Milk after 1 year

[AndBingoWasHisNameOh]

DD is 14 months and I need to understand how much milk she should have at at her age.

Monday to Friday she is BF morning and evenings (or given expressed milk if I'm unavailable) with some cows milk in the afternoon with the nanny, weekends she has morning, afternoon and evening feeds. I work full time week days. She has been feeding once or twice in the night as well but we're trying to night wean.

DD has taken to cow's milk well and I'm thinking of stopping BF quite soon. When she has a bottle she normally only takes 100-140ml which seems less than FF babies used to take.

But what I'm struggling with is how much cow's milk she should have. my HV swears blind she MUST have a pint a day which sounds a lot. Online sources I've found suggest min of 300ml, another a max of 350ml, a third 300ml plus a portion of yoghurt/cheese. Clearly I want to ensure she is getting enough but her appetite isn't huge and I don't want it swamped by milk. Similarly I've found a range of answers as to how much calcium she needs when I looked at it that way.

So can anyone point me to a definitive answer on how much milk she should have?

I don't think there is a definitive answer, but from 12 months somewhere around 350ml is recommended (dropping from a pint prior to 12 months). However, yoghurt/cheese/custard etc will all count towards this.

If you are concerned your DD is not drinking enough milk maybe include more dairy and other calcium containing food in her diet? (Found in leafy greens/sardines/oranges too so not just dairy.)

Think your HVs info is a little out of date. As I understand it the recommendation is, if you're not bfing, its 300ml a day of full fat cows milk per day until she reaches 24 months. This includes any milk used in cooking like cereals, fish pie, rice pudding etc.

There's also no need for bottles once she's hit 12 months, she'll be fine with cups.

As for the calcium, according to this NHS article, she needs 350mcg a day. Don't forget though that while you are bfing she should get all she needs from you and her diet. It doesn't have to be all milk and milk products either, she can get calcium from fortified sources like ready brek, from green leafy vegetables, sardines and pilchards, tofu and nuts. She can't have whole nuts until she is 3, but smooth nut butters should be a good source.

As for the night weaning, have you read the kellymom info on night weaning and 12 alternatives for the all night feeder by dr sears? Ipad is playing up do it won't let me do those links sorry. It might also be worth looking at the Isis website

Xposted with fleecy there.

My DS is 14 months. He drinks about 200- 250ml at bedtime and he has some in the morning to drink and with breakfast. Plus yogurts etc. I reckon he drinks about 350ml each day but I honestly had no idea what the 'recommendation' was. I also give milk at snack time instead of water too. Full fat cows milk.

Thanks very much for the advice. 300ml sounds much more realistic. I suspect DD is having too much milk but once night weaned we'll have a look at slowly reducing some of the day time milk over time which should hopefully improve appetite for other food.

Thanks also for the links on night weaning. I'd tried to avoid it and had done some of the things suggested when I'd seen the Dr Sears links previously like feeding before I went to sleep - after a week DD started to wake up for a feed before my bed time when hadn't been previously but still wanted feeding two other times in the night! I need to night wean though as I have a job with long hours, the wakings aren't quick as she doesn't want to go back to sleep and I'm knackered.

Around 14 to 15 months my dd went from wanting to feed at night and sleep to wanting to play, not good. We'd been co sleeping so I moved her to her own room which helped, although I didn't fully night wean till much later.

Have you got someone who could try to settle her in the night instead of you feeding her? Have you seen the Dr Jay Gordon method and read kellymom sleep studies?

Dh is going in and comforting her and we are getting results, just a slow process.

It is a slow process, but I think that's why it's important to read isis and other information on normal infant sleep. Try to remember facts like at 12months 55% of babies still wake, no matter how they are fed or parented.