Confused over reducing milk when weaning

[MadameG]

Hi,

My 6 month old ds started weaning a few weeks back and is enjoying his food. At the moment I'm giving him one food feed a day so his routine is roughly this:

8am milk feed

12pm fruit/veg feed

1:30pm milk feed

6pm milk feed

10pm dream feed

I don't know how/ when to reduce his milk feeds when I increase his meals to 2 a day. Plus I'm not sure when to try chopping the dream feeds. At the moment he has a nap at about 8pm and then I have to wake him up for the dream feed/ get him into his sleeping bag etc, and after about 20 minutes he's back asleep through til the morning. Does it seem maybe that he will sleep from 8pm til the morning now?

I'm sorry I'm totally clueless.

I would also like to add that we have an unfortunate situation on our hands- we are having trouble selling our 1 bedroom flat and as a result we're stuck in this tiny place (so frustrating I could scream) so currently ds naps in bedroom til his dream feed and then he sleeps in the living room til the morning.

at this age they still need most of their calories / nutrients from milk, so you really dont need to be reducing it yet.
Baby may start to drink a bit less, which is fine so long as they consume about a pint in day (including milk on breakfast cereal, cheese, yogurt, rice pudding etc etc)

as for the dream feed he might well not need it. I suggest reducing it by 1oz or 2 for a few days, and if still sleeping well reduce it by another 1oz or 2... continue as above until baby is sleeping through with just a 1 - 2 oz dream feed then give it up all together.

You shouldn't be reducing his milk feeds as he still needs mostly milk. Just offer milk, then food so it is the food he leaves not the milk if you did it the other way around. Initially it is all about getting used to different tastes and textures rather than getting calories from it.

Only 4 milk feeds isn't a huge amount for a 6 month old anyway, I'm not sure I'd cut any more out yet.

Maybe try food an hour after milk, so the food isn't denting his milk intake too much. I'd do something like:
8am milk
9am breakfast
12pm milk
1pm lunch
4pm milk
5pm tea
7.30pm milk
8pm bed

Then try as nannyl says giving a reduced dreamfeed til you phase it out. Over the next few months the daytime feeds will probably reduce a bit too.