7 month old not having enough milk

[foxfox]

Hi, we started weaning with baby rice and porridge at 5 months old. She's now 7 months and having three meals a day. She seems to love everything we give her and gobbles it all up.

I'm worried she's not having enough milk though. In the morning, before breakfast she has a breastfeed. (It's her only breastfeed of the day now, and will be swapped for a bottle in a few weeks.) Being a breastfeed, I obviously can't tell how much she has. She drinks until she's done, but has both sides. Then she only had two bottles for the rest of the day and she's not really interested in either. After lunch she'll have max of 3oz, and then a bedtime bottle she'll usually have 2 - 4oz.

I don't think it's that she doesn't like the formula. Before I started giving her lunch, she'd have a 7oz bottle around 11am, and another 7oz in the afternoon.

Should I give her less food to ensure she drinks her milk? Give her milk before lunch Everything I've read says they should be having 500ml a day of milk until they're one year old. Food is for fun.

There's a health visitor drop in clinic I can go to on Friday, but her advice for everything is 'see your GP', so I can't imagine she'll be much help.

Thanks for any advice

I may be wrong but I think milk is more important at 7 months old. My son didn't start eating until 11 months so I never had to worry but I do know that other people with babies the same age as you gave milk before food. As your baby gets older (9+ i'd say) than start giving one meal before milk and gradually offer milk less and food more as they get older.

I think it's probably due to the fact that milk is packed full of nutrition that your baby requires and is easily digested, whereas the food you'll be giving at the moment won't be enough to provide that level of nutrition but is filling them up.

Milk should be the main source of nutrition until 12 months and I think the advice is that if your child is having less than around 20oz then you should give a vitamin supplement.

My 8 month old DS is now on 3 meals a day and is still having around 30-35oz of milk a day - although he is on the 90th centile for weight!

I always offer milk first and then offer food around an hour later. Also if he doesn't want all of his bottle I try to get the milk in him some other way, such as using it to make up porridge or giving him full fat yoghurt.

Does your DD still feed overnight?

Thanks both... so I'm right in thinking she's not having enough milk. Hmmm...

I have bought porridge that says to make with baby's usual milk, instead of the one I did have that was made with water. So she'll get some extra that way.

I've skipped giving her lunch today, and she's had just under 5oz. Still doesn't seem enough though.

No, she doesn't feed overnight anymore. When we started with an afternoon / dinner meal, she went from waking twice every night to sleeping through. She's down from seven until seven now.

So it's not like she's filling up with milk overnight then..... Congrats on the 7-7 sleep, does she want to have a word with my DS and tell him he doesn't still need a feed at 11pm and 3am?

Things like yoghurt, cream cheese, rice pudding, cheese are all good ways of getting dairy into their diet. You can make porridge up with full fat cow's milk if she prefers the taste of that.

Is it an aversion to drinking from the bottle? Would she drink from a sippy cup instead?