When should milk intake decrease?

[OJ30]

Hi,

I am really confused by the amount of formula milk my lo is still drinking despite being on 3 solid meals per day.  On an average day he still takes between 35 and 40ounces of lactose free milk formula.  This is in addition to breakfast (cereal & fruit), lunch (meat/veg) and tea (fruit).  He has 4 hourly feeds during the day and still has two feeds at night (usually 4-5 hours in between).  His weight gain is fine.  He is still between the 25th and 50th percentile just as he always has been.  He has also suddenly started taking more solid food before he refuses to eat anymore.  Despite this he is always ready for his milk feed at 4 hourly intervals and takes between 6 and 8 ounces at each feed.  We started weaning him at 4 1/2mo as he has reflux (on advice of hv).  He is now just over 7 mo.

Is he just a very hungry baby who metabolises his food very quickly?  He has recently had 2 tummy upsets (he lost some weight).  Could he just be making up for this?  Shouldn't his milk intake be dropping slightly by now?  I know he still needs to have lots of milk but it is like the solids aren't actually doing anything!  I feel like we will never have a baby who STTN because he will always need night feeds.

I hope someone can help.

Jo

PS I don't think the night feeds are not habitual as the times vary from night to night.

[em_here]

Hiya When he wakes at night does he eat like hes ravenous? How much does he eat on the two feeds at night?  Can you post your routine for us to look at?  does he bring back up any of these feeds? sorry for all the Q's lol xxx

[OJ30]

Hi,
Thanks for getting back to me.  Yes- he drinks like he is ravenous at his night feeds!  He rarely brings up any milk now as we seem to have the reflux under control.  Our routine is a bit all over the place at the moment due to ews (that's another story) but a 'typical' but good day goes something like this;
Awake 5.30am
Eat 6.00am - 5-8oz(as he had a feed around 2am)
A
Sleep 7.15am for 1.5 hours (1 h 45 mins A time from waking)
A
Eat 10.00am- 8 oz
A
Sleep 11.15 am for 1.5 hours (2 hrs 15- 2hrs 30 mins A time from waking)
A
Eat 2pm 5-8 oz
A
S 2.15 for 45 mins
A
5pm bath
Eat 5.15pm - 8oz
Sleep 5.30pm

Feeds between 10-11pm and 2-3am (drains 8oz bottle at both).

I hope you can help.

Jo x

[em_here]

Wow! He does love his milk...... I am not sure what to say that IS a heck of a lot of milk, considering the solids too............... If he isnt gaining weight stupidly fast, I dont know why apart from him being very hungry, could be, have you addressed it with the H.V?

[OJ30]

Hi Emma Lou
We consulted a hv today as he took 3 eight ounce bottle overnight last night (every 3 hours).  HV advised weaning off LF formula back onto regular milk and upping quanties of solids.  We'll give it a go and see.  We weighed him this morning and he weighs approx 8.5 kg so he is still on the same percentile curve as always.  HV just thinks the LF milk isn't satisfying him as it isn't thick enough or he is just a very hungry (and active) little boy.  He is trying soooo hard to crawl and spends a lot of time rolling about and pushing up on his arms.  Maybe this is making him burn off a lot of calories.

Jo x

[em_here]

Good luck with it all, I was thinking about this thread earlier actually and thinking wow, I know at 6 months there's a growth spurt, but my word he eats a lot!  Hope the regular milk helps things, he does sound like a very hungry little lad You can try the hungrier baby milk by SMA, it contains a higher ratio of casein:whey, casein takes longer to be digested than whey. Normal milks contain a higher ratio of whey:Casein.  We used the hungrier baby milk with DS very successfully

Let us know how it goes xxxxx

[OJ30]

Hi,
Many thanks.  I'll let you know how it goes!  I just hope we don't have to get up as much tonight with him.  Wish me luck.

Jo

[em_here]

Loads of ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~#good luck vibes~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

[OJ30]

Hi Emma Lou
Thought I'd give you a bit of an update on our hungry little monster.  I spoke with a hv on Wednesday and talked at length for strategies to reduce Alex's total milk intake.  We have to alter his eating habits and dramatically increase his solid intake.  I have to say I was quite anxious and dubious at first but the first 12 hours seem to have gone swimmingly.  I'd like to put here that this is the advice I have been given for my ds only and is not intended for anyone else to pick up and follow as a routine.  The new routine looks something like this;

Wake up 6am and bottle of milk
Breakfast (porridge and fruit/yoghurt) 7.30-8am
Lunch (meat/fish or pasta mixed with veg and fruit) followed by bottle of milk 11.30am
Tea (veg and fruit) followed by milk 3.30pm
Bedtime bottle 6pm

Tried this today and actually found the morning ok.  I was really worried that Alex wouldn't last from 6am until 11.30am.  We did go to a sing-a-long class at 10.30am as I thought this would help to distract him.  It worked!  He wasn't too impressed at the solid food first and started to cry for his milk part way through.  However, he almost finished 2 ice cubes of lunch so I was happy.  He then proceeded to guzzle down 6 ounces of milk immediately afterwards (and was a bit sick as he was just too full).  As he had eaten so much I decided to forget the 3.30pm milk and just delayed dinner until 4pm.  This seemed to be ok as he had some water from his cup throughout the afternoon.  He then had a final bedtime feed at 5.30pm today (he was awake really early at 5am this morning) and took 5 ounces.  As a result we have dramatically reduced the riduculous quantities of milk he was drinking.  I just hope it doesn't have a huge knock on effect tonight.  The hv thinks he has learned that he likes a full tummy in order to sleep so that is why he wakes twice for feeds during the night.  Our initial aim is to extend the time between his bedtime feed and first night time feed so that he only has one feed at around midnight or 1am.  This should (in theory) then take him through to morning.  We'll see.  Will keep you posted.

Jo

[em_here]

Glad its all going well so far Good luck for tonight, I so hope it works for you Glad your hv was supportive and you have a plan. Do keep us posted