10 mth old - too much milk - which feed to drop?

[Katieh]

my 10 mth old dd loves her milk but it seems to be affecting her appetite for solids and she's not eating much at mealtimes.

She has 5 floz in the night (I know, I know, she shouldn't have a bottle in the night, but it's the only way I can get her back to sleep!)..
3 floz on waking
Milk on cereal
4 floz after breakfast
3-4 floz after lunch
3-4 floz after afternoon sleep (2.30pm ish)
7 floz at bedtime.

Which feed should I drop to encourage a healthier appetite at mealtimes??

Has your DD been off her food for a while or is it recently? I found that when DS (9 months) was teething a lot in the last couple of weeks that he completely went off his food and was drinking more milk. Now the teeth are through and he is more into his food again.

I suppose you could cut out the after breakfast milk and maybe the waking milk, although it depends what time she wakes up!

HTH a bit

Blimey Katie - that is a lot of milk! I dropped what for dd was the mid morning milk first and probably did this at about 8-9 months to encourage her to eat more and it did work. If it helps - her is dd's current 'rough' routine (dd is 11.5 months). I say rough because the times differr slightly between her nursery days and weekend days - overall milk and food volume though is the same.

07:00 - milk - 7oz
08:00 - breakfast +water
12:00 - lunch + water
2:00ish - milk - 7oz (although she is beginning to cut back on this herself)
4:30 - tea + water
7:00 - milk - 7oz

Between 6 and 12 months the guideline is a minimum of 20oz of a milk - so you definitely have bandwidth to cut back a little. If you increased the waking milk (if you can) and the afternoon (2:30 milk) but also dropped the after breakfast and after lunch milks, then you would on a cycle similar to my dd.

Talking as the Mummy of a milk monster (2y7m still drinking about 2pints a day ) I would cut out the after breakfast and after lunch ones. My DS2 (not a milk monster - 1 on Friday) has milk at breakfast time, mid afternoon and before bed. It is really difficult isn't Katieh especially if they love it! I learned the hard way with DS1 and he really uses milk as a comforter even now. Good luck

thanks everyone - I will definately try and cut out (or down) some of the milk feeds. I think I'll cut out the after lunch one first as it's not really needed.
Also dd drinks water mid morning - do you think this may affect her appetite at lunchtime... she also drinks water with lunch.
Her appetite for solids does fluctuate - and yes, she does go off them when teething which she is at the moment - so that doesn't help.

Tommy - don't worry my dd1 (nearly 3) still drinks quite a bit of milk too but it doesn't put her off her food!!