No. of milk intake at 9 month

D

donkey

Registered User
Hi my son is turning 9 months next week and he is now on 3 solid meal a day and I am still breastfeeding. He recently rejects bottle (with EBM) and he also rejects taking milk with cup. I am now feeding him milk 3 times a day - morning, afternoon after his nap, and evening before going to bed. However if I am out in the afternoon and he is given a bottle for his afternoon feed, he will not take it at all. So sometimes he will be down to 2 breastfeeding sessions a day. I am wondering if this is normal or not - only 2 solid milk feed a day at his age.

I also put more milk into his food since he is not taking the bottle.

I am trying to wean him by introducing a bottle in the afternoon. He used to like his bottle but changed all of a sudden!!

Please help!
 
Dear Donkey, my daughter is 9 and a half months and I am giving her two full bottles (one first thing in the morning, and just before her bedtime at night), and two half bottles (at around 11.30 and 3.30). Not sure if this is correct or not, but have done a lot of reading and this seemed to be the most common recommendation. Also, I also had major issues getting my girl from breast feeding to formula (bottle) at around 5 months. She was taking EBM once a week in a bottle to that time, and then all of a sudden refused it once formula was in the bottle, and wouldn't even take EBM from a bottle after that. I know this is a bit different as I don't think you have introduced formula, but happy to provide more info on this if you are interested. Good luck!
 
Thanks AussieMum. Happy to get more information from you regardless it is formula or EBM. I am getting no where with him every time is a struggle if I/ my husband feed him with a bottle. Thanks!
 
Firstly, you know it is not the milk cause he will drink it from the breast. Do you know if it is the bottle, maybe try another (I tried many but the one I finally succeeded with was NUK). ALso if possible try and get someone else (as you said you have) to offer the bottle, baby might associate you with the breast. Good idea is to try when you are home but someone else (ie, husband/partner/helper etc) offer bottle so you can monitor baby's reaction too.

I know it sounds silly but I think the number one rule is to keep calm. Baby will sense if you are distressed about it. Talk to your baby and tell him what you are doing before offering the bottle. With my daughter she would just cry and cry and cry when I put the bottle in her mouth, even when I tried for around one hour. I found I was beginning to stress. After three weeks of no success, I did some homework and then I tried to (pretend) to ignore her. I offered her the bottle one day with EBM in it, and pretended to watch television so I was not watching her. I continued to keep the bottle in her mouth the whole time. She cried and sooked for around 5 minutes and then she began to drink from it. I was so happy. I found she drank around half the bottle (around 100ml) and then began to lose interest again. I did the same thing (watching television while holding her with bottle in her mouth) and she began drinking again, drinking a total of 210ml. I think she realised she wasn't getting attention. I know it sounds simple but it did work. Once I had success, I made sure I offered her a bottle of EBM once a day to build her confidence, and had no problems after that. I then graduated to a mix of formula and EBM. Another method one of my friends used, who also had the same problem was to place her baby in a baby swing she had with lights and toys and music for distraction whilst offering the bottle. You could try this as well.

Bear in mind to try and avoid getting bubs dehydrated, so if they don't take a bottle at one feed, try and offer the breast again next feed. Some parents think the way to get a baby to bottle feed is to just refuse breast feeding, thinking they will eventually take the bottle. I wouldn't recommend this, just try to persist say once a day with a bottle and he will eventually try it.

Good luck (I definately know what you are going through and it can be quite stressful). Let me know if you intend to wean to formula and I can recommend some other techniques, as offering a full bottle of formula to my girl really put her of the bottle all together and this is what caused the above. All the best!
 
Thanks AussieMum it is very helpful. I had tried singing and other kind of entertainment, feeding by my husband or myself. Like you said he had taken it a few times when he was distracted, but not for long... He used to like this bottle so don't know why he doesn't like it now. I will try again tomorrow, and will also try to find him another cup (the current one flows too fast) to see if he will use the cup too. Yes it is very frustrating and stressful, and most probably he has bad association with the bottle by now!

Will let you know how I get on....



I normally will put milk into his food if he refused the bottle that day so that it will make up the total amount of milk he was supposed to take.
 
I'm having a similar problem with my 9-mth old. He eats three solid meals a day and I breastfeed him once in the morning and twice in the evening (once before bedtime and once in the middle of the night when he wakes up). In between, he used to drink 2 bottles (approx 4-5 oz each) of EBM but I'm now having problems pumping enough at work. Now I am now lucky if I can make up 2 bottles - some days I can only pump one.

My helper feeds him the 2 EBM bottles during the day (when I'm at work) and I bought some formula (Meiji) to make up the days when I don't pump enough. My problem is he has utterly refused to take it. (He only drank it once - the first time - about 50 ml but not since.) I tried mixing it with EBM but then he refuses that as well! He'll drink pure EBM from the bottle though.

I'm not sure what to do. Should I try a different brand (someone said Beanstalk was close to breastmilk) or should I try feeding him in a cup? Should I try to feed him with a medicine dropper until he gets used to the taste? Or should I just forgot about formula altogether and keep nursing him until he is 1 yr old and switch to cow's milk? Help!! Any advice would be most gratefully received.
 
Hi,

If it is any help, I weened at 5 months using Milupa Atamil with no problems. Milupa is a lot thiner than other formula's and is supposed to be closer to BM. I am lucky tho my bubs will take any food / drink offered.
 
You can buy it from Welcome. My daughter drinks a mixture of EBM and Aptamil now, before she drank BM or Aptamil, and I never had any problems with her refusing either. Good luck!
 
Just checked up on this in Gina Ford's book on weaning. A 9- 12 month old needs 600ml of milk/ day inclusive of the food used in cereals. Majority of babies will have 2- 3 milk feeds a day at 1 year of age and need a minimum of 350ml of milk each day, inclusive of milk used in cereal.
 
Thanks for the advice! I tried Aptamil with our son and he seems to like it - at least enough to drink the 1-oz that we spoon-fed him, mashed in banana. After the failure with Nan-Ha and Meiji, I thought I would play it safe and instead of offering it in a bottle, we gave the milk mashed with fruit so that it was like a new food, instead of breastmilk replacement. Not sure if it's the method or the milk, but either way, it seems to work.

I plan to increase the milk amount, but will continue to offer it with fruit (banana, papaya) so that it will be like a meal instead of a bottle to him.

It's a great relief as I still plan to breastfeed him whenever I'm home (mornings and evenings) but this way, I may not need to pump as often at work.

Thanks ever so much everyone!
 
Just an update. We seem to have hit a snag with Aptamil. Our baby may be allergic to it. A short while after ingesting a small amt (1 oz or so), he starts to scratch at his face as if it's itchy.

Has this happened to anyone else? Should I stop giving him Aptamil? Or is this something temporary that he might adjust to?
 
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