11 month old weaned onto Solids - now what?

[YoBeaches]

Been weaning our 11 month old onto solids. She's been great since we started at 6 months. She eats 3 meals a day with 2 snacks, tries everything I give her. Average day is something like . . .

6AM Bottle
7AM One weetabix with cows milk for breakfast, quarter of a banana
10AM Fruit snack mid morning - satsuma/grapes etc
11:30AMCottage Pie or Cream Cheese sandwiches with veg crisps, yoghurt or custard
2:30PM Savoury snack in the afternoon - olives and cheese
4PM Beans on Toast, Salmon Pasta, Spag Bol, Lamb stew etc plus a dessert
6:30PM Bottle
10:30PM Bottle

She drinks water with every meal and I offer throughout the day.

Now she's really not bothered about her formula anymore. We try at 6am, bed time 6:30 and dreamfeed at 10:30.She seems to just be taking a couple of ounces each time, and really none at all at 6am for the last week or so. I tried last week cutting out the dreamfeed, thinking we could mopve to morning and bedtime bottle, but she woke at 3:30, seemed hungry, and took a a 5 oz bottle.

She sleeps 11 hours at night and naps for 2-3 hours in the day over 2 naps.

Its hard as teething etc all play havoc too, but should I just keep trying the bottles until she really refuses any of it? Or perhaps cut out the bedtime bottle so she is more inclined for the dream feed? I had read that the morning bottle is often the first to be dropped at this stage and carry on with the evening feeds, and given she seems to refuse it perhaps we do that.

I've tried her with a little cows milk in a beaker, she's a bit 'blah' about it, not too fond of it and I've read about adding an ounce of it to formula but if she's not taking formula then I feel a bit stuck one what to do next.

Any advice/suggestions?

I would say at 11 months she may be ready to not have anymore milk? My daughter was very similar, very good eater and by 10/11 months only had a glass of milk in the morning. (She still has a glass now at 18 months). Once weaned babies dont really need all that milk, just calcium which can be given in other forms (and you've shown that your daughter has an excellent diet, so wont be missing out). Could it maybe habit in the middle of the night?

If she's not keen on the morning bottle, I would just drop it and go straight to breakfast. I think mine were around a year when they went to only two feeds a day (dc1 was bottle fed, no nighttime feeds after 9 months, and dc2 was bf and we still did nighttime feeds just because it was easier, but those dropped around 13 months or so). I'm sure you could probably get rid of the dream feed soon as well, but I would just carry on for a bit if it's easier.

Get rid of the dream feed, maybe offer something like weetabix or porridge a bit before bed if she's likely to be hungry (I would be if I didn't eat after 4pm) or make dinner later. It'll be much better for her teeth too.

I find with mine he's good as long as he has something every 3-4 hours.

7am breakfast
9:30am snack
12pm lunch
3:30 snack
6:30 dinner
7:30 bed

We're largely on that schedule because of nursery routine but it works well. He dropped bottles himself apart from the occasional night feed at 12m and by 15m we stopped any night feeds. He will occasionally drink milk (and loves to drink what's left straight from the bowl if he has cereal!) but also eats plenty cheese, yoghurt etc.

Don't forget to give a good multivitamin if she's having less than 500ml formula a day.

My son is 11 months and hasn't really drink formula since about 10 months. He has it but maybe about 8oz in total from a bottle. I still try giving him 3 bottles a day. Because he doesn't really like drinking it anymore I make sure I give him lots of yogurts, cheese and make meals where I add milk in. Just in his porridge alone it takes 5oz in the morning so that way I know he's still getting his milk.

@jlr1986 glad to hear you were similar, I was worried for a while we'd moved to quickly on the solids but I really just followed her lead.

It could be habit on the night feeds.

Thanks @mindutopia yes I don't think she's really taken morning bottle for a full week so she is effectively telling me.

@VeggieSausageRoll I'm effectively following the feed timings that she'll have when she starts next month.They do tea at 3:30 so I would expect a meal of some sort before bed.

I think I will try...
1: forget the morning bottle
2: replace bedtime bottle with a snack before bath
3: continue dreamfeed bottle as a final top up

See how it goes! Thanks all.

@SpillTheTeaa ok another similar pattern thank you it's good to hear.

I have some baby friends who are still on 5 bottles day but obviously with the food they should be getting everything they need.

It sounds like she's just not bothered about milk anymore. My DD is almost 1 and she's down to a bedtime bottle. We used to do a dream feed as well but cut that out a month or so back - it did coincide with a period of night waking but we just stuck to it and as it turned out it was probably more developmental/separation anxiety than hunger. I'd try moving dinner later - say 5pm? We do breakfast at 8am, snack 10am, lunch 12, snack 3pm, dinner 5pm and then bottle just before 7pm.

The other half of the scenario is that we were putting her to bed at 6/asleep for 6:30 so she has regularly started waking at 5:30. She's not hungry at this time but obvs its a bit early for us!. When she used to take the milk she would sleep on for another hour or so.

Well today anyway she randomly had 3 shorter naps instead of 2, I've given her tea at 4:45 and at the moment she's still playing happily. Going to give her a crumpet and cows milk at 6:30 and get her down for 7 and see what damage that does or doesn't do to the night!

If she's not bothered about the bottles, then don't offer them. Or chuck some cows milk in the bottles and offer that. I'd definitely get rid of the dream feed. If she wakes in the night, give her some formula then but she will probably grow out of it in a few days.

I was told that at 1 they still need a pint of milk a day and even now at 3 my DD still has a cup of milk in the morning and one before bed. By 11 months my DD was just on 2 bottles a day. I’d try to cut the dream feed out by deceasing the amount she has each night by an oz or so rather than just dropping it completely in one go then she’ll get used to less and hopefully not wake for it and you’ll probably find she’ll then have a bit more in the morning.