Anyone’s babies just not big milk drinkers?

[SassyPants87]

DS is 5 months old and doesn’t drink anywhere near what he is ‘supposed to’. I’m lucky if we get 600ml in hun a day but based on his weight he should apparently be having 950ml a day!
I can’t force him to drink and I’ve come to conclusion he just doesn’t have much of an appetite. During the day he is happy, alert, hitting milestones. His sleep is horrific though!

he was born on 50th percentile and now been tracking 9th for a couple of months now

anyone else experienced the same and everything was okay?/ babies gained more eventually when moving onto solids?

DS is almost 8 now and he didn't enjoy milk at all. After weaning onto solids I couldn't get him to drink any type of milk - breast milk, formula milk of all types were rejected. At about 10 months a HV told me to try cows milk and he hated that too. All types he would gag and cry. We gave up at that point he had a bit of yoghurt each day and we couldn't do much more. Turns out he is lactose intolerant and still dislikes dairy to this day. He's also a tall and healthy boy!
I was advised to up yoghurt and cheesey things once he was eating properly but that's still a little way away for you. But yeah, solidarity.

@SassyPants87 has the milk that's for CMPA helped at all?

@PritiPatelsMaker hes on neocate now, we’ll transitioning over as he refused to drink it outright so we’re mixing old formula with new. But he’s drinking so much less now than he did whilst on normal formula. Even on normal formula he wasn’t much of a big drinker either so I’m just at a bit of a loss

It could be CMPA. I know my stomach really hurts if I have milk.

Have you tried adding in the Nesquik yet? I think I saw it recommended on one of your other threads.

@PritiPatelsMaker i spoke to our dietician about this and she said either do straight swap or mix with formula and gradually increase the neocate. He doesn’t indicate any stomach pain, no crying/ scrunching up during or after feeds. Hopefully when he fully transitions over to neocate his volume may go up but we’ll start weaning soon and he’ll probably drink even less milk once he tastes how nice food is in comparison! Lol

My dd is cmpa, neocate is vile stuff and I never got her to drink the stuff! I was told to add a drop of vanilla essence, made no difference it still tasted repulsive 🤢

@Motherofalittledragon oh no! How old is your little one? I can’t wait to ditch the bloody formula!

Sorry to hear your still not having much luck with the neocate. You can ask to try another amino acid formula but tbh alfamino smells even worse and puramino seems very similar to neocate only it contains soy oil and has an incredibly annoying scoop.
my cmpa baby always drank very little too btw. Even when on regular formula he was nowhere near what they said he should be on. Best I could get him to drink was 5 ounces per feed and between 20-25 a day. I physically laughed when my gp said so he’s probably on three 7-8 ounce bottles a day now right? Erm nope! Some babies are just little and often. There’s also research to show that amino acid formulas are digested less like standard formula and babies on them put weight on at a similar rate to breastfed babies and that they are able to tell when they’re full faster.
As long as he seems happy and alert, please don’t worry about the amount drank. I obsessed over it and it was all for nothing because he was absolutely fine. Putting on weight and meeting all milestones. He’s just not a big drinker. Even at 12 months he doesn’t drink more than 3-4 ounces of oat milk at a time.
when you do start weaning though, I’d try and stick formula in as many foods as possible. Mash, porridge, weetabix, any purees. That way you’ll at least get some ounces in that way and the food should mask the taste.

My mum took me tot he Dr when I was a baby, I'm not sure what age.

My mum was worried I wasn't drinking enough milk, the GP apparently squeezed my chubby thigh and said, "Well she is getting it from somewhere".

I was 10Lb at birth so quite a big baby from the start.

I'm lactose intolerant.

@Yuja's son sounds like me. As a child the smell of milk would make me gag. Even now I can't tell if milk is off by the smell because to me it always smells off.

Imagine if your only food option was something that tasted rotten? You'd only eat as much as you needed to live.

It can take a while for the pain to kick in, so you may not notice immediately that dairy is causing him pain. It can be just pain around belly button area, just feeling hot, sweaty and uncomfortable or grumpy. It can make me feel off colour for days, just not right. My child always got chesty and coughed and snored all night and get a rash of tiny bumps under the skin on her cheeks. She still does. As long as he's gaining don't worry too much. I bet he will turn out a strapping lad.

I would probably start weaning tbh at 5 months if baby isn’t a huge milk fan. They still get the milk they are having, but might take more milk in baby porridge, and can get some calories from mashed avocado, sweet potato, banana and other higher calorie veg now for a month or so before introducing other foods.

5 months is fine to start giving fruits and veg as the ‘ from around 6 month is a guide’.

My 3.5 year old was just like this as a baby too. Would take enough breastmilk and/or formula to keep himself alive, but clearly didn't like either of them and wasn't interested in eating. He almost fell off the weight chart and it was so stressful.

Pediatrician told us to try him on real food at 5 months and he never looked back - started to gain weight and grow like crazy - ever since he's been tracking 50th centile for height and 20th for weight, so still skinny, but not worryingly so.

He's also always hated cows milk - if I put one drop in a bottle of formula he'd know and reject the whole thing. He's not lactose intolerant, he just hates the taste. Luckily likes cheese, yoghurt etc. so he's never been low on calcium.

@allfurcoatnoknickers thats really reassuring to hear! I’m really hoping he takes to solids well! Did you still have to try and give your baby formula when he was on solids up until 1?

@SassyPants87 I did give him formula, but by the time he was 9/10 months he was mainly on food, and we stopped the formula altogether when he was 1. No issues since. He's still a "good eater" and follows his curve, even though he won't have anything to do with milk.