Going off her milk?

[SheWillBeLoved]

DD is 7.5 months now, and for the past few weeks, has been an absolute nightmare to feed. I think it's her teeth (has none yet), because a bit of teething gel can get a bit more down her. However, once she reaches around the 3-4oz mark, she pushes the bottle away, and no amount of teething gel will make a difference.

On a good day, she'll drink anywhere between 16-20oz, and a couple of those ounces I have gotten down her by spiking her porridge with it She used to guzzle down four 8oz bottles a day, so halving that seems a bit drastic to me! At the moment she is having a lunch and dinner if that makes any difference, mainly finger foods.

Is it normal for babies to go on a bit of a strike around this age?

I had same thing with ds2. He was breastfed but when he started taking solids his milk intake decreased. He just lost interest in the breastfeeds so I tried with bottles of formula but not much luck there either. I had to do same as you and add milk to porridge etc. He also liked yoghurt a lot. It does seem young to be losing interest in milk and i used to worry about it. I would keep on offering milk because i would guess that as long as it's on offer then they will take what they need. I don't think there is much else you can do other that offer the milk and add milk to food that she will take. My ds2 is 2.5yrs now and never developed a liking for cow's milk either. Other than that he eats a good diet and is very healthy.

My little girl (now 8.5 months) went through similar stages also around teething time. She now only has a 6.5 ounce bottle in the morning and 6.5 in the afternoon, then a 7.5 ounce at bedtime. I make sure I give her her milk about an hour after her meal and she drinks all of it. In fact her lunch time bottle I've moved to 2 hours after lunch and she guzzles it down now, no problem!

Have you tried teething powders?