8 month old barely drinks any milk, help!

[BeckyBoo16]

Hi, as the subject says really, I can’t get my 8 month old to drink his milk. Feel like a failure that I’m not providing for his needs but I don’t know what to do to get him to drink it!

Since weaning his interest in milk changed, we dropped his 4pm bottle but he was still drinking 3x6oz bottles during the day/1x6oz overnight. But the past few weeks he’s been fighting feedtimes! Offering 6oz as normal but he’s only drinking 2/3oz, 4oz max! He’s on 3 meals a day and I usually make his porridge or weetabix with formula so he’s still getting some that way. He has soft cheese and yoghurt but not at every meal but at least once a day. Loves his fruit and veg and generally loves food. But should still be getting his nutrients from milk.

We saw the HV last week and he is slightly underweight (only by a couple of kg) for his age but she wasn’t concerned as said he was developing nicely, he’s crawling, pulling himself up, generally happy aside from teething. But today I rang the HV got told to monitor his milk intake over the weekend and if it’s below 500ml per day he’ll have to have a multivitamin and that’s why he could be slightly underweight, I wanted to cry when she said that, I feel like I’m not giving him the right nutrients.

Is there anything I can try to get him to drink a bit more? I’ve tried giving him less milk but offering it more which didn’t work, we changed teats but that made him upset when drinking it, he’s not brilliant at drinking from his sippy cup he has water with at mealtimes so don’t think he’d drink milk out of that. Just feel at a loss and I’m so worried about him.
TIA x

Honestly I wouldn't bother trying to force him to have more milk, just take his lead. If you spend your energy trying to get him to take more milk, you could end up both being unhappy.

Definitely give him the vitamin if he's taking less than 500 ml a day but also concentrate on replacing the fat and protein that would he in the milk.

So look at things like salmon, adding mascarpone or olive oil to any mashed food.

Boys can have oily fish up to 3 times a week so I'd start giving him that, if you haven't already, as it's an excellent source of good fats and protein.

Also look at his calcium levels. A lot of people only think of dairy as a source but there are so many more. There are some suggestions from the BDA here.

East things you could do though are things like swapping his breakfast for Ready Brek which is fortified ad using a white bread which is fortified (most are) for toast and sandwiches.

I can’t remember exact dates now but my DD stopped drinking much milk by 9 months or so. We gave her a multivitamin when she dropped under 500ml per day of formula. She started eating more food at meals. Just keep an eye on it as you are doing.

Also offer him some in a sippy cup - it may be about independence?

@BeckyBoo16 Did your baby’s feeds ever pick back up again? My baby has one bottle a day (only drinks 1-2 oz) but is refusing both bottke abd breastfeeds. Blw but amount consumed is hit and miss but will be spoonfed plain Greek yoghurt once a day x

@poppet131 hey, it did pick up yes but since he turned 1 a few weeks ago he only has 2 bottles, about 4oz in the night and 6/7oz in the morning of cows milk. He’s going through a funny eating phase though and most of his meals end up on the floor instead of in his mouth but hoping that will pass too!
hopefully your little ones bottles will pick up soon too xx

Ok, I may get shot down for this but sometimes there’s a simpler fix (that others will definitely tutt about though!). Around the same age my dc started totally refusing milk. They also weren’t hugely into food and started dropping centiles in the red book chart. I was chatting about it with a friend who’s a gp and their response was “try sticking a small amount of milk flavouring in and see what happens..”. I was horrified but desperate and tried putting a minuscule amount in dcs milk - it worked a treat. We continued for a bit whilst they got some more weight on and developed a better appetite and then slowly reduced and stopped it.