Do I listen to nursery nurse advice or follow my instinct?

[NoTeaForMe]

Hi,

I had my nearly 8 month old weighed yesterday and the nursery nurse (no HV at the clinic) said that I should cut her afternoon bottle out now as she put on 9oz in a week and has jumped up a centile. At the moment she has 3 meals and 3 bottles a day, our day goes like this - timings are v approximate! -

7am - breakfast, weetabix and banana / muesli or similar
8.30 - bottle, normally has around 6-7 oz
11.30/12 - lunch, scrambled egg with toast / Philadelphia on toast and brocolli or a veg purée.
12.30/3 - bottle, normally 7-8oz
5.30 - dinner, something like spaghetti bolognaise with some veg as finger food and then some fruit for dessert.
7.30 - bottle at bedtime. Again normally 7-8oz.

She is really enjoying her food and is doing brilliantly at finger foods now, loving the whole experience! I don't think she could last from lunch til teatime with nothing, the nursery nurse said I could give her a snack and some water in place of the milk and try adding her milk into her food.....but then why take away her bottle if I'm just going o add it in her food? Should I cut down a bit on milk? I thought the recommended was 3 bottles of 7oz (according to formula box) which really is basically what she's having.....what do you all think?

Thanks for reading!

Go with your instinct You are right. She should be having around 20oz of milk a day so she is spot on and it sounds like she is doing really well. Eight months old often get really chubby but as soon as she becomes more active she will burn it off.

Follow your instints.. 3 meals and 3 bottles a day is normal at that age, and I wouldn't consider jumping a centile to be an issue at all, especially before she's mobile.

Go with your own instincts.

sounds roughly like what my 8 month old is having. she's a big baby and is on the 75th centile for weight and height. it's all very well them measuring your dd's weight, but without height you don't get a true picture. and in any case our dd's paed and hv have said that they tend to fluctuate up and down around a percentile and won't stick to any one line on the graph. so if they are a bit "heavier" one time and a bit "shorter", it really doesn't matter.

Definitely stick with what you are doing!

Cut down/eliminate the afternoon bottle from 12 months old.

If you find she is not eating very much at mealtimes until then, you could always cut back on the milk by a couple of oz?

Before 12 months: 18-20oz of milk a day (including that in food inc cheese, yoghurt)
After 12 months: 12oz of milk a day (inc that in food).

Is there a reason you're having her weighed weekly?

Thanks for all your advice! She doesn't look fat, she's in no way skinny don't get me wrong and is definitely quite podgy, but I was too at her age and as a toddler too. My husband and I were only saying the other day how well she's doing with food at the moment and how happy she is with her eating!

If she has cheese etc in a day then should I be cutting milk back that day? At the moment she is having around 20oz of milk in bottles and then is having cheese and whole milk on cereal on top of that....

Rita I don't go every week, do tend to go most weeks if I have nothing on at that time-I go with a friend and then we have coffee so it's more a social thing I guess! There's no medical reason why I should go though!

Thanks

No - don't cut back on milk yet even if she is having cheese etc - she is still very young! It is just reassurance that she is having enough. If you notice she starts to cut back on solids and eat less (probably most noticeable at tea) you could give a few less ounces in the afternoon. Gradually by 12 months you can cut this bottle out.

goodness, ds only just dropped down to 4 bottles at that age (dropped his night feed) and was on 3 meals. I'd leave her as she is until she cuts the milk down herself.

Perfect, thankyou, I'll carry on following my instinct. She's doing so well at the moment I really didn't want to change anything!

Thanks again!