Need help - BLW and too much formula

[Overtired123]

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.

Some progress made - eating something at every meal now, including breakfast but still not enough to drop milk.

I have noticed that is really inclined to eat outside of meal times and outside of the highchair. Eg. one of us is eating a banana on the sofa, she wants it and will eat it sitting on the floor (I know she should be in a highchair...). She's also started screaming when first put in the highchair so perhaps it is that which is the problem?!

Do you sit and eat meals together, is the high chair pulled up to the table so you are all together?

I think she has been picking up on your anxiety hence not liking the high chair.

One that fixes to a dining chair, sit down and eat together, only strap her in when the food is ready to eat and don't make her sit there for ages. Offer her finger food concentrate on your meals.

She is only coming up 9 months it isn't an issue if she is still drinking lots of milk, she is still rapidly growing so needs more calories than she did at 6 months.

Thank you. You are absolutely right that she may be picking up on my anxiety. We do all eat together, particularly for breakfast and lunch. Dinner she eats earlier so we tend to have a snack with her whilst she eats hers. I really would like to get a different highchair - either one that clips to the table or onto a chair. Current one is bulky and we cant pull it right up to the table and be on exactly the same level. We are watching her whilst shes eats too so maybe we should just focus on our own food.

Some days, I feel like she is making progress. Other days, she refuses most food and I feel the anxiety coming up again!

I thought I would update this thread for anyone in future who has the same problem!

We concluded that, if given the option, she would just drink milk so we decided to reduce it. We cut out the mid-morning feed and made lunch earlier. Result = she eats! She will also eat a small amount of breakfast if we do that before milk (though she seems most reluctant to eat first thing than any other time). She's been having a proper lunch with meat/fish/eggs and then a more vegetarian, snacky tea/dinner. I think soon we will try to drop the mid afternoon feed to see if that helps further.

By actively dropping the milk feeds, she's taking in 200-300mls less milk per day and much more proper food. I'm hoping that soon we should be closer to the recommended 600mls of milk per day with 3 good sized meals.

I'm with your DD on not being ready for breakfast first thing

Glad you are feeling happier and more positive about it.

I just spoke about this with my HV. DS is going to be 6 months soon and we want to try BLW. She said not to expect or aim for any significant change to milk feeds (I breast feed) until 12 months. Obviously if the baby drops the feeds it’s fine but we shouldn’t do it