Confused as to how much milk I should be giving six month old?

[mummytobe_93]

My baby is 6 and a half months old. Weaning us going great she's on two pretty big meals a day and I'll be introducing breakfast within the next week.

I went from exclusively BF to combi feeding. Due to this I'm confused as to how many milk feeds she needs per day, this is her usual intake:

BF in the morning at 8am
5-6oz formula at 10.45
Lunch at 12 (baby food and finger foods) and I offer her a bottle if milk, she may drink about 5oz but not sure if I should swap to water?
5-6oz of formula at 2.30
Dinner at 5pm food and dessert and also offer milk and water. (Milk 5-6oz)
Milk at 6.30pm at bath time (5oz)
And then I breastfeed her at night when she wakes up usually once or twice.

My question is should I swap to giving her water at meal times instead of offering so much milk? I know milk should be the main source of nutrition until one but I was also told a six month old should have 20oz's a day?
I think she's put a massive amount of weight on since I've introduced solids and formula but need to get her weighed!
Thanks!

 

[Bella1185]

Glad to hear she's a great eater!!

I could be way off base because admittedly I'm not the greatest at baby feeding research, but I thought at 6 months your LO should only be getting formula or breastmilk for liquids. Ask your pediatrician to be sure, but my doctor always has said no cows milk or water until a year.

There's a good chance I could be off base on this!!! Hope you get some more helpful replies then mine!!

 

[mummytobe_93]

Thanks for your reply. I think we are told in the UK no water or other liquids before six months, but that's just what my health visitor told me! X

 

[Bella1185]

Thanks for your reply. I think we are told in the UK no water or other liquids before six months, but that's just what my health visitor told me! X

Okay sounds good!! I hope the other ladies can be more helpful! Glad you have a good eater on your hands...it's fun to start sharing new foods with them!

 

[tublet]

I'm doing similar to you but all formula, my baby is currently have 5 x 4oz bottles through the day and wakes up once or twice for more milk. She's having three small meals through the day and is gradually increasing. She has dropped one bottle already and I'm just letting her take the lead.

I only offer water at meal times.

 

[liz1985]

I always offered water with meals but not really inbetween untill around 9/10m after he had dropped bottles, so was going along time without fluid otherwise. I know if baby is ff they should still be having 500ml of milk a day but as your bf as well im not sure how you'd work it out. Id just keep giving her what she wants and wouldnt worry about it too much unless she's put massive amounts of weight on. Ds started dropping milk himself around 7m old.

 

[iiTTCii]

This was our routine until we started dropping bottles:
7am - 8oz bottle
8.30am - breakfast with a sippy cup of water
10am - 8oz bottle
11.30am - lunch with a sippy cup of water
2pm - 8oz bottle
4.30pm - dinner with a sippy cup of water
6.30pm - 8oz bottle before bed

Now she is down to just her morning and bedtime bottle, she drinks about 6ozs of water throughout the day.

 

[george83]

My lo is now nearly 3 so all of this seems like forever ago to me but I'm sure at just 6 1/2 months he was only still playing with food so if you've managed to get onto meals already if say that's really good going. I personally would still offer the same milk as before and hope that they'd been taking less if they were full from meal times

 

[JessyG]

I have no idea what they should be having but at 6 months my lo was having bottles at 7,11,3,7 and meals in between usually 9,1,5.

We had to drop her 7am bottle as she was just not eating much breakfast. I think we did that around 8.5 months. Now she has the three bottles and three big meals. around 11ish months I think I am going to drop the 3pm bottle as she is not too fussed for it and I will give her a snack and a drink of milk instead.

Oh and at 6 months we gave water with meals. Now I leave her water cup around even just when she is playing so she can have some whenever she wants. She probably has about 8oz a day.

 

[mummytobe_93]

Thank you everyone!
I have recently gone on to formula so in confused as to how many bottles I should be giving a day? As I used to just breastfeed on demand so changing to bottles is very different as well as introducing solids! X