Ridiculous Dilemma

[OpheliasWeepingWillow]

I have posted before about my feeding issues with DD. First bottle refusal, then food refusal. Now she is great with EITHER bottle OR food. Breakfast she will drink 100ml formula and a whole Ella's pouch but then drops her 10.30 feed.

So I give her more solids and so on meaning she is taking only 300ml or so of milk a day.

Madness. So what do I do? Scale back on solids? Go back to milk? Offer more dairy?

How old is she?

Sorry 8 months.

My dd was a bit like this she just hated her milk! Trying to remember what we did around this age I'm pretty sure it was bottle, breakfast, lunch (at 11), bottle (3ish), dinner and bottle at bed. She probably only had about 300ml like your dd is having so we just upped her yoghurts, made sure she had milk in her breakfast and gave her plenty of cheese. HV wasn't worried at all. I would keep going as you are. She obviously likes her food more than milk!

Sorry I'm no help but dd is the same, loves her food but really not fussed in milk any more, she is 7 months. I'll be watching to see if anyone comes along to reassure me you.

Hmmm and aaaaargh. Good to know we are not the only ones though.

She is TINY because of previous food / milk refusal but really long - ped says she needs 600ml a day of milk and solids but short of starting the day at 4am I am out of ideas. We wake up at 6 and she goes to bed at 8. No night feeds (she won't let me)

Can you give her readybrek for breakfast rather than an Ella's pouch? That will get some extra milk into her. Then obviously add it to all mashed veg (are you BLW or purées?) Ready brek again before bed if she doesn't like a bottle? If all else fails chocolate milk

I would try and make the solids u do give, milk bases maybe yogurt or pasta and cheese sauce jacket potato with lots of butter and cheese, or a low sugar banana custard or rice pudding. It veiny be this way forever don't worry x

Won't be

If she is small she needs fat, protein and carbs. Fruit and veg are important too but I wouldn't let her just have a pouch as it will fill her up but is not dense enough in calories.

You want to be doing the opposite to diet food so adding cheese, milk, cream, butter to food like soup, sandwiches, mashed potato, rissotto, pasta sauce. eg chopped up meat or fish with a cheese sauce with some broccoli or cauliflower to dip in it. Milky puddings eg rice pudding can be made with cream. Porridge or ready brek can have a bit of pouch / fruit added while cooking if that is a flavour she likes.

Since no one has mentioned it yet. It is not ok your 8mo is only having 300ml of formula. If she is taking in less than 500ml, you should be supplementing with vitamin drops. See
www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/vitamins-for-children.aspx

Adding formula to weetabix is very good in getting little ones to drink their milk. Same with porridge. It's good to get them used to that than an Ella pouch. I'm still giving my 18mo weetabix!

Readybrek is great as well, which has already been suggested. I just find weetabix easier since its simply pour milk over biscuit

It dries like cement though!

Have you changed to the 6 month+ milk? I did (because it was on offer) as I was increasing meals. His milk dropped off loads during the day, but he would have it at night or when drowsy. Just swapped back and he's had loads of milk the last 2 days. It might be a coincidence though!