Weaning advice - milk issues

[Faithmummy84]

Hi All, new to the mumsnet forum here. I am a proud mummy to an 11 month old little girl. Up until 6 months she was exclusively breastfed and then started on solids, she has a mild milk protein allergy and eczema. She eats solids very well and is on the 98th percentile chart so no trouble putting on weight. In the last couple of months I have started to introduce formula as I will be going back to work in May.

She was on and off as to whether she would take a bottle (even with expressed milk in them) for quite a while and I have tried what feels like all the sippy cups on the market to see if they would work better. She isn't great at drinking water and only seems to drink it with a little bit of strawberry flavour in it.

I thought I had finally cracked it with the flip and sip cups and she was starting to take a whole bottle of formula from these really well but now it feels like we have taken a few steps backwards! She has had a cough and cold and an upset tummy over the past week so I took her off the formula completely for a couple of days but she didn't even breastfeed much during the day on those days.

She now wont take the milk from the flip and sup cup and has started to spit it out all over herself (she has done this from the beginning when I introduced water but then seemed to get the hang of it) so isn't really taking much fluid at all during the day. I breastfeed her to sleep and then one or two times during the night depending on when she wakes and how upset she is.

So....I am trying to gradually wean her off me (especially during the day) but really worried about her fluid intake - how do i get her to drink without spitting it out and will she do better when she can go onto something like soya milk when she gets to one year old? Can I move her to this before one year does anyone know?

I just worry that when I withdraw from breastfeeding at night that she isn't going to get enough liquids during the day and she also starts nursery soon. I assume it must be a phase but don't know how to get round it!

My DD, who is 17 months now, went through a stage of taking the water or milk in her mouth, then spitting it out. It seemed to be a new thing she'd figured out and kept doing it! The novelty wore off though and she stopped. Could this just be a new skill she's learned? I wouldn't stress too much for now. DD really liked the OXO transition cup with a straw. She's only recently figured out the 360 cup. Like you I bought almost every cup on the market! They figure it out eventually though, don't worry.

I don't know much if anything about soya milk but I do know Alpro have a "growing up" soya milk from 1yr+ which has vitamins in but it also has sugar.

Firstly, please don’t introduce Soya milk. Around half of people with CMPA also have an allergy to Soy.

I’d try her with a different replacement milk but not rice either as that’s not advised for under 5’s and make sure it’s a fortified milk.

She is getting enough fluids if she’s feeding 2 or 3 times in the night. Have you considered night Weaning once she’s reach 12 months? Dr Jay Gordon’s method is very gentle, and she may drink more if she’s not drinking everything she needs at night. At 12 months she will be fine for milk if you feed her on wake up, after nursery and before bed.

If she has CMPA are you completely DF and have you seen a Paediatric Dietician?

I'm currently having a similar issue, my LO is 29weeks and looks like he has a CMPA (havent fully been diagnosed) but have the test booked at Guy's hospital in March. He's been exclusively breastfed since my milk came in. I tried to introduce formula to him when he was almost 6months as I'm going back to work soon but had a reaction within minutes, face was covered in hives and he was a bit distress, went Dr's and they prescribe Allerief, though it a one off so tried a different formula and again same reaction, have now avoided anything which has milk or may contain milk to be safe. He's now refusing to take the bottle with express milk or the prescribe milk from docs apart from his water in his sippy cup (only one he will drink from) I've bought countless amount of different ones with no luck. :(Have started weaning when he was 6mths and make alot of his purees but its the same thing he's having so looking for more variety of foods to give. I've given him soya yogurt/butter and have been told to try soya oat milk with weetabix as a cereal so gonna try that, I'm hoping he will grow out of it. Any suggestions to what I can make for him that wont take time and things I can get on the Go?? Thanks

The sugar in alpro soya growing up milk is to match the nutritional profile of cows milk.