I am so glad you asked this as the amount of milk my monkey consumes does occasionally concern me. She is 14 months and has 20oz a day minimum. She always settles better for a nap if she has milk before it. If she has one nap she has 20 oz, if she needs two then it is more. I decided not to cut out the feeds myself as it didn't really seem in the spirit of baby led weaning to do that. I have noticed in the last week or so she doesn't always finish the feed.

All the weaning 'experts' seem to insist they are on 3 meals plus two snacks by now. I am proud to say my monkey continues to show no interest in conforming. Breakfast and lunch are fairly substantial but between 3pm and 6pm I just put food ready chopped up somewhere she can help herself, usually a sandwich and fruit. This must be bite sized and able to be eaten while doing something much more important. Emptying cupboards, chasing the cat etc etc. There is no way she will sit in a high chair to eat for a third time in a day.
In my opinion you don't have to start worrying about food when they hit one. Baby led weaning just becomes baby led feeding, surely? Trusting a 6 month old to eat what they wanted/needed was the hard part, trusting a one year old to do the same is much easier.

Also pleased to see this, as IzzyMouse is 1 in a month and currently being both picky and minimal about the whole eating thing. Even stuff she allegedly likes, although this can change from day to day, rarely more than 3 teaspoons full or so passes her lips. I'm breastfeeding and will continue to do so until one or the other of us gets fed up, so no idea how much milk she's taking and I didn't really want to cut feeds, ditto above about it not being in the spirit of blw. I know I can keep offering her a varied diet, but whether or not she will actually eat one I doubt very much...

josh is the same, he was 1 last month. he doesnt eat a vast amount, still breastfeeds half the night and around 4 decent feeds during the day too. im in no hurry to stop feeding him tho so im just going with the flow so to speak. i have to admit to getting a little bit concerned tho, but then i tell my self theres nothing wrong with him whatsoever. hes got more energy than the rest of us put together, the speed he crawls across the floor lol

Funny that you have posted this, as I was going to ask a very similar question. Xavier turned 1 last Tuesday and I have been progressively reducing the amount of breast milk he receives over the last couple of months, with a view to stoppping when he turns 1 (I stopped on Saturday - Xavier has been pretty fine with it - but mommy on the other hand has cried a few times!)

Luckily he has a very healthy appetite for food.

On and off rather weakly I have been trying to introduce cows milk, but he has a sip and that is all and will not bother again....I have tried goats milk, jersey milk, follow on formula, I have even crushed strawberries in to flavour it - all with poor success. I am concerned about the amount of calcium he is getting (he does like cheese, eats lentils and loves natural yogurt (no sugar variety). So I think he is ok, but I can not get him to drink it for love or money. I myself can not stand milk, so don't know if there is a link, but have to admit I am at a loss of what to do - or whether I should even be worrying?!?

Xavier drinks loads of water and eats very well and has a varied and healthy diet (although is acting a little fussy of late), but quantitity has never been an issue.

What does everyone else think. For practical reasons I have stopped breastfeeding reluctantly, he hates bottles, I have tried sippy cups, doidys, cups with straws you name it?

Sorry for the babble, but thought it sort of fit your poll type question thingy.
x

Such a good point about trusting them when they're one, squirrel, i hadn't thought of it like that before.

and i have never yet been able to get Babybear to drink milk out of anything other than a bottle, so i can't help much i'm afraid. i know that when i introduced cows milk i started off with a mix of 1 part milk to 4 parts formula and then reduced it over a week. Will Xavier take expressed milk out of a bottle, perhaps if you're giving up bfing that miht encourage him a bit? (sad for you, all the same, eh?)
I know that sardines are high in calcium, Moomin has written about milk quite a lot as her wee girl wasn't in love with the soya stuff she was given, so hopefully Moomin will be along soon to help.

Sadly i tried that too - not with any luck either even he knows breast is best...funnily enough i have bought sardines, but the lovely sod is being v v fussy at the mo, so will probably swipe them on the bleedin floor, but will give them a try - fingers crossed!

Cheers Aitch
x

maybe he's just got sore teeth? dd goes off food altogether (apart from pasta and pesto, obv) when she's teething.

I dont think so, mind you i can not get my finger in his mouth anymore without loosing a finger as he has 12 very well developed teeth...think there might be a bit of something going on there - but nothing too bad, the usual signs are not there. I think he is just exercising his independence a bit - on the quiet i dont think he likes veggies very much - made the veggie nuggets recipe - thinking yeah he'll eat those hidden veggies, but spat them out. Kids eh!

Well, as Minky approached her first birthday and I "confessesed" to my mother that she was still being fed three times a day, it was suggested I cut out her afternoon feed to encouraged her to eat more. To be fair, she used to fanny around at lunch time with half a carrot and hold out for her after nap milk. Once that milk went, she ate a lot more.

We continued with milk morning and night but (as is detailed here in long and boring fashion) I stopped breastfeeding at 13.5 months (that 0.5 really counts!). Breastmilk did not get replaced with anything appropriate.

By fourteen months she was eating much better than at twelve months. Coincidence? Lack of milk? Molars? I don't know. I'm pretty happy with her diet now and am awaiting the dietician's confirmation that I am a "good mummy". (Has taken over a month - they can't be worried about her wasting away.) Ah, the other thing. I know she put on loads of weight between 11 and 14 months and seems to have got both fat and tall (relatively, for she will be a mini) in the last month.

And now for something more specific...

Carrie, they need 350mg of calcium a day. 25g of cheese is 125mg; 100g of yoghurt is 165mg; 1 medium orange is 70mg. Job done. A pint of milk is, of course, an easy wasy to get it in to them (795mg total).

I'd keep offering in whatever receptacle you want him to drink out of. But, if he's refusing it, then so be it. Apparently, I hated milk as a child.

The advice I have had most recently is that fat, rather than calcium, is more of an issue. Specifically fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K). I would imagine that the cheese plus yogurt and any meat will cover you for vitamins.

You can always do the whole custard, milky puddings, cheese sauce business if you want him to have more. We use rice milk for drinking but it is not recommended as an infant formula ie not for under twos.

As an aside, we are trying goats milk at the moment which doesn't seem to have irritated her skin. But she'll only have it in fruity porridge. She won't drink it. Spit, spit, spit...

Hey Moomin - thanks so much for your post - it just shows that you should always go with your gut instinct as a mother, as generally its right....but......seeing it in facts and figures is very very reassuring - Xavier probably has 2 x 200g of yogurt a day and has fits and starts with cheese, but does have milk on ready brek and weetabix and lovvves oranges, so I recoken we are pretty much hitting the target of 350g and the fart soluable vitamins minus the milk drink. I think you are definitely right though I have to keep at it with offering milk in the same cup (a bit like how we won with water) and not be so bloody lazy!

Thanks again for the reassurance it really helps with me stressing that he does not have milk at bed time - I think it is more guilt and sadness that he is no longer BF
x

Fart soluable vitamins - obviously missing Xaviers daddy tonight - he is out at the pub!....I mean fat of course!
x

Thanks very much for posting this Aitch, (it was moi by the way who sent you the email). Its really heartening to read what everyone has written. Pumpkin still drinks a lot of milk, probably about 25oz a day (and since 2 nasty tummy bugs in a row where she didn't eat for 7 days has taken to waking in the night for milk too). Sometimes she eats loads, sometimes she doesn't eat anything at all. I am going to leave it as it is and see if she starts cutting back milk herself. I haven't even attempted to move to cups yet - I thought I would do that when she wasn't so reliant on milk before her nap iyswim.

Anyway, all this has just reminded me to stay relaxed about the whole thing and continue to be Baby Led!

My daughter turns one next week and she has had a hearty appetite from about eight months, however she still breastfeeds five times a day with no slowing down and has four beakers of water a day (free flowing beakers from six months old). I'm just letting her get on with it as I'm under the impression that babyled weaning is just that - baby led!