7 month old still drinking lots of milk (FFnow) - how much to cut down and which feed to reduce?

[lu9months]

my 7 month old is now settled on 3 little meals a day, but doesnt seem to be cutting down her bottles yet - she is having 7 oz , at 7, 11, 3 and 6. should I begin to cut one of these bottle feeds down, and if so, which? thanks

28oz doesnt sound too much. You will find that as solids increase she will cut the milk down herself.

In order to increase the solids, you will need to cut down the milk. From memory, at this age they need 18-20oz of milk, including that in food (e.g. milk/calcium in cereal, cheese, yoghurt)

At 7 months my DS was having:

7am: bottle
8am: breakfast
10am: water +snack
12pm: lunch +water
2.30pm: bottle
4.30/5pm: tea +water
6.30/7pm: bottle

There are two schools of thought on this, and, like sleep, I think you need to cut the milk down rather than expect your baby to do it!

Good luck

DS cut his own milk down by dropping the amount he took - he had 5 feeds at 6 months (one in the night), dropped to 4 at 8 months, was at 3 by 9 months and was down to 2 by 10 1/2 months. There is no rush as milk is still a major part of the diet up till 1 year. A minimum of 20oz is recommended from 6 months to 1 year.

Re: sleep - I didnt have to do much about that either so dont know what the 'other' school of thought is!

Ahhh - you see, I disagree because I don't believe that milk is the most important source of nutrition until they are one (although obviously agree that they need to be having the recommended minimum amount)! Having sought advice from paediatricians, they explained that food is the most important nutrition from 6 months (in fact, ideally earlier...but then that is a whole other thread and debate!!!).

I believe you need to structure feeding and sleeping v. other mothers who prefer to let their baby lead the way. Horses for courses - all babies get there in the end but the structured approach tends to get there first. Neither route is better - each to there own.

lu9months - try not to worry too much about this (easier said than done, I know!). My DS had a lot of bottles for far longer than his peers - everyone commented that he 'really likes his milk' and I worried I'd have to do something to get him eating more solids and having less milk. He started to leave milk in his bottles around 8/9 months and when I gave him water and a snack at 11 instead of a bottle, he didn't seem to notice (but then started to drain all his other bottles). At 11 months, with almost no warning, he suddenly got the hang of eating and became uninterested in bottles (I guess they just weren't filling him up) except for his bedtime bottle.

As with everything, it's a case of trial and error.