Is my DS getting enough milk?!

[lauradj]

Hi Ladies,

  I'm very stressed out about this matter.  I offer my 8 mnth DS three bottles a day; one first thing in the morning, one about an hour and a half after lunch and one just before bed.  They are always 8 oz bottles but he rarely ever drinks the whole thing, usually only 4-5oz.  This morning he only had 2oz from his bottle!!!!  I did give him 5oz of solids for breakfast and I'm going to try and give him more of the bottle in about an hour but this is really worrying me.  I try to sneak in water from the sippy cup throughout the day because I'm worried he's not getting enough fluids.  Can anyone offer advice?

[Lolly]

Is he having a dream feed or any night feeds?

The minimum amount they need is 20oz a day with solids so if he is only having those 3 bottles then he isn't getting enough. You can include dairy in his foods in increase his intake but have a look at how much he is eating as it seems to be fairly common to have to cut right back on solids for a few days to get the milk intake back up and then slowly increase solids again at this age.

Are you using the fastest flow teats - that's worth swapping if you aren't. The other thing worth mentioning is that if he doesn't finish his bottle you need to discard it by an hour after he has started drinking from it as bacteria wash back into the bottle and warm milk is a really good breeding ground.

Is he teething? You could try teething gel on his gums just before a feed to see if that helps too.

Laura

[lauradj]

I'll check on the nipple flow.  I cut his dream feed out at 7 months and he was doing fine with the bottles for a while but in the last few weeks he's really cut back.  He's never been a huge eater, I'd estimate he gets between 10-15oz of solids maximum per day but he's only getting 10-15 of milk (I think)    I'm going to record it for the next few days.
I know that my DH was never a big eater either, he was a little sting bean and our DS seems to be headed the same way but this is stressful stuff!