14 month old still taking a lot of milk- how much does your LO eat?

[jb1305uk]

My LO is 14 months but still drinking a lot of milk. LO has been sick in the night a few times or at bedtime, we think it’s due to eating too much but wanted to see how much other people’s LOs eat.

Typical day is:
6am- 6oz cows milk from cup
7am - porridge made with 3oz cows milk, 3 large strawberries and sometimes a yoghurt
10.30am - snack of cheese or yoghurt
11.30am - lunch- scrambled egg and toast (1 egg + 1/2 slice toast), some carrot crisps and yoghurt/pudding
3.30pm - 5oz milk in cup
5pm - dinner - full Ella’s pouch, yoghurt/pudding, fruit, sometimes chopped cooked chicken too if really hungry
7.30pm -8oz milk

We’ve given milk in a cup on HVs advice to see if it reduces but it just seems like far too much at 18oz milk + 3 decent sized meals. LO is on 9th centile so not big. We’re thinking we need to cut milk down as it seems too much and is the most likely cause of the sickness.

Any thoughts welcomed!

Looks like you need more protein and fat in there to keep hunger at bay. They only need 300mls of milk from 1 year. Not much in a food pouch, could you make that meal more substantial? Your morning snack and lunchtime is very close together, could it be combined? You could then offer a snack Instead of milk in the afternoon

16mo typically has
Milk, about 7oz I think no sure
Slice of toast and a banana
Snack of a biscuit normally
Lunch of sandwich and fruit, followed by yoghurt
Veggie crisps for snack
Dinner , eg pasta, cottage pie, sausages
Yoghurt or frozen yoghurt
Normally pinches some of our dinner then 7oz ish before bed

Water to drink during the day

So in short o don't think your little one of having too much no. But DS is big (75th/91st percentile) so I guess that makes a difference

Watching because my 14mo is also taking more milk than I think he should be needing (usually in the form of night feeds). He has a morning and bedtime bottle of about 8/9oz then he wakes up most nights at the moment.

He's a bit of a picky eater - he doesn't like to be in his high chair for long so it's sometimes difficult to get meals down him before he starts complaining

I'd cut one pudding and stick to one yogurt a day. Is it a sugary one or natural? Add more veg instead maybe?

The food seems about right, but not sure about milk amounts, so can't offer any advice there.

Yoghurt is natural, we are very conscious of sugar.

We cut out milk in the afternoon, offered a snack and water instead. At bedtime we limited milk to 7oz, LO took 10oz the previous night and was sick. LO wanted more milk after the 7oz was done but quickly accepted there was none more and went to sleep. Slept all night, no sickness.

We will keep trying the reduced milk, snacks instead and limiting bedtime milk.

Really glad it went well!

I think that sounds fine. Mine was having 250ml twice a day at 14 months (first thing in the morning and before bedtime), so that's about 17 oz. She also had 3 meals a day plus 2 snacks. The recommendation for children up to 5 in the UK is about 500ml of milk (or equivalent in dairy rich foods) a day. So you aren't far off that. We reduced the afternoon cup of milk around 11 months though and replaced that with a snack, so you might find you can start to do that. Otherwise, mine had a cup of milk before bed (8 oz.) until she was 4. She was also small, on the 9th centile, so I felt like it couldn't be a bad thing that she was getting a bit extra before bed. We have definitely had a few instances when she was sick during the night/shortly after bedtime over the years, but I think it was likely more do to having air bubbles in her tummy than having too much food/milk. I started to make her burp before she'd lie down in bed and that seemed to help.

My hv gave me this link for portion sizes for toddlers www.nutrition.org.uk/attachments/article/734/BNF%20Toddler%20Eatwell%20Leaflet_OL.pdf
DS is 11 Months so I use the lower end as a guide. I find it helpful to think which food groups to give and how much too. Portion size is such a variable thing though.

Are you just giving a pouch and yoghurt for dinner? I know they all vary so it might make no difference by by a year they'd just have bits of a real dinner - especially some veg.

As for milk mine still fed (bf so don't know amounts) several times a day as well as porridge etc. I'd perhaps introduce more real Good?

Same age.
Weetabix with milk.
pancake half with cream cheese.
6 wotsits.
Smoothie
Yoghurt
Wee pot filled with raisins, bear claws and cheese biscuits
Half a sweet potato and beans.
Chicken and rice soup.
I only offer milk in the morning and after dinner but she would drink it all day and I would give it to her haha if it didn't slow her tummy down.

We do blw just in case all lumps bumps etc

Oh and a slice of seeded bread with soup

We offer ‘real food’ at dinner too, eg sweet potato wedges, fish cakes, chicken breast, mashed potato, pasta etc but LO doesn’t eat too much of it so we usually offer a pouch / toddler meal tray after depending on how much LO has eaten. I’m hoping that will soon change.

My main worry would be that that looks like a huge amount of dairy. Lots of milk plus milk in cereal, 1 or two yoghurts, cheese and eggs. My daughter would love all this though! All her favourite things! Maybe more protein and veg instead?

Could you offer a little snack at bedtime before giving the milk so that not so much milk is being taken?
Also how much water is your little one taking? Are they a bit thirsty?

Eggs aren’t everyday, that was just an example of lunch. Sometimes it’s sandwhiches, pasta, baked potato, etc. I only give eggs twice per week max.

LO has a cup that we fill with water throughout the day, drinks plenty of water happily. I’ve avoided juice as I’m concerned about the sugar, isn’t a problem as LO is fine with water.

I do think that I need to expand on what LO is eating and try more things. I’m not the best of eaters to be honest so not the most confident in cooking. However, I’m going to find a few recipes and offer LO some new things. Fortunately LO is at nursery a couple of days per week and they offer a wide range of foods!

Try a baked sweet potato with beans? Sweet potato is so good!

Just to follow this up- stopped afternoon milk for a week, 5am, sometimes as early as 4.30am wake ups started! LO was starving.
Have compromised and offer milk in a cup along with an afternoon snack. LO eats the snack and sometimes drinks all of the milk. Have increased portions and offer more fruit and veg at mealtimes. Sleeping a lot better and not waking early through hunger now.

Milk is in a cup, teeth are regularly brushed so I’m not going to be concerned from that point of view.

At a review appointment last week, HV stated that most babies drop milk naturally and that as my LO isn’t doing that I should stop offering it as much. I’m going to ignore that advice for now!