10 month old refusing formula!

[dreamymomma95]

Just looking for a bit of advice and if other little ones have been the same. My son used to guzzle his milk down and never have any issues, but this last week he’s been really fighting us with his bottles and we’re lucky some days to even get a few oz at a time down him. He turns 10 months in a few days. He just pushes the bottle away and tries to escape. Some days he’ll have about 11oz some days about 15oz.

I know people say they can get fussy as they get more dependent on food, he does have 3x meals per day plus snacks. Is it okay if he’s not drinking much anymore? He drinks a lot of water too, he loves his water. Wondering if I should start giving vitamin drops because hes dropped his milk so drastically?

Any advice would be amazing, I’m a first time mom! 😥

Is he having plenty of dairy? (Good yogurts, cheese etc)

He is getting a fair bit in, he has a couple of yoghurts a day as they’re his favourite & cheese at least once a day too!

It might be the bottle rather than the formula? My DD started to flat out refuse the bottle at around 6 months (she was mostly breastfed but had bottles too) We tried and tried for weeks and it got very stressful so we moved on to offering milk from a sippy cup. It was a gradual process but she took it and we've never looked back. We started with a Tommee Tippee free flow cup for her to get the hang of it and have now moved on to a Tommee Tippee trainer cup.

You'll have to start phasing out bottles in a few months anyway when he moves onto cows milk so it might be worth trying the switch to a cup now?

My little boy went through a phase like this mainly at bedtime he just wanted to play we had to just take our time giving him his bottles. He’s nearly 1 now and drinks it all again! I just kept persevering.

Hi, HV here :) That is completely normal no worries, usually around 8-10 months they start to reduce their formula intake as they are taking in more solids. General guidance is to ensure he gets plenty of dairy in his diet from other sources (not cows milk until 1) and give vitamin D or a multivitamin if formula consumption is less than 500ml a day :) formula should still be his main drink until he’s 1 so try offering it in a sippy cup throughout the day.

it’s a good thing, makes it easier to get rid of the bottles when they turn 1 :) some good info below

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/weaning-and-feeding/babys-first-solid-foods/#:~:text=Feeding%20your%20baby%3A%20from%2010%20to%2012%20months&text=As%20a%20guide%2C%20babies%20fed,take%20a%20vitamin%20D%20supplement.

Oh I haven’t thought of that! I might give that a whirl today and see what he thinks, thank you! I know he will be moving off formula soon so I’m not overly stressed, but being a first time mom I’m worried I’m not doing something right!

Both my ff and by baby were like this at a this age. He shouldn’t be having snacks yet. Try feeding him in a quiet, boring, slightly dark room. If you think he could be teething then use pain relief. Once he is under a certain amount of formula (the NHS website says how much) he should start vitamins which he should take until he is at least 5 years old.

@dreamymomma95 My DS was very similar. He took to weaning really well and just loved his food.
Personally, I didn’t give snacks until he was over 1 and had dropped all formula. Could you try giving a sippy cup of formula (we used Tum Tum Tots straw cup as it had a soft weighted straw but no valve) when he’d usually be having snack? Mine stopped taking a bottle at 9m and everything was sippy cup from then on. As already mentioned, it’s far better than them refusing to give up the bottle 😊 Definitely a good multivitamin too 😊

When I say snacks, I just mean through the day between meals sometimes he’ll have a few Ella’s Kitchen melty puffs/sticks or something similar. Every day is different with him, but he’s always been a greedy boy so doesn’t surprise me he wants loads of food 😅 I’m going to get another straw cup, we have one already used for his water but going to get a no valve one for his formula and see how he gets on!

By 10 months my daughters only had 2 6oz bottles a day of formula. I changed over to full fat milk at 11 months in a sippy cup it's gone great and health visitor was more than happy.