13m old milk consumption way too high

[Exworrier]

My son is 13m and he is cmpa so he has oat milk (oatly barista) he was on neocate formula until he reached a year old. But he is absolutely bottle obsessed and its starting to worry me. He has a total of 28oz milk in 24h (sometimes more) but if hes given less he is miserable all day and shouts “baa baa” which is bottle. He eats really well and has 3 meals a day with snacks in between, I make sure he has plenty of fat and protein and he is half way up the milk ladder so he is also having cheese now as well. Sometimes he will be mid meal and he will have a paddy and start shouting “baa baa” and if he glimpses an empty one in the kitchen he will get very cross when I don't let him have it. He is also really crap at drinking water, he will barely have 3oz water in a day.

We have been working really hard to cut down and have managed to take one of the bottles away that he was having at night but it obviously isnt enough for his age and now I’m worried about baby anaemia as he is very pale.

The bottles he has currently are 10am 7oz before his nap, then 2pm another 7oz before his nap then he has 7oz before bed and then in the night usually 2am he will have 7oz again. He isnt feeding to sleep so I don't think that is the issue.

He is a big chap, 98th percentile, however he just seems to want milk and food constantly. I’m worried something is wrong.

Should we just go cold turkey, chuck the bottles and offer two cups of milk a day?

How tall is he @Exworrier?

Could you put the bottles of milk in the day in a beaker? Is it more of a comfort thing with the bottle rather than the actual milk maybe?

Add water to the milk and gradually make the water ratio higher and higher. In time it will just be water. He’ll then gradually lose interest.

That is a lot of milk for his age - yes I think you need to cut it down. Can you ditch the bottles in the daytime and just do one before bed? It is easy for them to overdrink from a bottle, less so from a cup. You can still offer him milk from a cup in the day but try to cap it to 500ml total milk per day. To be honest it sounds like you might just need to ride out a rough few days with it. Good luck.

I’m not sure of his height to be honest! Last time the HV measured him he was off the scale though, he isn't even chubby he is just giant!

Good point about the milk in cups during the day, I’m going to do that from tomorrow.

We have tried watering down the milk but he will just refuse it all together and then cry for his bottle all day, when he should be napping and during meal times and throw his food on the floor in protest. Hes a nightmare with it.

Have you tried the beakers with a straw? Once mine mastered a straw the bottles were of no interest! Bubble blowing instead! And less milk!

If you add the water just a little bit a time he won’t be able to table. Literally just a tea spoon at a time, or less. You do it so gradually he can’t tell. As time goes on you can increase the water more gradually.

If he's a big baby he needs more than others.
Is the issue that you just think he doesn't need it or that he definitely doesn't?

It seems like his centiles are in proportion and he's growing.

Tall babies do usually drink more milk

Yours might well be different if he’s a big baby but at 18 months ours was drinking that much and became very constipated. Alder Hey paediatrician said excessive milk was likely to be the cause and said it should be no more than 20 oz by then - I would get some advice as I wouldn’t want yours to go through what ours did.

i don’t have much advice I’m afraid OP and you may roll your eyes at my next bit but pretty much most of the mainstream plant based milks are made up using high amounts of rapeseed oil - which goes without saying is not good!

im just wondering if this is contributing towards your lo needing more? I understand he’s unable to drink normal cows milk but if he was able to, he might not be needing quite so much as he does with oatley milk, because he’d be getting more of the ‘normal stuff’ compared to what he gets from the oatley milk. In no way am I saying stop giving it to him, but if he’s getting less nutrients and calories from oat milk than he would normal milk, he is going to want more. Plus like you say he’s tall. I wouldn’t be concerned if I’m honest, as long as he’s still eating proper food aswell as the milk and growing fine then it’s not really an issue

Thanks for the replies, you have somewhat comforted me. Maybe he does need the milk, if its during the day i don't have so much of an issue but before we cut down he was having 7oz at bedtime, 7oz at 11pm and 7oz at 2am too! Now most of the time he just has one at night and sometimes he doesn’t wake for it.

@EJRB Its an interesting theory. We are currently doing well on the milk ladder so he will be trying some UHT milk soon, hopefully he can move away from the oat milk. I’d be interested to see how that goes.

I observed him eating today and noticed that a lot of the time he chews his food and then spits it all out, especially fruit. and then the dog eats anything off the floor so I suspect he is eating less than we think too.

@Maray1967 Our older son had a lot of problems with constipation so we were wary but actually he has always had good normal bowel movements so I am not concerned about that at the moment.