7 month old refusing milk

[Steph4ne]

I’m absolutely going to book in to see our GP in the morning, but my 7 month (+1 week) old baby has started refusing my left breast over the past week, and is now barely feeding on the right. Even if I express and offer her a bottle she’s only having about 80ml. She’s the same with formula too as she sometimes has some of that to supplement.

She started weaning at 5 months because she was absolutely ready and as of 5.5 months has been eating 3 meals a day and 2 snacks a day. When I say meals I really mean meals - it surprises me how much she eats.
The health visiting team said not to restrict her food at all, but if milk is supposed to be their main source of nutrition then what if they’re refusing it?

I’ve been using expressed milk or formula in her morning wheetabix or porridge. She has water with her meals as well and drinks quite a bit of it, I’ve tried offering her a milk bottle, or even milk in a cup instead of water but she’s turning her nose up at it.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Op, food for fun until they’re 1 is for weaning babies who barely actually eat any food, it takes the pressure off.

If your baby is more into food and you’re providing a healthy balanced diet, you have nothing to worry about. Continue to offer and I bet next tooth she cuts she will be back on BF. DD2 is 11m & has been an exceptional eater since we started weaning at 6m. Don’t forget, breast milk changes composition so is very nutrient rich per oz too. DD has never really had more than 120mls at a time so 80mls isn’t bad along side all her meals and great you’re managing to get it into her weetabix etc.

Unless she’s unwell, dropping weight or not herself I wouldn’t say this is GP worthy. None of them fit the guidance to a T as they all develop in different ways at different times. Lots of parents would love to have a baby thriving on food, but if you need some reassurance call the HV’s tomorrow.

I'm not sure why you're asking for medical advice when you've totally disregarded the guidelines for weaning age. Early weaning increases the risk of bowel disease from when they are adults. Hopefully no harm has been done.

Sounds like she’s jumped through weaning quite quickly, good that she’s taken to it so well but 3 meals a day and 2 snacks is generally for 12 months and above. I wouldn’t deny her meals if she’s hungry but a breastfeed (or formula) will be better nutritionally and for filling her up than snacks so I’d probably cut those out until she’s a bit older. My DD also stopped daytime milk quite early, although not as young as yours, and the paediatrician (US based so normal to see one for routine stuff) said this was fine so long as drinking water, eating a healthy diet that includes 2 servings of dairy a day and taking multivitamin drops that contain vitamin D.

If you have nothing nice to say please don’t say it. In the 80’s babies as young as 3 months were weaned and the general advice was 4 months. I spoke to health visiting teams before fully introducing the amount of food she was on and they said it was fine. Are you a healthcare professional specialising in infant feeding?

She’s still having milk during the day and has one to two feeds at night, I’m just not sure how much milk she should be having during the day to be honest. I offer her milk at every meal and snack time before any food AND during food (as well as water). I’ve seen a few other similar posts on Mumsnet since posting. Seems a common issue, could be a nursing strike (we’ve been through one or more before). She also got her bottom two teeth by 5 months old and the top teeth are trying to cut at the moment too.

And then for the last twenty years it's been common knowledge that it can cause damage...

I weaned her with medical approval… on recent guidelines.