3rd meal v all 20z of milk at 9mo

[NellyBluth]

Weaning confuses me so much sometimes

9mo DD is (finally) a really good eater but we haven't actually introduced breakfast yet. She has a big lunch at 11.30-12, something like pasta with veg or chicken casserole followed by fruit, and a good dinner at 5.30, a sandwich or crumpet with cheese, a yohurt, more fruit, something like that. She drinks plenty of water.

The thing is we struggle to get 20z of formula in to her. She is offered three 8oz bottles throughout the day. The 'breakfast' and afternoon bottles she really dithers over and it takes several goes to get most of the bottle down, with the bedtime bottle being the only one she takes in one go.

I'm worried that if we introduce a solid breakfast as well she will drop her formula intake even more - so having had 3 or 4oz when she wakes up, after a solid breakfast she won't touch that bottle again.

Is this an issue at 9mo? Will it be ok if she only have 16oz-ish of formula, as she generally always has at least one yoghurt a day and frequently has either cheese or Philadelphia at some point too. Or is the milk more important than a solid breakfast?

If you are worried about the formula intake, could you not us formula in breakfast preparation? So your DD is still getting the formula just not as a drink? Use it to make porridge, weetabix, that sort of thing?

Could you give a cereal breakfast with formula milk in, its what we do. Also, add a little yoghurt into her day somewhere to count towards it.

Use formula, sorry, not us formula!

When we've given her porridge, Weetabix, Shreddies etc before it has been with cow's milk - more for convenience really, as she will often be eating breakfast at the CM's. Would that still work as part of her 'milk' intake, along with yoghurt and cheese? I never know how much milk we actually put into the cereal!

I'm perhaps not up to date with the current thinking-it changes so often! Unless you have concerns with her growth, I'd really not stress over the formula intake as much. Of course if you have concerns with her growth,the it may be worth speaking to a health visitor. I would say that if your DD is eating a balanced diet, in which you are including milk (cows and formula), yogurts and cheese then you are doing fine! I can remember weaning my DS many years ago and feeling overwhelmed with it all but the aim is getting them eating food and be less reliant on milk! The recommendations for formula intake are to ensure enough nutrients, now your DD is eating these are coming from food sources as well, and you have said she drinks water so you don't need to worry about her overall fluid intake. I hope I have reassured you a little, I remember very well how stressful weaning can be. HTH

It is, to be frank, a blood nightmare sometimes!

But realistically, we haven't found anything that she won't eat yet, so we manage to get fruit, veg, carbs and dairy in every day - not as much protein yet, I need to work on that - and we've no concerns over her weight or growth. So maybe I'll try a small solid breakfast and stop stressing quite so much about formula as she's getting a lot of dairy.

That does help, thanks!