HV reckons DD should only be drinking milk at morning and at night

[chequersmate]

She's 7 months old, have been weaning for a month. She started sleeping through about a month ago, but if I reduce her milk in the day she just wakes in the night for it so her intake isn't reduced and I end up getting up.

I've been really relaxed about weaning so far - following the food is for fun til their one mantra, and really, really trying not to turn mealtimes into a battle ground or worry about how much she eats.

My HV reckons she should only drink a pint of milk a day - but I thought this was a mimimum amount, not a maximum? She is having 5 milk feeds a day so probably is too much, but she's a milk monster and has always drunk way, way more milk than any book or HCP has suggested she should. She's also 91st centile.

So, any suggestions, should I try to cut back on her milk now? Or just gradually increase her solids so that she takes less milk (which is already happening to be fair) as I had been doing?

Sorry for the essay!

My 2.4 yr old DD still drinks 1pint of milk a day, plus 3 good meals, with puddings, and snacks.

(and she's long and skinny and keeps growing!!)

My HV said the same to me about DD, that I was spoiling her (wtf?) by giving her milk at the age of 1... isn't it recommended that breast feeding continues to the age of 2?

I told her I valued her opinion, but on this occasion I wouldn't be following her advice.

Ignore your HV. Starting to offer solids does not mean the end of demand feeding. Many people seem to find that their baby doesn't really take to solids until 9 or 10 months or older. I certainly found this to be the case.

You will also find that at times of illness or teething milk will be all that she wants

Good point Only - I should have added that I am BFing 20 month old DS as I type!

Are you breast feeding or ff? If breast, then feed away really, if ff maybe 5 bottles could be cut down. HV sounds full of nonsense though so follow your instincts.

Ds was def still having milk every 3 hours during the day at 7 months. And he was eating lots of solids. I trusted that given the opportunity to, he would sort out his own intake. And he did.

dd was still on 4-5 bf a day at 7 months. It took til she was 8-9 months before she was eating much (BLW) so I didn't reduce her bf until then. She's nearly 1 and has 3 bf a day and a cup of cow's milk. I think your HV is talking nonsense. You could try little snacks - banana, sticks of cheese, breadsticks etc - to increase food intake.

Thanks so much.

Funnily enough, I asked her about snacks and she told me they weren't necessary I will persevere with them. She loves yogurt but I'm guessing that doesn't 'count' as it's dairy.

Anyway, I'm definitely going to keep feeding her every three hours as I missed out a feed yesterday and she woke for it at 2AM.

So she expects you to drop feeds without replacing them with snacks?! Nutter.

As you were chequersmate!

Ooh, red nose smileys!

Thanks WME

IMHO some HV talk utter crap rubbish. Maybe 5 milk feeds is a bit much but only 2 I think would not be enough - team that up with no snacks and you would have a very very grumpy, hungry baby.
At 7 months both of mine were on 3-4 bf per day (and not eating huge amounts of solids as they were both slow on the uptake having only started weaning at 6 months).
Like the red nose smileys so one coming up for no particular reason

My 3.6 ds still has 3 big milk drinks a day!

My DD sounds the same as yours Chequers.

Shes 7mths and is having 5/6 bottles a day.

Usually at 8am, 12, 4pm, 8pm, then 1 or 2 during the night.

Id say give her what she needs.

Im BLW and finding shes not eating much at all but as her milk is still her main source shes still putting on a health amount of weight and following the 25th centil line as always.

Im expecting that she will drop her milk when she starts eating more. I think theres too much pressure for them to be on 3 full meals day from day one- theres no rush!