Almost 8mo not drinking enough milk?

[Jodes112]

Hi, my dd is almost 8 months. She has been having solids from 5 months and is now eating breakfast, lunch and tea. She has never gone past having 6oz per bottle, & now she is eating solids too she only has 4/5oz per feed. In the last 2 weeks she has been showing no interest in one of her bottles aswell. Im not sure if this is ok at her age?

She has porridge with an oz or 2 of her milk for her b/fast, lunch is usually a frozen meal i prepared which is about 4 ice cubes (only way i can describe the amount!) and for tea she usually has what we have mushed up, which is around the same amount as lunch, and a yogurt too.

Here is her feeding schedule:

7am 4/5oz bottle (usually 5)
8am solid breakfast

11am 4/5oz (usually 4)
12 - lunch

4pm she wakes from her pm nap. I then offer a bottle but she will take 2oz at the most, not interested at all.
4.30-5pm solid tea

6.45pm bedtime bottle 5oz max

I just wonder if this is too little for her age? I cant get her to take any more. Any advice?

Thanks!

[Lolly]

It's a tricky one when solids are involved - her milk intake is on the low side for her age really.

The guidelines are that babies need a minimum of 20oz a day from 6 months, that includes the dairy in foods so she may just about be scraping that but most babies are taking around 24oz a day of liquid milk plus the dairy in foods.

You have a few options, the first really is to scale solids right back until her milk intake increases and then gradually increase the solids again. They should be taking more or less the amount they were taking pre-solids and then still  be hungry enough to take the solids as an add on, remember milk is her main source of nutrition until she is 1.

You could try giving her finger foods at tea time instead of puree/mush as she wouldn't eat so much that way and should be hungrier for her bedtime milk. What flow teat are you using - I'm assuming you have tried the fastest available?

A last resort at this age would be to try 3 bottles as that is often a way they will take more, so a bottle at wake-up, after lunch just before the pm nap and then bedtime. Babies usually go to 3 bottles around 9/10 months but my refluxer took more in 3 bottles when we dropped one at about this age. If you do try this and it doesn't increase her intake then I would stick at the 4 bottles.

Is she waking at night at all?

What do you think?

Laura

[Jodes112]

Yes she is usually on a good day getting 17oz. Before solids she was taking at most 24oz, so shes always been a little on the low side! Although she is gaining weight fine.

I  think i might give the finger food a go at tea time so that she mabee isnt so stuffed for the bedtime bottle. Do you have any finger food suggestions? She has tried banana (sliced really slim) cucumber, cauliflower, rusk, any ideas you can recommend? 

Im not sure if moving to 3 bottles would help as she literally gets to 5oz and just is not intrested any more. Its as if it bores her! Like i said she has never taken more than 6oz in one go. And yes she is on the fastest teat!

It worries me as she is onto her 3rd cold in three months, do you think this could be because of her low milk intake ie lack of vitamins? Do you think supplementing vitamins is a good idea? Thats if i cant get her to take any more milk?

I will give the finger food a try this aft & see how we get on. Thank you!

Edit: no she doesnt wake in the night & sleeps from 7.15pm to around 6.30am

[goldmom]

Wanted to let you know that DD is just a little older and rarely takes more than 5 ounces in a single bottle (usually 4), and she takes a lot less when she has lots of solids even 2.5 hours before the bottle (we had to back off the solids when she only took 2 oz from one of the bottles). She only takes 2 bottles and nurses the rest of the time, so I can't say how much overall she's taking, but I know that DS was taking 6-7 oz in his bottles at this age, and even when younger, but she is just not interested. That saying, she does love solids!

For finger foods I give her pieces of chicken which she enjoys, green beans, slices of (peeled) apples.

Also, if you give yogurt, that's also considered milk intake.

[Jodes112]

Goldmom, thankyou for your comment! My da was such a big eater  so this is new to me too! I figure as ling as she is gaining weight then were good. But, as i said in other post, im worried low intake she isnt gettin enough vitamins as she should therefore not able to fight a cold as good as other babies. As she is now on ber 3rd since august! Ds was never like this. May look into vitamin supliments.

Thanks for the info on finger food will give some a try! X

[creations]

Hi, just wanted to pop on with my own experience of low milk intake. Mine always took less than guidance (about half!) and I would always say to make sure weight and growth are ok etc, mine was although I still worried.  Anyway, often the advice on low milk intake is to up the dairy solids, yoghurt, milky puddings (custard, rice pudding etc), cheese etc and that is worth trying, however I found the more milky solids i gave him the less milk he drank. He appeared to be self regulating his dairy intake. When I cut out all dairy solids he started taking more milk in his bottle again. I preferred him to have the formula milk (rather than solids) because of the added vits so I just gave small amounts of cheese but no other dairy solids from then on.  Thought it might help - worth an experiment.

I also gave vitamin drops, in the UK they are recommended anyway.

Finger food you can give just about anything at this age, something from your own meal will help to prepare her for family meals rather than separate meals.  Batons, wedges or strips.

[Jodes112]

Thanks creations. I will definatley give that a try! Would love to get her to 20-22oz but feel like the time we get there it will be time to drop it!

I did tey the finger food for tea idea, and she is now taking 6oz at bedtime which makes me happy! (As it was more like 4-5!) i always thought a good bedtime bottle helped babies sleep through the night but she has gone to bed in 3oz a few times and still slept through! Crazy.

I am going to get some vitamins for her too. Thanks for your advice x

[Jodes112]

I thought id give it a go today at spreading out the bottles (3bottles) to see of she would take more. She had breakfast bottle & solid as normal, then i gave solid at 12 & bottle at 2, i could tell she was ready for the milk so made 7oz and she had it all! Yay! Tomorrow i will make 8 & see if she will take it all. Great. X

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Glad you've found something that worked We had exactly the same problem and dropping to 3 bottles helped us too.  In fact since we did that it doesn't seem to matter which comes first,  milk or solids.  He always has about 20oz however we do it.

[Jodes112]

Thank you 😃 i was scared to drop to 3 bottles as she is still young. but she did that herself by showing no intrest in her afternoon bottle so made sense to spread the bottles out really x

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Yeah I was reluctant too until I found an old post about my daughter when she was this age where I'd said we'd dropped to 3 bottles on hv advice cos she wasn't interested in her afternoon bottle! So I thought if it was ok for her then it'd be ok for him!

[lolsyb1982]

I have a similar problem with my 8 month old little girl. She had dropped down to about 15oz a day and I was offering milk every 4 hrs. I have now cut down to 3 main bottles a day usually about 6,11 and 4. She now takes 6oz at each feed and I then offer another couple of oz at bedtime which she usually drinks as well so now getting 20oz plus what she has in her food.
She too has never been a big eater and wasn't a problem until recently when her weight gain has almost stopped. Definitely worth trying