8 month old baby milk intake - advice needed

[melilouise]

Hi all,
I am new to MumsNet so apologies if not posting correctly - I a newbie!
Ok so would really appreciate some advice on my 8 month old baby and her milk intake.
She is formula fed and I have just dropped her afternoon bottle as she was not really interested in that or her evening bottle.
The past week or so she has shown very little interest in her morning and bedtime bottle and I am lucky if she takes 5 oz per feed (this includes milk that we use in her breakfast cereal!). So in total she might have 12/14 oz milk a day, is this enough for her age??? She has never been a great lover of her milk and has always been a struggle hence I started weaning her at 5 months.

Her sleep this week has also been very erractic. She has not settled well when we put her down (cries after about an hour of bedtime) and then has been awake at 3am and sometimes takes around an hour or more to settle her back to sleep. Is this milk related or could this be that she has just discovered crawling and keeps pulling herself up on furniture... Could these new found skills be playing havoc with her night time sleep??

Any advice would be greatly received.
Thanks so much ladies
x

They are supposed to have 20oz of milk up until they're 12mo but I think you can give then extra dairy if they're not having that much.

The sleep issues could be to do with developmental things, or hunger (but you didn't say how much solids she's having).

Why don't you try giving her the afternoon bottle again to see if her sleep improves?

Oh and welcome to Mumsnet :)

My DD's sleep always suffers when she is learning something new - blooming great considering how much they have to learn
Also in regards to solids, she may well need extra calories if she is starting to crawl etc so maybe offer that afternoon bottle again and see if she will take it as she may well be waking through hunger. x x x

Hi Ladies
thanks for answering.
She has cereal and toast in the morning plus a 7 oz bottle and then for lunch she will usually have some protein dish that I have made such as lamb casserole or chicken casserole etc. And I also give her a veg pouch such as Ellas or plum and for dessert a yoghurt. When she wakes from her lunch time nap she may have an ellas biscuit or another slice of toast etc and some water. And for supper again she may have some lentils, corn chowder, spinach potato bake plus her bottle. She was only taking 2 oz in the afternoon so not really sure if giving it back to her would make a difference but had also been thinking of giving it to her again.
Have either of you experienced this? Last night lo was cring in her sleep at around 1am , 2am and 5am. All episodes lasted about 20 mins but she was definately still asleep. I stayed with her until she was more settled but it was almost like she was having nightmares - is this normal for that age as it really upset me seeing her like that :(.
Thanks

You can't force them to drink more milk other than making sure you put it on cereal and use it in sauces etc. My DS has 4 oz on waking, 4oz mid morning, 4oz mid afternoon and 5oz before bed. My HV said this was fine.

As for the disturbed sleep, it's par for the course i think, pretty much during their first year and probably beyond, although 8/9/10 months is a particularly difficult age for this. My DS does the same as yours sometimes, other times he sleeps beautifully for 12 hours solid. Separation anxiety, developmental leaps etc all combine to make sleeping a challenge. We have just got over the 'attempting to crawl at 3am' phase and now appear to be entering the 'i must stand up and hold onto my cot bars at midnight' phase....we have also had inconsolable crying with eyes completely shut. It breaks my heart and i just hold him until it wears off again.

So she cries during her sleep but her eyes are still closed? My DS does that, I thought I was the only one, glad I'm not.

OP I try and give DS 20 oz per day in addition to his solids (he's 8 months) but not always successful. Last week he had plenty solids but only 14 ox per day. If he is starting to refuse the bottle what about yogurts and cheese to increase his dairy?

my lo is the same hes 30 weeks on Monday and he is on 3 meals a day, he really doesn't like bottles an milk, im lucky if i can get 20oz a day into him. hes learning to use a beaker an is doing very well but not enough water goes in. he wakes in the night for a feed an will go straight back to sleep. should i be worried about the intake as some days hes only having 15oz of milk???