Need help - BLW and too much formula

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BLW experts, please help.

I’m getting increasingly worried that my baby is having too much formula which is preventing her from properly eating solids. She’s 8 months, 2 weeks and still having the same amount of formula as at 6 months. She’s nowhere near reducing to the 600mls recommended.

She is very interested in food and happily munches away/plays with whatever you offer her. She definitely prefers finger foods and has no apparent allergies. She is happy to try most things, particularly on the second try. She devours toast and yoghurt but doesn’t actually eat very much of anything else. Her poo has changed so I know that she is taking in something but it seems like nowhere near enough to make any difference to her milk intake. She’s tracking around 75th percentile and has done since birth so am not worried about that.

Am I at the stage where I need to intentionally make her hungry by depriving her of milk so that she actually takes in more food? Breakfast is particularly difficult, she never has any interest in it so am cutting down on her dream feed to see if that helps.

Do you offer food first before milk?

Personally, I weaned both of my two early (not even getting into that here!) so by 8 months, they only had two bottles a day. I did a combination of purees and finger foods. So would feed them something pureed and then have things they could give themselves on their high chair. Perhaps you could try something like this if you're worried she's not getting enough food.

I know people say food is only for fun until they're one, but by one my two were down to one bottle a day!

What happens if you simply reduce the amount of formula you give her?

(apologies if this is a stupid question - I did ebf followed by purees and my sons are 20 and 17)

8 months old here too. We're still on 4 bottles a day (8 oz each); I understood that with BLW, you're not really expected to see a drop in their milk intake? DS has two good meals a day and sometimes a third but he still is pretty keen on milk and we have a good routine that works for us. I did wonder today what would happen if I dropped one of the bottles but we're pretty baby led and I figure if he wants milk, he should still have it. So no advice really other than I'm in a similar position and trying not to stress about it!

Tomorrow morning I will try to do breakfast before milk to see if that works, though everything I have read suggests milk first.

Reducing her milk just seems to make her agitated and hungry so obviously I give in and give her a bottle. Maybe I could make all her bottles smaller?

She will have some purée but prefers to feed herself.

All advice seems to suggest the transition will occur naturally which is what I’ve been waiting for.....

Thanks Calypso, glad I’m not alone! We do the same though max bottle is 7oz and she sometimes only takes 5oz.

When you say good meals, how much is he actually swallowing....?

Before 1 most of their nutrition should be from milk. Food before one is mostly for fun!

Thoughtfox, thanks. I do keep telling myself that but then see other babies demolishing huge plates of food and wonder if I’m doing something wrong.....

I think my baby didn't really drop her formula until 9 or 10 months and she ate well. I figured she was growing so quickly and moving more so needed more of everything. I remember worrying about the same thing but then I ended up dropping her post lunch bottle because it became like I was chasing her round the room with it half the time, she stopped being interested for that particular feed. She was on 3 bottles for a while, 2 closer to 12 months and I started switching it over to mixed cows milk with formula.

I wouldn't worry by 8 months, they all develop differently and at this point they are still getting their primary nutrition from formula whilst they get to grips with eating solids. I offered food before milk at all feeds except the first and last one of the day at that point. Just follow her lead 👍

Interested to see other views here. I have an 8 month old and I worry he's eating too much food.
Hasn't been weighed in a while but can tell on view that he is healthy- not overweight only slight baby chubbiness. Anyway he has 3 meals a day and 2 bottles. 8oz in the morning about 7am followed by 1 weetabix or porridge etc. Then maybe some fruit or veg as a snack around 10.30-11 and lunch at 12. Then another 8oz bottle at 4 and dinner at 6-6.30 ish before bath and bed.

I have 4 DC

2 loved their milk and guzzled it

2 pretty much had zero milk at 11 months

Guidelines are averages!

Food is definitely about fun before one!!

Thank you for this, I feel more relaxed knowing that this is just what some babies do. Occasionally i just see advice which conflicts with the ‘food being fun’ and get nervous.....

I hadn’t really set out to do BLW but it became apparent that was what she preferred so I feel like I started a bit on the back foot in terms of being prepared for it!

Another thing to consider is that if you were breastfeeding you would have no idea how much milk she was drinking!

One of mine didn't touch finger food until over 10 months, loved her milk, tolerated that revolting packet dried stuff and was a 98th centile baby 😳

Then the other two that couldn't wait to reject milk and scoffed everything from 6 months old.

Children are unique and quite frankly weird!

I think the food is just fun before one is misleading, as it's an important development stage - learning to handle food, chew, swallow, all key as things like iron stores start to drop over time. That doesn't mean that it's going wrong if they aren't consuming lots at 8 months. It's a learning process for the babies so that when they aren't having milk they are confident with eating what they need. But there's such variation - I would love to know how much my 14 month old 'should' eat, I just know how much she does eat!

Yes I do wonder if the ethos of BLW is easier to follow when breastfeeding.....

She’s been teething badly too which I suspect really isn’t helping matters.

I think I will try to time milk feeds and food differently and see if she’ll accept a smaller bottle. I’m also worried that her favourite things to eat are cheese and yoghurt which amounts to an awful lot of dairy because of the formula...

The "food for fun" phrase is because it is a learning stage - the learning to put in mouth, chew, swallow, experience texture and flavours is what matters more than the calorific intake.

My late to finger food milk obsessed baby had tongue tie and regularly gagged and brought up her entire meal. I really think she was 4/5 months behind your average baby because in the womb her tongue didn't have the usual range of movement.

DS is not a massive fan of finger foods despite my best attempts to do BLW - he will demolish some things (like bananas or frozen mango) but most finger food gets ignored. He generally has porridge or yoghurt and fruit for breakfast; a small bowlful I'd say. Today's was a couple of tablespoons of oats, some lol and half a banana mashed up. He ate that all. The other half got played with later. He may have also had a baby biscotti thing at some point so I could unload the dishwasher...for lunch he had a roasted sweet potato with cheese and sour cream. It was a fairly large potato and he ate about 2/3 of the innards (I ate the skin - cook's perks!). There was also something green on his plate which he totally ignored. He definitely prefers mushy foods - will eat a baby bowl full of lentil curry for example.

Oh and I add chia seeds to quite a few things. Definitely makes it easier to tell if he's been eating 🤢

Teething will impact it I find, as my DD was enjoying finger foods as a sort of teether rather than for actually eating/swollowing when she was teething. I then started giving her purees from the fridge rather than warmed, and she much preferred that when teething too and takes more that way (I do a mix of both). Advice in Scotland is to go for food then offer milk after, so this could also be a factor?

Cold carrot and cucumber sticks can be good whilst teething...

Thank you, some great points.

Calypso - that seems like a really good amount of food but we clearly have the opposite issue in terms of finger food vs purée. I will give chia seeds a little try, ha! Biscotti may also be used as distraction here too.....

She loves cucumber whilst teething and definitely feel like finger food may be being used as teethers, as is the spoon when yoghurt offered etc.

Developmentally, I’m not too concerned. She knows how to chew and swallow, is great at picking things up, just seems to prefer milk. I will report back in giving food before milk.....

Another BLW question - if baby doesn’t fancy what you’ve offered, do you offer something else instead....?

I remember worrying about getting it right with DC1 and finding advice such as 'give her anything' rather frustrating . I have learned , something that should have been obvious to me, that DC are individuals and that although developmental stages do follow a predictable pattern a few weeks here or there at any point is nothing . My experience fwiw :
At 8 mo DC1 was accepting the odd spoon of porridge but was much more interested in breast milk, she finally took an interest when she was about 10 months and we were away on holiday in France so all eating together in restaurants and giving her bits off our plates , the odd biscuit etc . She drank water and milk from a beaker but then dropped off breast feeding very quickly and drank a pint of cow's milk or so by her birthday.DS1 was started on purées early due to failure to thrive and of course was always on my lap or up at the table with his sister so he got the idea very quickly. By 6 months he was fully self feeding and eating adaptations of family food eg sandwiches, bread dunked in thick soup, fruit , veg , fish, pasta etc etc. The only thing he would accept help with was yoghourt which he loved but would frustratingly slip off his spoon! He stopped breast feeding at 7 months and drank formula from a beaker. He had never been an avid or particularly successful breast feeder hence the ftt. DC3 started having bits of the family food to feed himself from 6 months and took to it . I never bothered with purées as the advice re starting solids had changed ie 4-6 months and from my experience with DD who was really not interested at all until 8-10 months I couldn't see any need to push the pace.he loved eating but stuck with the breast as long as I was available as well. As PPs have said you really have no idea how much they are drinking then. My only advice would be not to stress about it or make it a big thing. Always eat at the table with your child and let them eat the same as you( within reason) . Amounts don't matter they will eat what they feel like. My 3 are all adults now and those few months of the weaning process are aeons ago but I can remember the feeling of inadequacy I had trying to get DD going . Best of luck.

Babies are all different and they all get there in the end (barring some sort of physical issue or SEN). At 8 months my friends baby was eating 3 meals a day whereas I was lucky if my baby would eat 3 spoonful without being sick. Both were absolutely fine developmentally, grew at the same rate and by age 18 months were both eating similar quantities.

I've been in the same boat for a while with DS who is 11 months. I found giving him breakfast before morning bottle is definitely the way to go as he eats a good breakfast every day. It's been a struggle with food as he's a milk monster, but the last week we tried to drop his afternoon bottle between lunch and dinner, and so far so good, he hasnt complained, and is now eating a decent dinner (whereas it had been a couple of spoons max of we were lucky). He's also started sleeping better, but could be a coincidence!

Were still on around 25oz of formula a day (occasionally 30), but this is down from 60 at one point!! He's 99th+ centile for heigjt and weight, and very active, walking etc, so I figure he might just need a bit more sustenance?!

I've found a mix of spoon fed and BLW works well, and it's been a lot better since I've started stressing less about it! Just got to get him to eat more homemade now, as these pouches are costing me a fortune! Good luck, I'm sure they all get there eventually.

Interestingly, DS dropped a bottle today of his own accord. He normally has one at about 4pm so that he can power through to bedtime but he had a long nap instead and slept through it. He drained his bedtime bottle but didn't fuss for anything before then.

My daughter didn’t drop to 600ml a day till she was 11 months ish. Health visitor kept on at me that she needed less milk but she was eating ok and gaining the right amount of weight. We did a bit of trial and error and cut down the quantity of milk she had at one time but not the frequency and then played about with timings a bit. We also watered down some of her bottles as well so she still got the same volume of liquid but obviously water wouldn’t keep her as full for as long as milk would.