Bottle and Breast and food - how much and how often?

[BadgerQueen]

DD is 6months and a bit and we have been weaning for a few weeks now (please don't jump on me for not waiting longer but she was really interested in food). We have also been mixed feeding for a couple of weeks, but I really have no idea how much formula she should be taking. The day goes as follows:

6.30/7 short breast feed or 3oz of formula
7.30 breakfast - baby cereal and mashed banana
11 6oz bottle
12 lunch - veg (1 cube and tablespoon of rice)
2:30/3 3/4oz bottle or short bf
4.30/5 bottle
5.30 Dinner - veg(1 cube and tablespoon of rice) + a couple of tbsp of fruit mush
6:30 breast & bed
10/11 bf

Then there is the night feeding madness, but I won't go into that here. I don't think she is getting very much from the breast feeds and she seems to be using them more for comfort than food, but the bottle amount doesn't seem enough. BTW she is between 91st and 98th centiles and weighs about 9kg/19lbs and has consistently gained weight on the curve (if that counts for anything).

Hi. They need between 600 and 900ml of formula (or breast equivalent) at 6 months. Of course it's hard to tell how much she's getting from the breast but since she's getting a good few formula bottles a day, she probably is getting enough milk. My DS is the same weight as your DD and there's no way he could get through 900ml a day - he gets about 650ml per day plus 3 medium size meals and he doesn't feed during the night. All babies are different though and I think a lot of mumsnetters would say it's very normal for a 6 month old baby to feed a couple of times during the night. IMHO, I don't think a 6 month old baby on 3 meals a day and enough milk will be genuinely hungry during the night and we worked out that our DS was just feeding for comfort (again, some people would say what's wrong with feeding for comfort). We gradually withdrew the night feeds by decreasing the amounts we gave him at night and then watering the milk down until we just offered water. Now he doesn't even look for food when he wakes up.

Your baby sounds nice and healthy though so nice work on the feeding front!

Thank you so much for this, will have to convert to oz to work it out, but I agree 900 is a huge amount and I think once in the night (11ish) should be enough. Pretty sure its for comfort in the night, and its got bad because we in the whole teething, tummy ache, colds phase at the mo, so I give in. Must try harder.
You are indeed a lovely mama!

It's so easy to give in at 4am - been there, done that. Decided one day that enough was enough and forced myself to be stricter.....the night feeds were actually GIVING him digestive problems because his digestive system was supposed to be asleep but it was having to work to process all the milk I was chucking down his neck! I think you're trying hard enough BQ - and breastfeeding is a nice comfort when those teeth are coming through....