When to offer food? After milk? Confused by HV....

[TheSleeperandTheSpindle]

Hi there,

DS is 7 months old and a fantastic eater, I've yet to find something he won't eat. This means he is already on 3 meals but also he hasn't really dropped any of his milk, he is still having roughly 35oz a day.

I had him weighed yesterday and HV asked how weaning was going. I explained that DS loves his food but still doesn't seem keen on having less milk and she looked at me like I'd said I let DS play with matches or something

She asked when I offer food and I told her that he tends to have something about an hour after his milk and that he has milk around every 3 hours. She then said that he should be going longer and to start replacing his breakfast/lunch/dinner time bottles with solids. She also said DS was probably waking in the night out of habit or when he has one of his screaming fits (he has 4 teeth coming in...) it's because I've fed him too much. I just said it was something to think about and promptly left. Am I doing something wrong? This is a rough idea of our day......

7am wake and 5oz milk
8am breakfast - porridge, yoghurt, fruit etc
9-10ish nap
10am 5oz
11.30 nap
12.30 5oz
1.30 lunch - toast with different toppings, small sandwich, rice cakes, veg fingers
2-3 nap
3.30 5oz
4.30-5pm nap
5-6 Dinner - fish, sweet potato, macaroni cheese, followed by some yog/fruit
7pm 5oz
10-11pm 5oz

He also then wakes around 3am for 5oz.

Does this seem ok? Timings obviously change, especially as he loves getting up at 6am at the moment , and dinner time is a bit out because he loves eating with us at table but you get the gist

It does seem like a lot of milk, my HV recommended 15oz but DD has about 20oz and 3 meals a day. She's 7 months too but she's big. Sounds silly but have you tried offering water instead of a bottle? He might be thirsty rather than hungry

Oh dear, he's always liked his food Funnily enough in the last few days he hasn't had as much milk and yesterday he only had 20oz. Maybe it has taken him a while to regulate himself

Might try feeding him every 4 hours....he also has started refusing a night feed. It hasn't stopped him waking up screaming at me about his teeth but he han't wanted any milk

It does seem like quite a bit of milk but I don't think it's anything for the HV to get that wound up about. When DS was that age he had 3 bottles a day, on waking, early afternoon and bedtime. We dropped the 11pm dream feed around this time. He was offered 7oz per bottle but usually took 5-6oz. As soon as we dropped bottles he stated eating lots more.

I can't remember how many feeds my three had at that age but milk is supposed to be their main diet until a year old and food is being introduced and increased in that time so I'm not sure I would worry too much at 7 months old. There is still plenty of time for his milk intake to go down and be replaced by solids.

Mine had 5 bottles until 8 months when he stopped his night feed. Maybe aim for milk every 4 hours with meals in between. 15oz is not enough when a minimum of 20oz is recommended up to 1 year.

We had milk at 7, 11, 2.30, 7 and food at 8, 12, 5

Thanks for the advice. We're aiming for milk every 4 hours and so far it hasn't felt like I'm constantly feeding him He has wanted 6-7oz per bottle rather than 5oz so I think he'll end up having the same amount of milk overall but fingers crossed it will continue to push him towards sleeping through (I can dream a little! )

The advice is to start to move towards three meals a day at 8 to 9 months so I am surprised that your HV is expecting him to be dropped milk yet.