DS no longer interested in bottle

[KrystalS]

DS will be 9 months next week. He is becoming very disinterested in his bottle. The only time he really wants to drink it is in the car/stroller/or his middle of the night feeding. How much formula should he still be drinking? He loves his straw cup so I plan to just start putting formula in that during the day.

He is eating probably 3 "meals" and 2 or 3 snacks a day. He is mostly eating table food, with baby food thrown in every now and then if we are eating something he can't have.

He's 24lbs, 29 inches if that makes any difference.

[Dr C]

That sounds normal, even good--one of your tasks in the next 3 months is to get rid of the bottle so you're on your way. Go ahead and put formula in that straw cup. If this is your chance to ditch the bottle I'd totally go for it.
Formula intake at this age is definitely starting to drop off. Most kids are in the 24-36 oz/day range, dropping down towards 24 oz (ideally, many kids drink more milk than they should) by a year. The rest of his calories should come from food. he can drink water too. As long as he's growing well I wouldn't worry too much about his intake.

[mom2khj]

At his 9mo check-up the ped said DS should be having 24-30oz of formula a day. At the time he was drinking 32 pretty consistently. However in the past week or so, he isn't as interested either. He wants real food and when it comes time for milk, he just wants to play and is too busy looking around. I think he also has some more teeth about to come out which could be affecting his desire to drink.

[wellyes]

24oz per day is the minimum at that age.

I totally know what you're talking about, DS is in a phase like that too. It happens during development surges --- so typically 7 months, 9 months, 12 months (varies per kid, of course). The good news is that it isn't the new normal, it comes and goes. Every meal won't be a struggle from now on, you're just in a rough patch.


I've taken to only offering bottles in his room with the lights off to avoid distraction.

No harm in offering it in the straw cup at all. Whatever works!!