No weight gain and refusing bottle

[lkat]

Hello ladies,

My 10 month old baby girl weighs 18.7 pounds and hasn't really gained weight since 8 months. At 8 months she weighed 18 lbs, 9 months 18.5 lbs and and her vaccines last week (nearly 10 months old) weighed 18.7 but that was with a different scale. She gets 4 8oz bottles of pumped milk per day (total 32 oz) and 3 smallish meals - I try to feed her bigger meals now but she eats x amount and then isn't interested in more. I've noticed she is still getting taller but she has lost her arm and leg rolls. She is otherwise very happy, active, playful, and seems very healthy to me.

She has also recently started to refuse her bottles half way through, which doesn't help with weight gain. She seems eager for her bottle when I show it to her, but will then only drink 3-6oz and push it away, will turn her head away if I try to put it back into her mouth, etc. I have been saving the leftover milk and giving to her directly before a nap when she is sleepy and more amendable to drinking it then, but still. Does this sound like she is weaning herself from milk? Should I just go with the flow and follow her cues or be more persistent? I wasn't really prepared to start weaning her from breast milk until she was a year old so this has sort of taken me by surprise.

[Lindsay27]

By 8/9 months old both my LOs had dropped to 3 x 8oz bottles daily - one when they woke up, one before afternoon nap, and one before bed.  There was absolutely no way I was getting a 4th bottle into them, as like you said, they would just take a lesser amount.  It sounds like she's just self regulating, she sounds perfectly healthy and happy, and I do find they go through stages where they are "leaner" and lose that baby fat.

[creations]

Sometimes when you shift from 4 bottles (and lacking interest) to 3 bottles the interest returns and LO can take a better amount at each of the 3 milk feeds than they did on the 4 feeds.

If you wanted you could make some solids with the breast milk so that she is still getting it but in meals/snacks instead?
Often people put a solids snack in where the bottle was so that LO gets something at the same time in the routine. you could make a breast milk pudding? or oaty chews or pancakes made with breast milk?  Pudding is easy, basically just thickening the milk with cornflour over heat then letting it set cold, you could look up a blancmange recipe for the method but leave out any sugar or honey.

[Lolly]

Where is she on the centiles - has she dropped down or is she maintaining her growth curve? It's normal for weight gain to slow down and her energy levels and development are a better guide than scales.

As the others have suggested I would change her routine around a bit and drop to 3 bottles, you are very likely to find she goes back to 3 fuller bottles. We also had a wake up bottle, a bottle pre nap a little while after solids lunch and a bedtime bottle by this age. She's not too far from the point where milk becomes a drink rather than a food so sounds like she is naturally heading that way.

Laura

[lkat]

Hmm ok. I thought that BM was supposed to be the main source of nutrition for the first year of life, so I just assumed that she would want/need milk until she turned 1 or so. I guess she has different ideas though :

I'm not sure which percentile she is in for weight.. how do you find that out? If I look at a weight chart she is within the range of what she should be. I guess I just got worried when I realized she'd stopped gaining weight plus not wanting all her milk anymore.

[eva026]

I think the idea is to split the 4th bottle and add it into the 3 others. So technically she’d be getting the same amount of milk, just not as often to make sure she’s hungry for the bottle when she does get it.

[creations]

I'm not sure which percentile she is in for weight.. how do you find that out?

Not sure where you are. In the UK we are given a "red book" with growth charts in when baby is born. They are weighed and measured at various intervals. On that chart there are some curves marked out and LOs are expected to follow their curved - ie if they were between the 9th and 25th centile when born they are expected to stay somewhere within that, it is also acceptable to move one centile line which means to to go just under 9th or just over 25th but if a LO crossed 2 lines (two lines not two centiles) they would need to be followed up with the doc/paedi.
These charts are available on-line.  I think we used to have them linked somewhere on the site but at the moment I can't find them.
They are different for boys and girls so if you look for them get the right one

[ZanesOTmom]

Hi. My LO was exactly the same at 10mos. He gained very little and his centile did not go up as predicted. Since about 8 mos or so he’s been pushing his bottle away. Same as your DD, he pushes or turn his head away when he’s done. I stressed to much about it and kept pushing for him to drink more, I kept offering and offering until the formula expired. Few instances he puked so much after I pushed, maybe 2-4oz of milk 🤦🏻‍♀️  I realized he must be telling me something... my pedia wasn’t alarmed. But then again, he was fine with my son jumping 3 percentile groups - under 5th at birth and currently around 50th from around 60th (8th month to 10th month). He too seems fine and clothes were getting tighter, he was happy and alert and mobile. We’re now down to 3 bottles (drinks between 5-7oz), plus a top-up in the morning. He turns one in 2 weeks.

Could it be part of their normal development? I know not every baby is the same... but yours and mine sounds very much alike in some ways.

[NattysMom]

My LOs weight has started to slow down and she is also moving to 3 milk feeds at 10mo.

I use an app called Growth: baby & child charts (by Clafou Ltd https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/growth-baby-child-charts) to keep track which also has percentile charts.

[creations]

I think it could also help as a reminder that LOs 6-12 months old it is a guide they are not weighed more than every 2 months.  If LO has a medical condition they a doc might want to weigh within that time frame of course but the "norm" is to reduce the frequency of weight checks from monthly to 2 monthly. I am pretty sure this is because a lot of parents would worry about the slower growth in that second half of the first year.  Perhaps there is some reassurance to be gained from this?

[lkat]

Thanks everyone. Babies here are really only weighed at their vaccines. Other than the first few postpartum appointments my baby has never even been to the doctor. I weigh her myself at home to keep track of it in her baby book but that is all.

Anywho these comments have been super helpful and I am prepared to drop down to 3 bottles per day. I'm also going from 5-4 pumping sessions, woohoo!

She has milk at 7am, 11am, 3pm and 6.30pm. Solids at 8am, 12.30pm, and 5.30 pm. So I'm thinking I'll drop the 11am bottle as she is already getting lots of milk and food in the morning anyway. 3pm bottle I hope to keep as there is a long stretch between lunch and dinner. Wish me luck!

Oh for pumping. I pump at 6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm and 9pm before bed. I'm thinking I'll drop the 9pm pumping session as it is the one that I like the least.. is this a good one to drop? I always assumed i would be too engorged if i didn't pump before bed but i am hoping my body will just adjust?