Weaning - dropping milk and HV advice

[vallinnapod]

Hi,

Just wanted to hear what other people's experiences are.

DS is 10.5 months. He eats 3 meals a day - mixture of BL and spoon fed. I couldn't be luckier in that he eats everything offered etc. He doesn't have a huge appetite, for example when we are out there is no way he would eat a whole jar of 10+ food. He typically has half to two thirds of that sized portions.

At 7 months we moved from being EBF to FF. I have never really known how much milk to give him other than the 500-600ml guideline. at 7 months was told he didn't need a mid-morning feed and to replace it with a drink/snack - which DS never has.

Took him to be weighed yesterday and he is consistent in his growth curve (between 25 and 50th percentile lines) and I was now told to drop his arvo feed and again replace with drink/snack. He had this today - ate 2-ish rice cakes. He gets a lot of dairy in cows milk on cereal, one adult sized yoghurt (Rachel's Taste Explorer) and often cream cheese sarnies for lunch. This was the reason the HV said to cut the arvo bottle out.

This now means he has 180ml in the morning and 180ml in the evening.

My only question was the conflicting advice that if babies under a year are getting less than 500mls of formula they should have vitamins - which weren't mentioned.

Sorry, bit of a ramble!

What have others of a similar stage been told?

TIA

Think that you are being given very poor advice here and I would seriously question which evidence your HV is basing her advice on, in a nice way of course!

Babies between 6 and 12 months need around 20 floz every day which equates to 591 ml and they current advice is to offer the milk an hour before solids so that they get most of their nutrition from the milk.

Once they are 1 you can offer the milk after the solids and they will need roughly 300ml of full fat cows milk per day.

I think your instincts are totally right to question this advice.

Before 1 milk is the main source of nutrition, food is for practise at this stage - agree with above.

Thanks guys - really wish there was just one source of information for babies :(

I guess he is 'only' 6 weeks off turning 1 but that is a significant period for his little life!

He hasn't missed his afternoon bottle at all but I will up his morning and bedtime feeds.

"Thanks guys - really wish there was just one source of information for babies", there is, it's called MN! .

You are right, 6 weeks is a signifcant amount of time in his life. I'd still offer him the full 20oz until his is one and then look at reducing his milk feeds.

My dd is the same age and is very fussy with her milk. She has less than 500mls a
day and I have been told by a pediatrician
not to worry about it, as long as she is growing well.
I would give her the milk if she wants it,, but wouldn't worry otherwise, especially if she eats a good variety of foods.

hazel are you offering the milk before the solids?

Giving 20oz in 2 feeds is huge - 10oz per feed. I think you'd be better off giving him a cup of formula with his lunch.
Also can you put formula on his cereal instead of cows milk?
(If he's having less than 20oz of formula then he will need vitamin drops as well btw)

jiltedjohnsjulie yes she has milk first thing in the morning (4oz plus 2oz on porridge), then 2-3oz mid afternoon, then another 4oz before bed. She sometimes has night feed too which is another 2-3oz.
She has always been a milk refuser, even before weaning, and I really can't get any more in to her! I have seen hv, gp and now pediatrician (thought she could be lactose intolerant) and they all say she is fine, the guidelines don't need to be rigidly applied to every baby.

You already know that he should have 500ml of formula or he'll need multivitamins. I think you've been given very poor advice tbh.

Hi - I have just been given very similar advise by my HV. DS had his 9 month check up (nearly 10 months) and I was told to drop him down to 2 bottles a day (from 3). He was having 7oz at 7, 11.30 and bedtime, plus 3 meals a day. We got told to drop the 11.30 and give a morning snack and afternoon snack instead.
However he is in the high 90 percentile range and not crawling etc so I think the HV is always on at me dropping milk as he might find moving around more difficult due to his weight.

However following on from what others have said I might start giving him his cereal with formula rather then cows milk so he is not too much under the 500ml.

Have been reading these threads with interest as am really fighting to get more than 350-400mls of formula into my Dts. Dd will occasionally polish off a whole 200 ml them refuse her next feed, but Ds (on vile lactose free milk) never takes mOre than 100ml at a time. They're 11 mnths actual, 9 corrected and still on 4 feeds a day (5 if Ds night wakes, yawn) to try and squeeze it in.

Sorry, posted too soon.
Plus they have porridge every morning made with formula, often mash with it in for tea, plus cheese and yoghurt (lacto free for him) in the day. Any other tips for milk despisers? Ds loves his solid food and it's really improved his reflux, thank god, so that's one positive.