help please

[dee dee]

My dd is almost five months old, but over the last several weeks she seems to be drinking less than she used to.

She feeds every four/ five hours and does seem hungry when she takes the bottle, but once she gets to about half way she stops drinking. I then get worried because I think that 100ml of milk is definitely not enough for a five month old baby. Sometimes i am lucky and can coax her to take some more milk, other times I just end up wearing the extra milk that she didn't really want. :o

At the times when dd hasn't wanted much milk I have been giving her some rice cereal which she will happily eat, and never brings back up. My CHN seems to think that giving solids is of no benefit to my daughter, but I tend to disagree. I am just happy that she has something in her little tummy.

Sometimes talking to the CHN makes you feel worse and you begin to doubt yourself and your abilities. Just wondering if I am doing the right thing. Any advice please??

[Chickadee]

Some CHN tend to stick to the rules and would never approve of starting solids before 6 months, and others who are more realistic about variations between bubs.

Your daughter woudn't eat much of the rice cereal after having a bottle unless she was still hungry. Amazingly, bubs know better than us when they're really full and won't generally overeat even when we try to force them (I too have had entire bottles thrown back up on me after coaxing dd to have a few more ml). So I think what you're doing is fine. So long as you offer the bottle first before solids so that she's getting enough milk, since this is still her main nutrition. Eventually the order switches, and I remember wondering how I'd know when to do that, but it just occurred naturally as she took more regular meals and adjusted her sleeping.

[Rell]

I ca relate to your problem. My son was terrable at drinking his milk at 5 mths he was only drinking about 100ml too. like you i would try too get him to drink more and worried it wasn't enough but some how he continued to put on weight. We tryed him on solids at 4 mths and he has never looked back. with in a week he was eating 1/4 cup of food. Although my CHN had advised us to wait till 6 mths for solids she was fine when I told her he started solids early.
Every baby is different and is ready for solids at at different times. I think my son was just waiting for the real food. Keep doing what you are doing, as Martha said if your bub isn't they won't eat it.

[WeThree]

As long as your bubba isnt losing weight or anything like that i wouldnt worry to much, like someone else said, babies know when they have had enough to eat/drink and trying to force them to have 'just a little bit more' can often result in you being covered in baby vomit! (i have had to learn this the hard way :) )