Conflicting formula feeding advice for 9 month old

[Serendipitous80]

Hi all, I really struggling with feeding my 9 month old baby. Food is a constant struggle (teething isn't helping), but sometimes my dd decides she will eat and other times she clamps her mouth shut and turns her head away.

I've already dropped the formula a week ago to 24 ounces. She was on 28 ounces but the HV advised she was possibly filling up on milk. She used to drink 32 ounces at around 6 months then just didn't seem so hungry anymore.

My question is really, how much do people freed their babies of similar ages in terms of formula (especially if they don't eat a lot!) ? I called the HV the other day as it concerns me how little my dd eats overall and she suggested I cut her milk massively. All other advice states at least 20 ounces of milk, so I'm really confused. My dd weighs 23 pounds so definitely isn't wasting away, but if she's not eating much, then surely cutting milk further which just reduce the nutrients she is receiving?!

I've got a meeting with one of then next week for further advice, hoping they don't suggests he needs less milk!

I'm*

My understanding is that the 20oz is of all dairy type things (I could be wrong) so youghurts, cheese, cows milk etc all count for that.

DS has recently really gone off his milk and probably only has maximum of 20oz (more likely 14). He does eat well though.

Give it a try I think, just make sure you keep up the dairy (I'm obsessed with dairy! Can you tell?)

It's a difficult one as you aren't sure if she's not eating well because of too much milk or for other reasons.

When is she having her bottles? My 8 month old dd has 8oz at 8.30/9am, 8oz at 1/2pm and 9oz at 7pm for bedtime. She's eating three meals well and snacks if she happens to be awake when I'm giving ds snacks.

You could try changing the timing of the bottles so that she'll be having food first and you could also try reducing the amount of formula in each bottle. Even if you give this a go for a couple of days and it doesn't work out, you can go back to your current routine and think of something else to try.

Thank you. The problem is her refusal if foods. She will usually eat petit flips though! Not sure how many ounces that would equate to!

Filous* argh autocorrect!!!

She was having her bottles at around the same time as yours TheAuthoress, but lately she's waking around 6-6.30am, so having a bottle after porridge (if I'm lucky).

She had started eating a bit better but as her first tooth is starting to poke through it's declined again.

I have changed to food first, but she's pretty bright and will sometimes leave food and shout for a bottle!

Working on the 'food is fun before they're one' theory I let ds have whatever milk he wanted and food was an added bonus! I did try to time milk for inbetween mealtimes but that was about it!!

I'm just going through this my ds2 who's 8.5 mo. My wonderful HV said to me last week that some start to shift towards two big bottles (8oz) at this age.

We only stopped bf 1.5 weeks ago but I noticed a massive drop in how much he'd eat/drink when I replaced all bf with formula (he's always had 1/2 bottles). Think we've cracked it now though with this:

7am 6/7 oz Milk
8am cereal with any leftover milk + another 2oz roughly
11.30am - lunch (just dropped 11am milk and he's eating much better now. Give yoghurt for pud)
2.30/3 - 6oz milk
5.30 - dinner
7pm - 7oz milk

So he's having about 20oz of straight milk with yoghurt and a bit of extra milk thrown in. HV also said about making sure he has protein at lunch and dinner. He's a big boy (91st percentile).

Hope that helps?

When did he start eating properly MrsSpencerReid?

Thanks LittleMills. She's on 3 8oz bottles now. I've dropped the 11am bottle too. I might try the quantities you are using and see if this helps :)

Forgot to say. Tiredness may also be an issue as she barely naps in the day now and sits up and shouts I. Her cot when I out her down. She used to nap so much better!

17-20oz is the minimum recommended amount of formula (not dairy products) as if they are taking less than this they aren't getting the full amount of vitamins etc and would need to be supplemented with a vitamin pill.

I agree about the tiredness, my dd is rubbish at eating if she's tired. She's just away up for bottle and bed after eating barely anything at lunch and just moaning the whole time. The clock change has knocked her out today as she wasn't tired for her morning nap.

Are you feeding her or letting her feed herself? We spoon feed anything that would be eaten with cutlery but otherwise let her feed herself - she gets sandwiches for lunch and most snacks are finger foods. She does really well with these, she is a right independent madam and your dd sounds the same! You could try toast and banana for breakfast if it's difficult to give her porridge?

Around a year ish, he is almost 2 now and eats really well, always has seconds at nursery and eats most things

Milk is much more important, nutritious and calorific than any food. She will get there in her own time. Is there a reason you want her to be eating more? Other than that you think she 'should' be by now. Have you tried any aspects of baby led weaning? She may be more willing to try foods if she can touch, smell, taste, see and play with them before she has to eat them or put them in her mouth. She may also like to control her own food. If she's waking earlier than normal she's probably hungry for milk. I see no reason to drop her milk in order to make her eat, that would only frustrate her as she probably doesn't know that food will cure her hunger. Also make sure you give her milk before food so that she's not hungry and more willing to try solids.

I don't agree with the advice you have been given- cutting milk feeds is the last thing she needs. If your baby was 18 months old then perhaps the advice may be helpful, but she is still very young.

My babies did not start eating solids at all until they were 8-9 months. I did baby led weaning ( was breastfeeding) and although I offered food from 6 months they didn't eat anything until later, and evn then only tiny amounts.
At 9 months they were eating the equivalent of 3-4 teaspoons a day.

Please try not to worry, - if your baby is gaining weight, alert and thriving then another month or two won't harm her.
Does she like finger foods? She may enjoy munching on something solid- especially if she is teething.

Hope you don't mind- this is a copy of I made on another thread to help a mum with a 9 month old with teething problems- I thought some of it may help too. X

"Some things that helped my LOs through teething were Weleda Chamomilla granules, really seemed to take the edge off things. Bonjela of course, and cool things from the fridge. Does your DD enjoy finger foods? I kept cooked carrot batons in the fridge, they seemed to enjoy the coolness on the gums but a prticular favourite was the inside part of a cucumber, just the part with seeds, I would cut a long baton shaped piece, again cold from the fridge, and my babies loved it. Cucumber is considered cooling and soothing in Ancient Chinese and Indian Medicine- don't know if there is any truth in that, but really helped to calm my babies, even when quite hot and upset with the pain.
Another thing that helped was using a damp clean cotton cloth straight from the fridge to allow babies to chew ( always with superviaion of course). Somehow the chewing action seemed to alleviate the pain, and my babies seemed to know instincively what to do with the cloth, pulliing and ganawing on the sore areas. I think helps the teeth erupt a little quicker- not sure but they enjoyed it."

Everything I am reading here is what I thought. I feel the advice I was given previously has made me question myself. It gets very confusing as a first time Mum. There is so much conflicting advice all the time.

I do a mixture of feeding and baby lead weaning. Then she actually swallows some food and it doesn't just go to the dog! I feel she should be eating more as she is the only child this age that I know who doesn't eat 3 full meals per day. I worry easily and I feel she may be missing out on extra nutrients. Saying that, I started the weaning later than most of my friends, so that may be why.

She had 28oz yesterday as ate so little food, but she seemed happy. Today she seems to like the food I'm giving her! We've been out though and she's napped a lot in the car. Maybe that us the issue.

It's really helpful to read all of the above, thank you :)

Atthestrokeoftwelve - yes she is alert, very much so .. Gaining weight and thriving, so there are no worries there really :)