feeding solids at bedtime

[fivesey]

Hello,
I would really welcome some advice. My LO is 8.5 mo. He eats three good meals a day (savoury followed by fruit/dairy dessert). The problem is his milk. He will take 7 oz upon waking (with a little fussiness) but after that he is really not enthusiastic about his daytime or bedtime bottles. I have tried switching his daytime one from before lunch to after lunch - it doesn't really make a difference. At bedtime I have to almost force feed him the milk and am lucky to get 6/7oz into him and this involves carrying him, all manners of distraction, singing, calgel (he is teething pretty much continuously) and alot of tears! Even at this sometimes he wakes for a bottle at 2am - I am sure it is not habit as when it happens he guzzles down 8oz (so so much better than during the day) and promptly goes back to sleep. My new strategy is giving him rusk/milk or semolina at night in the middle of the bedtime bottle. He is sleeping so much better as a result. Infact he is an awful sleeper normally (has never slept through and rouses lots of times in the night) but this really has helped over the last week. The thing is do any of you have experience of giving solids at bedtime? What did you give? Am I setting myself up for problems down the line?
Thanks for any advice,
Fiona

[Shiv52]

How many oz of milk does he take in a day?  At 8.5 months he should still be getting about 24 oz (including milk in his cereal/other foods).  At this age solids are more for experience and if they fill up on solids they aren't getting enough which is much more calorie dense than solids.

You may find he'll start wakening again for a bottle if his milk intake isn't kept up. 

Have you tried cutting back on solids?  How much is he getting per meal?

[fivesey]

He takes about 20oz of milk per day plus milk in cereal and I ensure that he has yoghurt, custard or some other dairy dessert after his solid meals. So I think on that front I am probably close to the target.

I have tried cutting back on solids but it makes no difference. I tend to give him solids 1 hour after a milk feed so that means that he should be really hungry when he gets the next milk feed but it just doesn't help.

This is his feeeding routine:
6.30am - Bottle
7.30am - Cereal
11 noon - Bottle
12.30pm - Lunch
3.30pm - Tea
7.15pm - Bottle

I have had so many problems getting him to drink milk since birth (though nothing diagnosed). The fact that he has been teething since 5 months hasn't helped!

[Shiv52]

To be honest I wouldn't worry too much.  That is a good amount of milk throughout the day.  Could be you just have a hungry little fella on your hands.  So long as he keeps up the milk I don't see any harm in giving supper if you think its helping him.

From about 9-10 months I think DD took some porridge/rice cereal about an hour before bed and then we did our last milk feed before bed and it worked fine. She still has some supper now at 2 YO so it was never an issue for us! 

I'd keep doing what you're doing as he seems to be doing great with it all. 

HTH xx

[fivesey]

Thanks for your replies. I really appreciate them. I know myself that he is getting enough nourishment (and everyone else says that he looks very healthy and happy so what is the problem) but there is such an emphasis on the need for milk until a baby is one and he is just so not interested that I am getting myself very stressed over the whole thing.

[Shiv52]

Don't be stressing yourself.  If he's getting all that milk and other diary products he'll be getting enough.   And the proof really is in the pudding...if he is happy and content, then he's obviously doing grand!