Milk feeds for 9 month olds
My boy is coming up for 9 and a half months, but recently i've been struggling to get him to take a bottle at all. He won't even entertain milk in another beaker. He just keeps gagging on it and refusing to take it.
He's on 3 meals a day with snacks in between and i try to make sure that he get's milky breakfasts and milky puddings, but even then he doesn't seem fussed for them. I'm concerned he's not getting enough of what he needs and now he's started waking in the night upset and not sleeping right through, which i think could be linked to the low milk consumption.
Does anyone have any idea what i can do to try and solve this? or any words of wisdom? I'm at a loss of what to do and my sister is getting a bit worried she's not managing to get him to take the right volume of milk he's supposed to.
Replies
Could you cut out the snacks? I only offer one snack which has replaced his mid morning feed. It might not work if he is gagging on it, but it could be worth a try. Would you say he isn't drinking any milk at all? Do you offer a lot of water? I guess he could be more used to water as a drink / thirst quencher if so. Maybe you could just offer water at meal times and see if that helps. Remember all dairy counts towards his milk allowance, so if he is having cheese, yoghurts and things like cauliflower cheese, pasta in a white sauce etc. that will all count so he will be getting something.
I would mention it to your HV as I'm sure he will be fine and it's a phase, but they can hopefully suggest some things to try and have no doubt come across it before
Thanks Lamby. He drinks a lot of water. He tends to get offered a milk feed before his morning, afternoon and bedtime sleeps, but he just won't entertain them. the snacks are given to him when he wakes up from his naps. he does get a lot of dairy products during the day, but i thought that because he's still under a year old, that he still needs formula?
Is he having any formula at all? I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that once solids are established they only need about 600mls of formula but, that said, all babies are different and perhaps it's his way of saying he's getting what he needs in the food?
We started giving F a vitamin supplement when his milk intake decreased just to make sure he was getting the right vitamins, etc.
I might look into that WG. He does eat a lot of food, so I know he's not starving. I just worry he's not getting the right vitamins.
Sorry, I didn't manage to get back on yesterday. AFAIK (and I could be wrong), if they are having less than 20oz of formula, they should be given vitamin drops, which can go in their water, or in a yoghurt or something - that you know they will eat all of! That's the advice where I live anyway. I got ours from Sure Start and you can buy them in the supermarket too. I believe formula basically is cows milk with the added nutrients, so you're right that they need more than cheese and yoghurt etc. under 1, but you can - as I understand it, cover the nutrients with the vitamin drops, like WG did. I definitely would talk to your HV though as they also need the calcium from milk and it's unlikely that W will be getting equivalent of 20oz from his food.
The other thing I thought yesterday was has he been poorly recently? Sam had a sickness bug a few weeks ago and was off milk for nearly 2 weeks, long after he was better. He had some - but probably only 9-11oz, compared to his usual 18-22oz. He just kept batting the bottle away. Anyway, one day he just started guzzling again! Hope W takes some soon.