is eating.

Please do not get paranoid about how much you are feeding your baby, as long as you are feeding her a balanced and healthy diet she will not get fat. Babies will only eat as much as they want so don't worry.

HV's are supposed to be there to help not make you paranoid and worried. I have had them tell me some ridiculous things as I often made my own choices for my DS that they did not approve of. (I weaned him at 4 months and then he was on cows milk at 8 months) From what they told me he should be over weight and covered in eczema by now, however he is a very happy healthy 3 year old. You should trust your own judgement with your own baby as you know her best.

I was giving my ds too many bottles up to about two months ago, people even commented on his size . All is fine now, he's naturally dropped his night feeds (10mo) & his crawling technique is progressing very well! So don't worry about it too much!

"food is fun until they are one" , milk - formula or breast milk should still be providing most of their calories at the mo . Food is for exploring tastes, textures and experiencing as much as possible.

My DD is getting a little fatty lol! but then so was i wen i was her age apparently
I feel better now i know not to worry too much.
I did think it was a'lot to ask of her to drop that many feeds at once.
Sometimes i think HV's are just mums that think they know more than us but in the end know nothing when it comes to other peoples children. (with the exception of the odd one who occasionally is helpful)

I think HVs can forget things and expect young babies to be like older ones, say 12 months +

If you get advice like this, take a step back and think about what your instinct says. I uses to worry about things like weaning and instinctively felt that I should have DS on two feeds a day by 9 months. Then I realises that he didn't want that and when I stopped reading certain books and listening to "advice" I relaxed a bit!

I'd maybe cut down by 2 feeds, but dropping 4 feeds seems a bit much! I think you want to aim for 21-28oz a day so she has room for food too.

How about a 7oz bottle morning and bedtime, and then offering 4 or 5oz in a cup/beaker as a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack?

Personally I would try also doing a dreamfeed at 11ish of about 5oz, as this should see her through to the morning. If she wakes in the night I'd try rocking or patting her back to sleep rather than feeding.

6 7oz bottles does sound a lot that's 42oz and do you give night feeds on top? It's not surprising she has no room for solids. I actually think on this occasion the hv is talking sense. It might have been better to advise you to cut out the feeds slowly, but they do need reducing. You could either try cutting out one feed at a time or reduce the volume of the daytime feeds slowly until you cut them out completely (so you are left with 2-3 7 oz feeds). Milk should be the bulk of the calories before one but not the only source after 6 months. As for cows milk at 8 months- there's a very good reason why that is not reccommended. It fills up tiny tummies without providing enough nutrients.