How much milk when weaning - 6 months

[Natzer]

I have read that babies need 20oz of milk between the ages of 6 months and a year. Does it matter if the amount is significantly lower if the baby is having a balanced and healthy diet?

My dd is 6 months and she is loving being weaned, we give her cereal and banana in the morning and vegetables and rice cakes with maybe a yoghurt for pudding at lunch time. we then only give her milk in the afternoon and evening.

However, its proving difficult to get 20oz of milk into her, once she has had her brekkie and her lunch shes not very interested in milk. We normally manage about 12 oz, is this going to be a problem?

Ideally you give milk before solids and it forms the main part of their diet.

If she really doesn't want the amount of milk recommended and prefers solids then you can hide the milk in the solids so put the formula/bm on her cereal, make a rice pudding, pancakes etc. Lots of protein/calcium rich foods as well.

I believe the current NHS advice is to give vitamin drops if they are either breastfed or aren't having the recommended amount of formula. Have a look at this page from the NHS. It explains what vitamins you might be missing, so if you want to go without the vitamin drops, you know what food you'll need to make sure your DD is eating.

OK thank you, I think i will persist trying to get more milk into her.

Today was the first time that I gave her breakfast before her milk in an attempt for her to learn that eating food will also fill her up as well as milk. It worked a treat, she really enjoyed it. I expected her to scream wanting her bottle, but she didn't.

I think I will revert back to milk first thing.

I'm confused Natzer I thought you wanted to try to get more milk into her?

I do, I had been trying to feed her solids before her milk, but found she wasn't then interested in the Milk - even an hour or so after.

But today I went back to giving her a 6oz bottle first thing, and then an hour or so later gave her solids. I think this way we can guarantee more towards 20oz per day.

Natzer The current advice is to offer milk an hour before solids from 6 months to a year. Once she has reached 12 months you can start offering the milk after solids. Most of her nutrition should be coming from the milk, not the solids, so if what you've done today works I'd stick with it

Thank you, I will do that now. On one hand its so sad she is growing up and not my little cuddly thing, and on the other I seem to be pushing her too fast.

Know what you mean Natzer but weaning isn't a race . At the moment its more about exploring and trying out new things, so don't worry if she doesn't eat much, just keep offering the botles an hour before the solids.

I am giving my 6 month old milk in morning then about an hour or two later banana porridge then her next feed she gets milk then her next feed she gets solid say carrot then next feed milk and then evening solid and then milk at night. I am basically alternating. I am wondering when to give her cow milk instead of formula now.

square Cows milk shouldn't replace formula (or breastmilk) as a main drink till they're 1. It lacks the nutrients required by babies and has a higher salt content. You can use cows milk in cooking or on cereal from 6 months though.