So much fooooood!

[ThePants999]

DS was born on the 50th centile but quickly dropped and spent his first three months hovering between 5th and 10th. We switched from EBF to combination feeding and he took very well to bottles. He has about 50-50 expressed breastmilk and formula, and has been climbing back up, most recently around 35th centile.

That's great and all, and I figure while he's still below average weight there can't be too big a problem, but my goodness does he eat a lot! Aside from a recent period of illness, he never has less than 1000ml (36oz) in a day, usually has about 1200 (43oz) and yesterday had over 1500 (54oz). He's just about to hit the 6 month mark so probably starting a growth spurt, so I don't want to read too much into yesterday's number, but his average seems so high - I understand 32oz is the top end of "normal", so should I be worried??

He's probably ready for weaning and drinking more because the milk isn't filling him up.

No - milk is far more calorific than food. The vast majority of calories should come from milk until they are one. If the milk isn't filling him then switching some of that milk to food won't help.

If he's climbing the centiles he'll need extra calories to catch up, as he's putting on extra weight compared to a baby who is just following the same centile. DS aged 2 has growth spurts where he eats an incredible amount - he starts the day with 3 to 4 weetabix and just keeps going. If it feels like more than a big growth spurt maybe talk to a health visitor?

I wasn't talking about calories, rather the fact that food is metabolised more slowly where is milk goes through the system quickly due to it being liquid. At 6 months it's not too early to think about weaning.