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Weaning and milk help

DitzysDitzys
in Weaning
Hi......

My lg has recently started to refuse milk, particularly in the morning and the lunch bottle....she’ll have maybe 1-2 ounces and then refuse. 

It started when she was ill with a cold about 3 weeks ago, and she was turning down food and milk. I then managed to get her back onto food by having her favourite pureed food (as opposed to textured/thicker food). We don’t do BLW but she has finger foods. 

During this time, she started waking in the night hungry. Again, I put this down to her being ill and not getting enough during the day, so went with it. She continued to refuse milk, so I figured I’d up her food to give her the energy she needed to sleep through. This didn’t work, so in the last few days I’ve upped it more.....she happily eats everything, and is still having a similar amount of milk, but still waking at night. 

During the day, including her evening bottle and with milk in her morning cereal and evening porridge, she has around 17oz, but then she’ll have 4-5oz overnight. 

I’ve come to terms with her having less milk, and she’s still having a good amount including the night feed. My issue also isn’t her waking in the night....if she’s hungry, she’s hungry, but my concern is that somewhere along the way, she’s not getting enough energy to sustain her through the night.

To throw a spanner in the works, I weighed her today and over the last 10 days, she’s put on 500g and jumped a centile line. Her height and head have been well ahead of her weight, so it could be that her weight is catching up. 

She actively pushes the milk away, but will drink water. I can get her to have a few more sips during her meal, maybe 1/2 - 1oz, but she quickly figures out which cup has the milk in, and will push that away but happily have the water. 

So, I now don’t know whether to reduce the food, but then I’m fairly sure she’ll just be hungry as she doesn’t want the milk. I’m also concerned about increasing it more as she can’t keep putting on weight at this rate, but as I say above, it might simply be that she is normalising and that won’t happen. 

I’m thinking I’ll give it another week of plenty of food, weigh her again and then see, but I’m looking for anyone who has been through this, or any advice as to how I can ensure she is getting what she needs. 

FYI she is very active, crawling, pulling up and some cruising. 

Thanks for reading 😊

Replies

  • SigsauerSigsauer Regular
    How old is your LO? 
  • DitzysDitzys
    Sorry, should have said that....She’s 33 1/2 weeks, we’ve been weaning from about 23-24 weeks. She went to 3 meals a day and started waking in the night again, so I upped each meal by about a tablespoon, and gave her porridge with formula about 1 1/2 hours before her bedtime bottle, and that sorted her, and all was going well until about 3 week ago. 

    She’s been better for almost 2 weeks now, but since being ill, just refuses milk or has very little for much of the day. Her bedtime bottle and overnight are much better, but this means she’s getting half of her 23/24oz milk intake at night 😟
  • SigsauerSigsauer Regular
    I k ow sometime kids refuses milk but it's closer to when they are one. Have you tried to give milk instead of water even if she will have few sips
  • DitzysDitzys
    Yep, tried different cups etc too. She’ll have a few sips with her meal, 1/2 - 1oz in total. She’s not refusing it totally, but the morning it’s pretty much refused, sometimes she’ll have 1oz. Lunchtime is really varied, sometimes she’ll have 5-6 oz, and sometimes only 2, for no apparent reason (breakfast is the same). The afternoon bottle is usually better, and then the evening bottle even better again. 

    Since going to the bottle at around 4 months, she’s never had as much in the morning as she does the rest of the day. With her putting weight on though so rapidly, I think I need to reign back the food as she seemingly doesn’t need so much if she’s put it on so fast. 
  • SigsauerSigsauer Regular
    Are you feeding her first then giving a bottle? 
  • DitzysDitzys
    No, giving her a bottle and then followed by food 20-30 minutes after. She knows the difference between the cup containing milk and the one with water, and will happily drink the water. 

    She’s just had lunch now, and her total milk intake so far is 7.5oz, 4oz of which was in her breakfast weetabix 😟 This is now seemingly the norm, though she’s started with a cold again today, so this lunch I’ve gone back to the previous portions I was giving before she was ill the last time, as I figure she’ll likely go off her food again, so go back to what we were doing before, and build up again and hope that her milk intake improves when she realises there’s not as much food on offer. 

    I don’t mind her not having as much milk, the HV wasn’t concerned, and the pharmacist said with the food she’s having, she’ll be getting what she needs, just ensure she’s having yoghurt, but if she doesn’t want the milk, she needs the energy from somewhere, and so must have food 😕
  • SigsauerSigsauer Regular
    Well she is old enough to don't have a lot of milk. Make sure you will give her vitamins so definitely cover everything. If HV not concerned it must be some new thing
  • DitzysDitzys
    I think because she’s having the minimum amount, and usually a bit above, they’re not concerned.....they said some go off it completely, and that vitamins was an option. I’ll stick with a bit less food for a few day and see how she goes. I’m thinking she’s not really hungry overnight, she just got used to it whilst she was ill, and that with the increase in food, led to the fast weight gain. 

    She woke last night but with her being ill, shes been unsettled beforehand and I knew she couldn’t be hungry, and after a while I managed to settle her again, and she slept for another 3 hours until the morning. 

    She normally has 4 milk feeds in a day, morning, lunch, dinner and then bedtime. At what point do you reduce the bottles you offer? Obviously she’s not having the morning one really at the moment, and the lunch one is often a struggle, but how do you go about increasing the food successfully? 
  • SigsauerSigsauer Regular
    Tbh I am no help with bottles as I breastfeeding mom.
    She might be teething too and its not hunger that wakes her up. 
    Just give her as much as she have, give her well balanced diet and top up with multivitamins
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