Weaning, bottles and reflux

[ecossegirl91]

Will try keep this short and sweet.
baby is 6.5 months and been weaned since 5.5 months or around 24 weeks.
baby has had bad reflux since birth, not bad as in pain or feed aversions but just lots of spit up - a happy spit upper apparently. Weight gain always excellent. Prior to weaning baby took 5 x 7/8oz bottles per day at roughly the following times - 7am, 10, 1, 4 and 7. Baby is on gaviscon to try help the spit up, it’s perhaps helped a bit but still sicky. Tried carobel, didn’t like it.
thought weaning would help but it’s not and now it’s milky sick plus food - basically vomit. Baby gets 2 meals a deal - brekkie and dinner. It’s too much trying to fit in the meals and the 5 bottles, I do think it’s too much food (as well as reflux). But I keep thinking about how I shouldn’t drop a bottle but he takes in a good amount of food. And their tummies are tiny still so what goes in inevitably pops back up! Would the following work well? It cuts down to 4 bottles.

7am 7oz
9.30 breakfast (porridge or toast or fruit and yoghurt)
11am 5oz
2pm 7oz
5pm dinner - pasta or a pouch or blended what we are having
7pm 6oz

or is this too little formula? I just think his previous amount is too much with the meals….

Following as I have the same question. My DS is 8 months and we have similar routine to you, he has 5 bottles a day plus 3 meals and I'm considering dropping a bottle as he is losing interest in his milk lately. Only issue is he has had weight gain problems since birth so reluctant to drop any milk as he is still very small (8th centile was on 1st centile when born)

See mine doesn’t lose interest and doesn’t seem to have that natural stop that babies have. I think he could just eat and eat! But then he’s sick.
was born on 80th centile for weight and now 75th

Yes I see what you mean. I know the grass is always greener and all that but I wish my son was more like that he's been a nightmare with his milk since day 1 and was not drinking enough or gaining weight so had to be referred to a specialist. Literally just cried as I can't get him to drink more than 2 ounces and he's only had 1 bottle since 8pm last night so should be hungry 😭

The four bottle plan looks good. According to the NHS, babies at 7 months should have at least 20 ounces a day and working towards 3 meals so at 6.5 months, 2 meals and a little more milk sounds ok. Mine was never a big milk drinker though and moved onto food pretty quickly so it’s all a rough guide. Is your baby able to sit up unaided? Our son had terrible reflux and only thing that really helped was strengthening his core muscles through learning to sit unaided around 6.5-7 months old.

thats good to know, I’ll see how we get on 😃
no not sitting up fully unaided yet, he can do it with his hands on the floor in front like a tripod (little unsteady but not bad) but if he lifts his hands he usually bends forward. I’ve been looking forward to him sitting up as I have heard it helps so patiently waiting 😂

We found weaning actually flared reflux so it got worse before it got better. It's worth keeping a note (if you aren't already) of any foods which seem worse.
My DD was confidentially sitting by 6 months too so this didn't help the reflux unfortunately, but certain foods seemed to trigger it so was better when we figured what to avoid. She grew out of it by about 10 months though.