Recently started solids and introduced 2 ff per day, but LO seems to be cutting down milk!

[monthlymayhem]

LO is 6mths and until two weeks ago was EBF. Two weeks ago I introduced a bottle of FF at 10/11pm, and last week introduced another ff at 10/11am. LO is also now eating two meals a day (and wolfing them down!). I'm hoping to keep his bedtime and wake up feeds as breastfeeds by the time I go back to work.

However...LO won't take more than 3 or 4 ounces from the bottle and for the last couple of days he's really not been too interested in breastfeeds either. He's always been a fast feeder, but yesterday for example he had:

7am - BF couple of mins
10.30am - FF (took 3oz and put 1oz in his porridge at 11am)
2.30pm - BF couple of mins
5pm - offered BF but not interested
7pm - Gran was looking after him and offered bottle between 7pm and 10pm and he eventually took 3 oz at 10pm.

I then gave him a BF dreamfeed at 11.30pm and he woke up a couple of times between 12-6am and had short BFs. Today he has been much the same. Both days, he's been wolfing down his breakfast porridge and dinner (a few cubes of veggie puree and a petit filous).

I'm just a bit worried that he seems to be cutting down his milk intake so much and perhaps I should stop offering him solids for a couple of days??

The other thing is that he does seem to have sore gums again so maybe that's the problem?? He is having lots of dirty nappies, but definitely not as wet.

At what point should I be worried or does this sound like normal behaviour when weaning/teething etc??

Sorry for long post!

Have to say, both ds1 and ds2 cut down their milk intake when I started weaning but that does seem a very small amount of milk for your ds.

DS2 is also 6 months and is in the process of cutting his first tooth so a bit off his milk the last couple of days. It's more than likely this is why combined with starting to wean. If he's a decent size I'd say you can probably afford to carry on as you are for another day or 2 but offer him water aswell. The reduction in milk intake is less likely to affect a bigger baby. However, if he's less than average size I'd be tempted to stop the porridge and maybe even the veggies aswell and see if milk intake goes up.

Are you giving infant formula or the follow on milk (from 6 months) as there is a difference in casein/whey content and babies need less of the follow on. Usually 18-21oz is enough in a day. If it's infant formula he'll need 21-28oz.

Don't know what you use on his gums for teething but I found Anbesol works better than everyhting else I've tried. When it's really bad I give him some Ashton and Parsons aswell.

My DS is nearly 7 months and has cut down milk a lot since weaning at 6 months.

He now has only a full bottle at morning and night and no milk at all in between, he just refuses it.

My 3 year old drinks more milk than him still, so I was quite surprised!

I just try to make sure that he has milk in his breakfast plus cheese and yoghurt etc in his meals.

Thanks Forevared and 2point4kids . It's good to know that other babies have also cut down their milk intake when weaning or teething, and I guess I should just go with the flow. He is a fairly small baby (only 15lbs), but has been consistently putting on weight. I have just been using normal Aptamil for his ff.

The little monkey ended up waking for bfs 4 times last night , and then took a 5oz bottle this morning, so feeling a bit less worried this morning, although very tired!!

Will see how he goes over the next couple of days, and try cutting down on his porridge etc as suggested if his milk intake still seems low.

Thanks for your help!

Good luck. Keep us posted