Low milk intake and weaning

[Hillbilly]

DS 5 months is bf/ff and last week I started him on baby rice and purees.

Obviously when he bf's (twice a day) I don't know what his intake is but whenever he has a bottle the most he will drink is 120ml (4oz), but usually nearer to 100ml. This is no different to before I started him on solids so I am not worried that the food is replacing the milk, but it does seem to be a very small amount of milk.

BTW he is 7kg (15.5 lbs) and his weight gain has definitely slowed down in the last month.

I am only giving him small amounts of fruit and veg puree and always make sure I give it after milk so as not to interfere with milk intake.

Does anyone else have a similar experience and is it ok that he has such little milk?

Ds is 5 months and has been mix fed, recently he's gradually started bf less and is just about formula fed now apart from the occasional bottle of ebm. It has always been a problem to get him to take milk, until recently (about a week ago) the most he would take was 4oz and very occasionally if extra hungry would take 5oz, haven't had him weighed for 3 weeks but was 11lb 9oz last time was weighed. This week we've changed his rountine a bit to try to get him to sleep longer at night so he'll be up in the morning for breakfast time when weaned. This seemed to have coincided with the fact he's suddenly taking 5 oz every bottle but he is missing the 11pm feed he used to have as he's sleeping through. His weight gain was good for the first 8 weeks then dipped and slowed right down and now it's gone up a bit again, he's getting there though, some babies guzzle loads of milk but some just won't, just the way they are, just wanted you to know my lo is the same to put your mind at rest

Thanks Dalrymps - I guess ds is just one of those who doesn't take much milk. Since birth feeds were always difficult, very distracted.

Funnily enough, both feeds so far today have been great and he's had some puree too.

Glad to hear your lo is sleeping through- no such luck here!

I had the same problem with my daughter she is 20weeks on thursday and for the past 2 months has been funny with her feeds only wanting 4oz, what i did was change the way i was feeding her, i would hold her for the first 4oz's then when she pulled away i would burp her, then put her in her bouncer chair and she would finish anotha 4oz in that. I also give her baby rice at 12pm and she sleeps through, she weight 16lb 6oz.

Another tricky feeder here! DS is 24 weeks, weighs 15lb and weight has slowed down a lot. Apparently normal with bf babies - he is much more active and distracted than when he was a docile 3 month old! I try not to get anxious and have decided not to bother getting him weighed for a while.
He is on two meals a day, fruit in morning, veg in evening, and I have tried too not to cut back on milk feeds. He refuses a bittle so i give him acouple of oz of formula in a sippy cup which is more of a game for him. Goes everywhere usually
He does seem to find time in his precious schedule to feed quietly though - usually at about 2am, 4am, 6am
Seems to be a pretty common developmental phase, if the other mums I know are anything to go by

Well I started weaning dd (who is now nearly 3)at around 5 months and it really helped with her sleep. She had been a nightmare previously and it started to improve when she was getting some solids. My ds is exactly the same in the sleep department so am following the same path. I know there is no evidence to show that it helps with sleep, but it helped dd so I hope it will help ds.

STarlightmckenzie - Funnily enough today he has really guzzled his milk and had an extra bottle too!

I will see how it goes and if necessary reduce the solids. To be honest it's a case of trying anything in the quest for sleep, however nothing is set in stone is it?!