started solids and never hungry for milk - how do you work it!?

[hellosailor]

We are a month into solids and it feels like it'a always a struggle to get milk feeds down now, presumably as she is still full from the last meal / general increased intake of food.

Obviously I'm trying to space milk feeds / solids out in such a way that she should have an appetite for both, and constantly tinkering with that equation to try and make it work better, but it also seems to stand to reason to me that if 3 or 4 weeks ago she went 4 hours between milk feeds and was sated just by those, she would logically have a problem incorporating a whole new set of extra 'meals' in addition and having an appetite for them!

Does this just get easier over time as their appetites get bigger and bigger and should I cut down on the amount of solids I'm giving her to improve her appaetite for her milk? (i.e an example would be, if she has solids tea at 5 or 5:30, she will only take half her bedtime milk feed at 6:30/45ish, which kind of doesn't surprise me, but aren't those timings roughly what most babies do? Even if I move tea earlier to 5 and move bedtime feed back to 7 (which I don't really want to do as it works better for us to have lights out at 7), she still doesn't want the milk.

Same thing earlier in the day, after solids lunch at 11:00/11:30 is she is not that hungry for lunch time milk at 2:00 etc, and may only want half...again, would I cut down on solids? feeling rather fuzzy headed about it all..any advice greatly appreciated!

p.s assume it standard procedure that a home made chicken casserole you have lovingly made from Annabel Karmel would be greeted with indifference whereas if you open an Ella's pouch chicken casserole 2 mins later it will be greeted like nectar from the gods??! sigh!

[womanofdulwich]

i think it depends how old she is. But that sounds quite a short time from eating to drinking more milk. as long as she sleeps through the night and is keeping her weight up that is the main worry. If hte meal you are giving her at teatime has protein in and meets her nutritional requirements then I don't think theres a big deal of having a lot of milk later on. I'm sure some younger mothers will add posts later.

[hellosailor]

thanks womanofdulwich - but how do you make the gap any longer? i.e if for instance I gave her tea at 4:00/4:30 (which I think would be pretty early compared to what friends seem to be doing, maybe I'm wrong?) then I don't think she would have an appetite for it as she would only have had her lunchtime milk feed 1.5 - 2 hours earlier, so whichever way I try to tweak it the prob seems to remain the same - she isn't used to having to consume something only a couple of hours apart from having last done so, but that's kind of the requirement of weaning isn't it?!

Would be interested to know what sort of timings most people are / were doing at this point (just turning 7 months) and if they vary greatly to what I'm trying

7am milk feed - only wants half of it because she had a dream feed - see below!

7:45/8:00 breakfast (forget it - she has no interest in porridge etc having just had a milk feed)

11:00 lunch - sometimes need to give 3oz ish of milk first as she doesn't seem to want to have that meal as just solids yet, or at least, isn't that keen to have the solids until the edge has been taken off her hunger with a bit of milk first

2:30 milk feed - will only want half of this because she's had lunch earlier!

5:00/5:30- tea

6:45 - milk feed, will only want half of this as she has had tea recently!

10:30 dreamfeed - wanted to be dropping this but tricky as she is going to bed with only half her bedtime milk inside her and when I try not to give it she sometimes wakes up at 5:30am.

7am again - doesn't want breakfast milk feed, let alone breakfast solids, presumably because she had a dream feed, which I had to give her to get her to sleep through because she didn't want bedtime milk, because she'd had tea, repeat to fade, you get the picture!

[womanofdulwich]

i think maybe you should foget the milk feed at 7 am and make it breakfast with milk after-

then mid morning she could have the rest of the milk as a mid morning snack- then move lunch back a bit. then mid afternoon milk snack.

its really hard to get it right- especially at this stage your main target is getting baby to bed at a reasonable time and making sure you get 7 hours uninterrupted sleep. Can you speak to your health visitor about this?

[candj]

Hi Sailor,

My almost 9 month old is the same since starting solids 3 months ago. I'm still bfing so not exactly sure how much he is drinking, but it's a lot less and have introduced bottles for two feeds. Our schedule is roughly the following.

6.30 breakfast (with diluted juice in beaker)

8.30 bf before nap

10-10.30 bottle (around 5 oz or less)

12noon lunch (w diluted juice/water)

1pm bf before nap

2.30-3 bottle (4-5 oz sometimes less)

5 dinner (usually a big meal with yoghurt after, diluted juice water, etc)

7pm bf before sleep

Plus, there's one waking in the night which is met with either breast or bottle which I'm trying to phase out as it's getting later and later (5.30am today)

I think you should aim to get rid of the dream feed since your little girl is taking most all of her calories during the day and try to stretch (easier said than done!) her sleep until 6.30. If you do this she might take more of her milk during bedtime. Also agree with above, that you probably don't need to give her milk first thing in the morning, just give her breakkie with milk. I think it's fine that they take less milk as they would when starting to eat solids, but obviously she still gets plenty of it during the day. I would sort of go with the flow.

My two older children were, whisper it, Gina F babies and were both great on a schedule and did everything the book said they would and ate and drank exactly what they were supposed to, but my son is a bit more all over the place and I'm a bit more lax with the schedule and everything in general. He definitely drinks less milk than before starting solids but he's perfectly fine and happy so I'm not worried.

Sorry for the uber longwinded post - hope it made some sort of sense!

[sophiechristophy]

note on the original post - they like the ella's pouches because they are extrememly sweet.

[guffaw]

I found weaning a bit stressful. Mainly due to trying to ensure my little one had the recommended 600ml of milk a day when we had reached 3 meals per day. Also how much to give. What is the right portion size?

For me, it felt like I was constantly giving her food or milk. I was loosely following the Annabel Karmel Second Stage weaning planners initially. That included the mid-morning, mid-afternoon and bedtime milk. It felt like it was food or milk nearly every 2 hours. I was also breastfeeding once a day so never sure how much milk that was. I was also dealing with a lot of sicking up which may have been due to an immature digestive system or that my daughter liked to be on her tummy all the time, even straight after meals.

I am not certain from your original if you are concerned about whether your daughter is getting adequate milk amounts or just concerned that she is rejecting meals/milk feeds at certain points during the day.

My Health Visitor suggested that I try to leave 3 hours between meals/milk. She also suggested giving the solids and topping up with milk which I tried at lunchtimes for a short while. I was giving 120ml 30 minutes after a vege puree, yoghurt and fruit. I no longer do this as I tweaked things after a while as the sicking up ceased.

Like you there was a lot of adjusting of meal sizes and milk volumes to reach a happy medium. To this day we still don?t get in the recommended 600ml per day but my HV said it is just a guide. I use dairy alternatives to get as close as possible ? natural yoghurt with fresh fruit puree at lunch and tea, some cheese every day etc etc.

You asked for timings so here is our typical day from about 8 months:

0730 breastfeed (replaced by 150-180ml at 9 months)

0900 cereal and fruit with 60ml milk

1200 vege puree, babybel cheese, yoghurt and fruit

1500/1530 150ml bottle

1800 tea ? always include protein

1915 150ml bottle

I did a lot of online research about daily meal/feed routines as posted by other mums and there are so many variations. The above is what is now working for us based on our waking and bedtimes.

[hellosailor]

thank you so much for your replies, all really useful. Have tweaked timings a bit and last couple of days seems to be more workable, sure it will all change again in another two days but there you go! I suppose the other thing for me to remember is that there will also naturally be hungrier and less hungry days so not to assume that the timings are always the prob if food / milk is refused, as it may just be one of those days..

p.s very good response to a home made lentil bake I slaved over and froze a gazillion pots of on Sunday, very rewarding when they do like something you made! phew! :))