Mum on the edge! 9 month old won't drink any formula

[Hannahlou1994]

Hey!

Please help and put a mammas mind at rest. My 9 month old has just gone through 5 weeks of being poorly with one thing to the next, so naturally her milk intake has gone down while she's been under the weather. She's also had her 1st teeth cut through in the same 5 weeks.
My problem is, she's better again now and she still won't drink her milk. She's formula fed, aptamil, prior to being ill she was having 4 bottles a day, 7 oz per bottle but would usually consume 24oz ish over the day. She has 2 main meals at the moment, breakfast and tea, and a snack in the afternoon.

She cries and kicks her whole body away, and when I eventually get it into her mouth, she just chews the teat or actually pretends to suck , making the noises and motions with her mouth but not actually latching and when I pull the bottle away she has drank nothing. By the end of the day at the moment, I'm lucky if she's had 10oz and that's a 'good' day and even then she's faught to take it.

Here are the things I've tried (and failed with no diffrent outcome so far):

-Moved from stage 1 to stage 2 formula
-Changed teat size to a MAM 3 fast flow
-Tried to give it to her in so many diffrent kinds of cups (none make her want the milk but she'll drink water from them no problem)
-Put it into foods, which works but I can't do this for every bottle surely?

To try and minimise the impact of not having milk, I've started to give liquid multi vitamins and I've also increased her dairy intake throughout the day I.e more yoghurt, custard, rice pudding ect but I don't actually know how much of this kind of food is needed to replace the calcium she would get out of 24oz of formula?

I suppose I want to know, has anyone else experienced it? And if so what did you do? I feel like a total failure at this point, as I know the milk is the most important at this age and she just won't have it. I'm at a loss and I don't know what else to do next? Can she go without formula and be okay? Any advice massively appreciated

Thank you :)

My DD and niece refused their milk from this age but they were eating so we just transitioned away from it completely.

My friend was just told by her HV to cut her 8 month olds milk down but he still guzzles it down so I’m not sure why or what the latest guidelines are but don’t worry about it.

Yes she will be OK. My dd started refusing at 6 months old. Don't stress. She can have small amounts of cows milk with her weetabix? Yoghurt and cheese. Keep trying with the formula but try not to stress x

Give her milk at her hungriest time of day, before foods.

Measure the water and scoops she should have in a day. Add the milk powder to her food at the rate she’s drinking water.

So she eats her milk powder and drinks her water.

Does that make sense? One of mine wouldn’t drink his formula- he was over 1, but stayed on formula milk because he was dairy intolerant.

Try warming it up very warm (obviously not scalding hot but almost hot), this used to work for my dd.

My youngest refused formula but was still breastfeeding. However I went back to work at 9 months so he dropped his day feeds and essentially went onto solids in the day and feeds in the evening and morning.

I talked to his dietician and she said as he was eating a varied diet and getting a multivitamin it was fine and not to worry by the 9-10 month mark. It would be more concerning if he was struggling with the transition to solids which it doesn't sound like he is.

I would be wary of this approach in case she doesn’t drink enough water to dilute the formula in her system and becomes constipated. Just something to keep an eye on.

At 9 months, I would just do your best adding formula to her foods and keep offering her formula as a drink, but just try and get her to eat a good variety of food to compensate. It’s easy to get worried about this sort of thing, but as long as she is eating a range of fruits and veg, carbs and and dairy products, and drinking water, I wouldn’t get worked up about it. My DC was on expressed milk at this age and it was so hard to get even 100ml into him a day (he “should” have had 350ml!). He has still thrived!

Great, thanks so much for the advice. Do you know how much dairy I'd have to give in a day to replace formula? I don't know how much is enough. At the moment I give 3 big scoops of yoghurt for breakfast, and some porridge with a bottle of formula mixed in, a fromage fraise at lunch and a pot of custard in the evening, do you think this is enough to replace what she would get out of a bottle or should I increase the amount?

It was a long time ago, but I went back to work full time when Ds was 9 months and he was exclusively breastfed at that point - complete bottle refuser - so we dropped to a morning and a bedtime feed, then 3 meals a day. He used to have porridge or weetabix with banana/other fruit for breakfast, made with expressed milk, then a lunch containing cheese usually, and a yoghurt for pudding, plus a normal dinner and usually another yoghurt at some point, so I was happy he was getting enough calcium and he was happy and thriving.

It does make sense, thanks so much for the advice. She used to wake me up for her bottle at 7am ish, always hungry. Not anymore, will happily sleep straight through until 9am some days and even then won't want her bottle. Baring in mind she has also not taken her bedtime bottle the day before, you'd think she would be hungry after sleeping all night, but not anymore, she just flat out refuses.

I thought I had to boil formula in hot water because of the bacteria, so im just wondering how to kill off the bacteria if I put the scoops of formula in the food, does that make sense? She wouldn't drink enough water in the day to cover the amount of formula she was having I don't think

Great thank you so much for the advice. Based on what you gave to your LO, I'm happy I think I give enough calcium based things then. She has 3 big scoops of yoghurt in the morning, and porridge with formula milk. Then a yoghurt at lunch and a pot of custard usually for tea. She does seem really happy in herself, and doesn't seem like she misses it, I just panic because it's kind of drummed in how important the milk is before the age of 1.

She won't even take her morning or night feeds anymore :(

Thank you so much for the advice. It's reassuring to know your LO had a similar experience at this age and still thrived and wasn't effected by it! I needed to hear that.

She absolutely loves her food. Has a great diet on solids, there's nothing she won't eat yet, and there's nothing I won't give her. She has a big appetite on solids and a really varied diet with plenty of fruit and veg so that's also reassured me were doing okay! Thank you so much

Thanks so much for the help. Prior to 5 weeks ago, she loved warm milk, so I've always done it warm for her. But since she's stopped, I've tried every temperature to see if it would help and it doesn't make a diffrence now :(

I think she'll be just fine. I used to just make an effort to include plenty of dairy - cheesy mash and cauliflower cheese were always a big hit with DS - and luckily he loved yoghurt, so I could get this into his diet easily. Homemade rice pudding is another good one that can be made with formula and can be sweetened with banana or fruit purée.

At 9 months she’ll be having 3 meals and 2 snacks a day so if you aren’t giving her that yet then I’d up her food to that. As long as she’s eating enough and you’re giving her water throughout the day to keep her fluids up she’ll be fine. My DS started dropping bottles at that age and now at 12 months just has 2 a day and doesn’t usually drink the whole thing.

I have no idea what current guidance is, and I know v little about formula feeding but dd (now15) stopped breastfeeding during the day at 8m. Shed have breast milk first thing in the morning, 3 meals a day plus snacks and a feed in the evening.

She never had formula. She's 3" taller than me and fit and healthy.

Ds was dairy intolerant and we increased almonds for him which are really high in calcium. Ground almonds on Weetabix made with ebm was a winner!

I agree with everyone else on the different methods to ensure milk is in her diet, but what stood out for me was you saying she was chewing on the teat. My daughter did/does the same (10 months) and we put it down to teething. So, if she does this we get anbesol (liquid) onto all her gums there and then and immediately try the milk again. She takes it straight away (9 times out of 10). Hope that helps. It's the green anbesol liquid from over the counter. Tesco does it. X

I would put money on teething, try some Calpol 20 mins before the next bottle or another form of pain relief and see if that helps.

Taste the formula and make sure it isn't an issue with the batch you are using.

4 bottles is a lot at this age. She might just not be hungry enough for it. Once she's 10 months the advice is 13.5 Floz a day anyway.

I'd cut out two of bottles and offer her a small cut of formula with her breakfast.

My 9 month old is doing this right now, she’s had a month of been poorly and also cut 4 top teeth at the same time
im not worried about the formula intake as such but I’m seriously worried about dehydration!
she’s used to have 3 7oz bottles and a 9oz before bed and at the moment I’m lucky to get 10oz down her.
she also doesn’t drink water. She’s offered it but finds it extremely amusing to get big mouth fulls and spit it out.