8.5 month old refusing bottles

[R184]

My baby is 8.5 months old and has always struggled with bottles and not wanting to take them. We’ve got this far but she’s now refusing more and more of them, is it too soon for her to be on 2 bottles a day? This is our current routine...
7.30am 5oz bottle
8.30am porridge or toast
9.30 - 10.30/11 nap
12pm lunch + yoghurt
1.30-2.30/3 nap
3/3.30 6oz bottle (takes 4-6oz’s)
5.30pm dinner + yoghurt
7pm 7oz bottle (takes between 4-7oz’s)

I give as much cheese and yoghurt as I can! What else can I do? She really isn’t interested in the 3pm bottle anymore and eats hers solids very well!

Thank you!

My son was the same, it was a battle to get him to take any milk at all. He would take 2-3 oz here and there but some days he was only having 12oz a day. He was always big though so he must have a very slow metabolism! We couldn't breastfeed so bottles were the only option and it was incredibly frustrating. He never ever, not once, took more than 5oz in one go and even then it was only a handful of times.

On the plus side, he took to weaning really well, loves food and is a complete bottomless pit when it comes to solids! He's 14 months now and hasn't had a bottle since he was about ten months, apart from one in the night (that's another story...) and stopped that one a few weeks ago. I'm glad it's over. Tough it out is my only advice, some babies just don't like milk. Even now, mine won't touch cows milk unless it's in cereal or yoghurt etc.

If she’s taking less than 20 floz a day you need to be giving a vitamin supplement and also making sure she gets not only enough calcium but enough fat too. She can have oily fish upto twice a week so try things like fishcakes made with tinned salmon (with bones) and sardines on toast. Brocolli is high in calcium as are almonds. Try adding smooth almond butter to her toast some mornings. Baked beans are another good source of calcium, but not fat. You could always add butter to them, that’s if you can cope with the mess of letting her eat them

As soon as my ds turned 6 months and began to eat solids he totally refused a bottle from then on

@mistermagpie thank you, I feel like it’s now just us now!
She does have a varied diet and loves fruit and veg etc, I guess when the ‘guidelines’ state how much she should be having it’s hard not to feel bad when they don’t take anywhere near that!

I was hung up on the guidelines too but his weight was always fine (he's actually massive!) so he must have been getting what he needed. Mine was also a dreadful sleeper and I was convinced that if he took more milk he would sleep better. I reckon I was barking up the wrong tree there though he because he's still a crap sleeper.

For balance my older DS was a milk monster. Now he's nearly three and barely eats, all through weaning he just refused to eat and he's never got much better. To be fair, that's way worse than my milk refuser!