DD, 8 months, going off her milk!

[RGPargy]

Hi everyone

Just after some reassurance really.

DD is 8.5 months and for the last couple of weeks she has been going off her milk.

Three weeks ago I returned to work for 2 days a week. Ever since then, DD has not been drinking her milk as she normally does.

She used to have 4oz every 3 hours and was even moving up to 5oz 3 hourly so i thought things were going well with her. So anyway, when she is with MIL while i'm at work, she hardly touches her milk.

I thought perhaps that as she's eating well, she might not be that hungry for milk, so moved her feeds to 4 hourly instead. I have just spoken to MIL and she told me that at her 11am feed, she only had 1.5oz of milk. If DD and I were at home, i'm pretty sure she would have had 4oz.

She just seems to not want her milk when she is with MIL. Is this a normal thing to happen with babies?

She was BF until she was 5 months or so, so maybe she only really associates milk with me?? I dont know, i'm just plucking guesses out of the air lol.

Any ideas anyone?

TIA

No they all do that at this age - breastfed or not. It's normally down to teething and picks up again within four weeks

ds2 is 8 months and he has completely off his milk at the moment - I was worried as am struggling to make sure he has enough diary, HV said don't worry as long as he's eating ok, she said it could be a temporary thing but not to worry.
He takes about 5oz over the whole day at mo, I offer him bottle 3 times a day, I stopped bfeeding 6 wks ago so was worried it was the bottles
hth

RG DD2 won't take a bottle from anyone but me, she never took to bf and has been solely formula fed since about 6 weeks.

I worry about it a lot if I'm away from her and she's not getting milk but she seems to cope and sometimes makes up for it next feed, sometimes not.

She's also dropped her intake a bit recently just turned 9 months this week altho' her food intake doesn't seem to have gone up much.

DD1 didn't do this as noticeably so I wasn't sure if it was common or not.

Hopefully they'll pick up soon.

Phew!! That's a relief. I did wonder if it was due to teething or something, but still no sign of any teeth yet. I guess they have to start the journey from jaw to gum at some point and that is probably quite painful. They must be on their way!

Insy - Glad i'm not the only one, although i have to say that DD has been having quite a bit more milk per day than your DS. She's averaging 17oz per day when i'm at home with her and maybe 10oz if we're lucky when she's with MIL.

Thanx Jbck - it's very worrying isn't it! Why cant they understand that they MUST drink their milk to stop their mummy from worrying! It's for the greater good!!!

my dd8 mths did this 3 weeks ago she is bf and would only take morning and evening feed.

now she is back to 4 feeds a day. i never figured out why - i put it down to timing of solids and milk so now offer milk 30 mins to an hour before solids. she hasn't reduced the solids but has increased the milk.

so could have been a phase.

also my dd is fussy about who feeds her she doesn't take solids well from dh or my dad but great with me and my mum so your theory might not be too far away.

not very scientific i know but hopes this helps.

Thanx for your input mum2one. DD doesn't care who feeds her solids - we're doing BLW and she has a huge appetite! I tend to feed her milk 4 hourly with lunch and dinner in between. She deffo drinks the milk better with me tho lol.

At 8.5 months my dd was only taking 3 bottles day...

7oz when she got up
5oz midday ish
8oz bedtime.

She's been fine, and takes even less now. She went off it largely when weaning started as she loves her food.

If dd is gaining weight and taking solids then it's just natural.

If your worried about her intake add it to cereal/porridge/rusks etc, also give her yoghurts and cheese..

BB - I dont think DD has EVER taken more than 6oz in one sitting lol!! Your DD was still having quite a bit of milk - 20oz is the average per day apparently so it looks like she was spot on for you.

She was having Petit Filous and loving them until i discovered how hyperactive she got on them because of the sugar content so i'm now on the look out for baby-friendly yoghurts or fromage frais. She loves cheese so i could always just smother everything in that too.

She was normally having a 6oz bottle first thing in the morning but today and yesterday she just about managed to drink 3oz!

If you look at the recommendations on a tin of formula 3 x 7oz bottles is what they say from 7 months. My DD is BF still and at 7 months has just gone down to 3 milk feeds a day, she started to refuse the afternoon one a couple of weeks ago.

Rachel's Organic first yogurts are rather nice and with flavours like mango and banana they give more variety!

Oh, and she won't take any kind of food from anyone but me either, as I was the only one to feed her until recently she obviously associates food with me too!

RGP I think they just go up and down on the milk tbh.

DD has a dairy allergy and her prescription formula is rancid, so i think she does quite well by the sounds of it. She's only just started being able to take soya and she loves the alpro soya yoghurts.... not sure of sugar content but maybe they would suit you???

Or, my friend uses the muller little stars yoghurts and fromage frais... maybe those will be better???

They do keep us on our toes don't they? And once you sort one problem another one appears!!

beckle - i would LOVE for DD it sit and drink 7oz in one go. At the moment i'm struggling to get her to drink 4oz! I guess i will just have to follow her lead and let her get on with it. DD's had Rachel's Organics and rather liked them but our local supermarket has stopped stocking them at the mo.

BB - Your poor DD and her rancid milk! At least she has an excuse not to drink it! I might look at the sugar contents of the little stars and see how their fair against petit filous.

RG DD2 was still having around 24ozs over the course of a day normally but this has dropped to about 18 or less some days. It's also Extra Hungry formula she's obviously a real grubber!

She has 2 teeth but she's had them for nearly 3 months & no sign of any others. Keep waiting on the next one as the first just popped through without any warning and didn't seem to phase her at all. I love their big gumsy grins & I was almost upset she had teeth so early [daftie]

We're doing a mix of BLW & lumpy spoon feeding, she's getting less keen on the spoons too, I know what you mean little minxes just do it to worry us.

We use the Little Stars as they have less ingredients than Petit Filous but I'm not sure how they compare sugar content wise, There also isn't a lot of choice of flavours but they do for a quick pud when you've run out of bananas & mangoes

Blimey, Jbck!! DD2 sounds like she has a brilliant appetite for milk lol. DD is still on stage 1 milk and i can see her being on that for the foreseeable as she never really grumbles that she's hungry an awful lot!

Still no teeth with DD yet, although i do have a feeling they are imminent, not because of her showing many signs of teething or anything, but i just "know" lol.

Seeing as i'm at work and am flat out (not ) think i'll surf the net and see what sugar contents i can find for the Little Stars and Sainsbury's own fromage frais as they are apparently meant to be sugar free or low in sugar or something.

Slightly better on the milk front so far this morning. I gave her a 6oz bottle at about 7am and she drank 4oz of it. Better than yesterday's 3oz effort, anyway!

RG if you find the sugar contents of all the little fromage frais you could do some kind of matrix & post it for the benefit of all us lazy buggers who just take the closest thing to hand

I'll have a look and try and work it out sometime this weekend.

OK so i didn't bother to look up the sugar content on the fromage frais but what i DID do was make my own yoghurt! I just used some natural yoghurt and some frozen berries and then blitzed them all up in the blender, et voila! DD loves the yoghurt, it lasts for a few days in the fridge and best of all, no sugar rush for DD!

On the milk front, things were looking up. She was having near enough the "recommended" amount of milk per day and was downing 5oz bottles 4 times a day, more or less. However, she's back at MILs today while i'm at work and hey presto, she's back to having just 2oz and even then MIL had to battle with her to take it at first! I think maybe her gums are a bit sore as she even refused toast today too, which is unheard of!

Oh well, i cant force her physically to drink her milk and she's certainly not suffering. She's having lots of dairy too so i'm sure she'll get all her necessary vitamins. I might have to tell MIL to absolutely NOT give her snacks tho. I found out that after she'd refused her toast, MIL gave her a yoghurt and a couple of mini rice cakes, which is probably why perhaps she wasn't hungry for milk........

RG - I was going to suggest some natural greek yoghurt and stick some fruit in it! That's what I do - I wasn't happy about the amount of sugar in most kids yoghurts and the Rachel Organics is nice but a bit pricey and tends to have a short shelf life.

BT - I really thought DD would pull a funny face as it was a little bit sharp but she absolutely wolfed it down!

RG I've done the greek yoghurt with apple puree or wee bits of soft fruits thrown in before, but you can't get smallish tubs in our Asda/tesco & I found I was throwing stuff away because it'd been open a few days. I'm on no pay now till October so am rather budget conscious so went back to the Little Stars.

DH sometimes takes plain yoghurt with meusli in it so I might encourage him to do that regularly and can use the bigger tubs up.

Good news on the milk front, even if it's only a few days a week till she's bigger it's better than her none.

DD is settling in to nursery 2 days a week just now & it's tiring her out so I'm off to wake her to get some milk down her before the school run, wee soul should be starving but I think sleep is winning, if it's me I just take the food to bed with me.

Oooo natural yog with museli is lush!!!

Poor little DD being too worn out to eat from nursery, bless her! lol @ you taking the food to bed - that's something that i'd do too lol!!