How important is milk still at 6.5 months?

[OwlyLady]

I keep reading "milk is where they get most of their nutrients" and "food is for fun"

BUT

My DS isn't interested in it that much anymore, he has gone down to having at most 1/3 milk what he used to and we're only 3 weeks onto BLW. We offer him milk, he sucks it up and then spits it out. Yet with food he will demolish pretty much anything we put down infront of him.

Is there anything I should be doing to encourage more milk? Do I need to be worried? How can I make sure he is getting everything he needs to grow healthily (I do think I offer him a balanced diet but want to make sure).

I got him weighed yesterday and he's actually gone up on the growth chart and HV said I shouldn't worry (but this is same HV that told me to start weaning at 4 months).

Milk is still very important

Do you offer milk before or after food? Before is better

At that age it’s still very important. I’d offer it before food and see if he takes more.

We offer milk before he has food and is allowed milk whenever he wants it but in last week he doesn't do his cues for milk anymore. So I have been giving him milk around same time of day he used to have it.

It's still pretty important, but all you can do is encourage it. You can't force it. I would probably just be mindful of the amounts of solids you are offering, keep offering milk first, and make sure what you do offer is nutrient rich and also has a high water content so he stays well hydrated. You may find the timing of things starts to shift though, which may be why he doesn't seem as interested in milk. I always offered milk right away in the morning, with breakfast about 2 hours after that. But then the mid-morning milk feed eventually just went away and we had a bit bottle of milk in the early afternoon instead. You might just need to play around with the timing of it all. I definitely wouldn't offer more than 3 meals a day if that, don't be worrying about snacks yet or eating between meals. But generally if he is well hydrated and putting on weight and what foods you are offering are healthy, there's no need to worry too much.