Does not want the afternoon bottle

[Canadian_Mom]

The long story short is he just will not eat more than a couple ozs of that afternoon bottle.

The long version now, about three weeks ago I noticed the amount he was drinking out of his afternoon bottle was getting slowly less and less at that point it was around 4-5 oz, we had even taken a break for solids and it made no difference on the amount of the afternoon bottle. Then we hit a nice teething spurt where he was refusing ALL his bottles, now he has popped two teething and his other bottles have pretty much returned to normal, except now that afternoon bottle is down to 1-2ozs then he is pushing the bottle away and totally refusing it. During the week of refusal of all bottles I had been giving him a solids lunch instead and mixing formula in it as well as him drinking 1oz from a regular cup, so he was getting around 3-4 ozs of formula for lunch. So now I don't really know how to proceed, I am really tempted to do solids as soon as he wakes up from his nap and attempt a bottle closer to his second nap time (scared to do this as he still can struggle with reflux), so kind of moving towards 3 bottles...I know it is early but wondering if someone else has some ideas?

Here was our EASY from today:
7:30 up and meds
8:00 10oz bottle
9:00 Solids, about 4tbsp of sweet potato
10:45-12:45 sleep
1:00-1:30 offered bottle multiple times at first took it and drank 1 oz the was pushing it away
1:30 Solids, as he was acting a little cranky and hungry, 2oz formula with infant cereal and some pears
Almost an oz from a cup.
4:15-5:15 Sleep
5:15 meds
5:30 8oz bottle
6:30 3tbsp of solids
8:30 8oz bottle and bed

He has normally eaten 26oz/day since around the 5month mark and he still totals that out of the bottles that he has been eating even when he refuses that afternoon bottle.

Anyone have any thoughts on what I should do?

[*Kara*]

I notice that he has a 10 oz bottle at wakeup.. I would cut that back to 8 ozs, reduce the solids to 3 tbsp at most for any one offering (he really is quite young so we want milk to remain first).  See if that does the trick...

The reason I suggest reducing solids - constipation -since he won't be making the fluids up elsewhere and isn't going to consume much liquid with his "meals" in addition to the fact that he is not quite 7 months.  Solids really are just a fun thing at this stage and shouldn't replace milk.  Any time you find he is dropping milk, I would look at his solids first and adjust that to bring the milk back up.

What do you think?

[Canadian_Mom]

He is starving for that morning bottle though, so I really would be reluctant to cut it back, often he even takes 11oz and he still devours the solids after (would possibly have more if I let him).  The thing that I found interesting was that his other bottles have gotten more as that afternoon bottle has gotten less, so as I said he actually hasn't dropped at all in the total amount, IYKWIM, and if I added in the amount that he took with his solids it bumps him closer to the 30 oz mark for total daily amount  Which just seems weird to me, as you had mentioned he isnt even 7months yet?!?

I can definietely reduce the amount,of solids though and try that again to see if it works this time. I will do that tomorrow morning.

Also I would almost be glad for some constipation issues His liquid nutramigen poops are so not nice!

[*Kara*]

Also I would almost be glad for some constipation issues His liquid nutramigen poops are so not nice!

LOL! 

bumps him closer to the 30 oz mark for total daily amount  Which just seems weird to me, as you had mentioned he isnt even 7months yet?!?

Not sure what you mean by this??  30 ozs is totally average.

[Canadian_Mom]

Sorry, your right that does not sound right! What I meant was he actually took in more than he usually does. He has been much been a 26 oz/day boy for quite a while now and never really varies from that except when he was teething here. The amounts in the bottles can vary widely but the daily total pretty much never changes. So I thought that it was weird that he essentially only had 3 bottles but did over his normal daily amount...does that make more sense?

[*Kara*]

Gotcha

So really up to you... if he will take a bit of water from a sippy, I would go with whatever he seems to like... if he won't drink much from a sippy, I would redistribute that milk to keep food/milk a little more balanced over the day.