Some advice on dropping a bottle please

[creations]

another update

Night 3 without the DF.  BT feed as usual around 6.30pm and sleep at 6.45pm ish.  Slept through until 6.20am yippee!  Morning feed was a measly 90ml.

Overall cutting the DF has not affected his milk intake over 24hrs. It was only a small feed anyway.
Cutting the 11/11.30am bottle he still hasn't noticed, but he increased the 3.30pm bottle today to 150ml.

Paediatrician's secretary phoned back today.  There is no concern what-so-ever regarding his low milk intake of approx 270ml (9oz) per day.  His solids are a good varied diet and eaten with enthusiasm and good amount, he gets vitamin drops and he gets dairy solids. Hi weight has remained on the same centile since birth.  So all is well and I will stop worrying.
She did offer for a referral to see a dietitian but she seemed to think this was not needed unless I was really panicking and I've decided this is probably unnecessary.  I need to accept that he has taken to solids with real enthusiasm and finds it less painful than milk.  I've found ricotta is good dairy solid, less acidic than yogurt and low sodium unlike cheese.
Also now that his DF and mid-morning bottles have gone the day feels more 'normal' and the bottles he is still taking (3 per day) feel more substantial as it was all so bitty before.  Now he does appear to take a full bottle at some point in the day even if it isn't 3 times per day.

[Lolly]

If you are ok with it and his Drs are fine with his intake I think you are right to stop worrying and let him take what he will. At the end of the day we can't force them to eat and it's got to be better to keep his feeding stress free so he is enjoying it!

Laura

[creations]

keep his feeding stress free so he is enjoying it!

yes I'm totally for that.  There's been a couple of times I've caught my mum trying to force his bottle when he's clearly batting it away and trying to sit up and I've had serious words with her about it.  Her generation had a different approach I suppose and as she knows his milk intake was low she probably thought she was helping.
I think if I was less aware of his needs there could/would be a problem with the low level of milk.  The health visitor yesterday (as well as the ped today) was stressing the milk requirement is far more important for babies with less solids intake and a poor overall diet (perhaps not being offered variety or quality of nutrition).
I'm still going to monitor it all of course.  Thanks for all the help.

[*Kara*]

Great news Creations!  I was actually coming to mention that I know your DS has a hugely varied diet and just might not need those calories from formula anymore   Maybe just offer him formula in a sippy with meals??

[creations]

Maybe just offer him formula in a sippy with meals??

Yeah that's what I'm doing.  I have both milk and water at meal times so I can start by offering milk but if he really needs the water he can have it.  It's v exctiing because he is just starting to 'get' the sippy cup and realise that he's supposed to hold it himself, v cute.
I think I was right to be concerned when I was, and now that I've explored various avenues and ensured he is doing ok, I think it's time to let him get on with basically what he wants.

I'll still be taking an extra large bottle to his swim class on saturday though and I reckon he'll almost drain it too

[*Kara*]

LOL!  The little fishy will wear himself out!

Holding their own sippy is so cute!  DD has been holding hers for a while now, but still hasn't figured out that she has to tip her head back to get the water out of it - so funny!  She gets so mad at it and throws it across the room

[creations]

Starting to mull over a theory that the more dairy I offer in his solids the LESS milk he takes, as though he knows he's had enough dairy?  Just a hunch, would need some exploring.

Well, it's not a controlled test or massive scientific breakthrough but I've totally relaxed the whole dairy thing and his formula has increased.  Rather than trying to give him extra dairy in his solids I just went back to a normal diet.  There's still cheese, butter, milk etc in small/regular quantities in whatever he has to eat but no extras and he is now taking more like 350 to 450ml from bottles PLUS he has agreed to take cereal for breakfast again so is getting even more formula in that (this morning I measured it, I used 150ml to make a big bowl of thick cereal as finger food and I think he must have eaten around 100-120ml worth of it)!

Oddly (and slightly annoyingly) he has also started to wake up for his 11/11.30 milk feed again.  This is really interrupting his nap (down to 40 min instead of 2 hrs) so I might have to bring it forward to feed prior to the nap.

He's back to having 4 bottles per day and will only have 50 - 90ml at most feeds, on the odd occasion he shocks me and takes 120.  I keep thinking of what you said, Laura, about dropping to 3 bottles and that he really ought to be able to take more than a couple of oz in one go.  He appears incapable of taking a proper milk feed.  All other LOs I come across have about 9oz in one go at BT, DS has 2 or 3oz (but he goes right through the night with 12 full hours between feeds) and then has about 2oz 30mins after getting up.

Do you think I should just leave him to it now that I know his milk intake is ok at the lower amount (but also that it has increased some too) or do you think this indicates more investigation into the reflux is needed?