6mo DD has no appetite

[themilkmonster]

I'm getting increasingly worried that my 6 month old DD isn't getting enough food/milk.

A typical day goes like this:

4-5oz milk between 6.30-8.30am.
A few spoonfuls of porridge or fruit purée around 9.30-10am.
12pm-ish 5oz milk.
3pm-ish 4-5oz milk.
5.30pm- veg purée, amount equivalent to half a jar/pouch.
7.30pm - 3-4oz milk.
11pm- 2oz milk dream feed.

She never seems hungry and certainly never 'asks' for milk or food. Each milk feed takes around 90mins as its stop/start, wait 10mins then try again etc. She just doesn't want it and will drink half an ounce then refuse any more. It's probably only the 5.30pm meal that she will take without a lot of work.

It feels like I'm trying to feed her all day, every day. I'm constantly thinking of ways to try to get another ounce or two into her. She refuses milk all day long and I'd say probably about half of it is taken as a dream feed when she's napping through the day as she just won't take it when awake. If I didn't try so hard to get her to take more then I think she'd probably only take say 3oz 4x per day, which I know is not enough. It just feels like I'm battling with her all day to get her to eat and I'm just exhausted with it all.

I'm surrounded by friends babies who all take in excess of 30oz of milk per day then eat a ton of food on top of that. I know I shouldn't compare as all babies are different, but I honestly don't know any other babies who have as little as my DD.

For about the first four months of her life she'd easily take 6-7oz per feed, sometimes even more than that. After that the amount slowly started decreasing and has never improved. I thought teething may be the problem but she now has two teeth and the situation has never improved. Introducing food didn't help, I think she'd take or leave the food really, she's not really bothered by it. I recently changed her milk to see if she would take more but she still takes exactly the same amount.

She hasn't been weighed for about 6 weeks but I'm sure she is still gaining. This makes me think I'm being silly but it's hard not to be when I keep reading things like she should be taking at least 24oz milk alongside 3 full meals until she's one. She doesn't get anywhere near that! A good day is 22oz milk and maybe 3/4 food pouch over 2 meals.

Sorry, this post is so long and rambling. I've tried to include all info. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Think you need to slow down and relax a little monster. Firstly your friends who are giving 30floz a day at 6 months are unusual. Unless they are very tall babies they shouldn't need that amount of milk at 6 months. A ff baby should be having a minimum of 20, not 24 floz of first tags formula per day. Your dd seems to be getting this, so please don't worry too much.

As for the solids, the NHS recommend that baby gradually builds upto 3 meals a day between 8 and 9 months, so again your friends babies should only be having food at a maximum of twice a day at 6 months. There really isn't a rush. At this age most of her nutrition should be coming from her milk, not solids, which is exactly what she is doing

Is there anything that is worrying you other than her milk intake? Is she bright and alert at times? Is she meeting all of her milestones? If so, I really wouldn't worry. If you are concerned at all, I'd see the GP.

As for your day, I would tweak it slightly. The current recommendation is to offer solids roughly an hour after milk. So I would try this, I've tried to bear in mind that the bottles take 90 mins:

Bottle at 6
Breakfast at 8
Bottle at 11
Bottle between 2 and 3
Then keep the rest of the day as you are. Hopefully the longer gaps between food and milk will encourage her

I know that you feel that you are constantly feeding her, but this is totally normal when you first start.

As for the amount of solids she is having, don't worry abut that either, it really doesn't matter if she eats nothing at all at 6 months, its more about learning to eat with the family, getting used to cups and exploring taste and texture.

One thing I would try is giving her some finger food. My dd always ate more if she could feed herself. Try making her sone blueberry pancakes for breakfast, they have milk in and are yummy or give her some oatcakes with hummus or cream cheese and some chopped grapes for tea.

Forgot to say, just make sure she had her vitamins too

Thanks for the advice. You're right, she probably is getting enough, but I do think she's on the lower side of what's average.

It is just the eating thing that's bothering me, she's happy and alert otherwise. I'm just struggling with the change from normal hungry baby to one who never wants any food/drink at all. It's nearly 5pm and so far today all she's had is 12oz milk (over three feeds), about three spoonfuls of pear purée and a few sips of water.
I know that in reality she's probably fine but its just so disheartening when I leave it hours between bottles, offer her some milk and she'll take 2oz and that's it. I don't understand how a few months ago she'd take 7oz in one go and now she won't take anything even close to that.

Have you had her ears, throat and tummy checked? My DS appeared fine but went off his food and it was an ear infection.

I don't think that's the problem, we were at the doctors recently for an unrelated matter and he checked her over so think he probably would have picked up on it if ears/throat was the problem?

We've had an ok-ish evening, managed to get another 6oz milk into her over two attempts, plus she had half a jar of veg purée at tea time. Like I said in my OP though, the tea time meal is generally fuss free. Just wish she'd take more milk though, as its constantly drummed into us how all their nutrients come from milk at this stage! She's on 18oz for the day right now, hoping to get another couple of ounces in with a dream feed later on.

Forgot to mention... I took her to be weighed this afternoon. She's dropped about half a centile but is still gaining so that's encouraging I guess.

If the evening meal is usually fuss free have you tried giving her something a little more calorific?