Too much milk?

Ian had his 12 month doctor appointment today. Wearing only a dry diaper he weighed in at exactly 21 lbs, which puts him at the 23rd percentile for weight. He was at the 35th percentile at his 9 month appointment. The nurse said his head circumference was 47.5 cm (81st percentile now compared to the 69th percentile at 9 months), and his length was 29.25 inches (33rd percentile now compared to 11th percentile at 9 months). When comparing his weight for his length, he's at the 53rd percentile. I was able to answer almost all the questions "yes" regarding his skills - he can pull himself up to a standing position, can cruise along furniture, can clap (he demonstrated his skill for the nurse on command), etc. The ones I said "no" to were standing briefly on his own, waving hi or bye, and understanding the meaning of the word "no." They gave a list of milestones they hope a baby will meet by 15 months (his next appointment). Three of them he can do already - drink from a cup, roll a ball, and stoop to recover a toy. The ones that he'll hopefully master in the next three months include: indicating desires without crying, walking well, and crawling up stairs.

I told the doctor about our feeding woes and the miscommunication between their office and the hospital regarding his feeding team referral (my guess is that the hospital goofed up not their office). I asked for a referral to Early Intervention. They said they will initiate that and that Ian automatically qualifies since he was premature. I hope that proves to be helpful. I am not sure if we'll keep the January 7th feeding team appointment because Blue Shield's contract with that hospital expires the end of December, and if it's not renewed the appointment would be rather expensive. The doctor said it's likely to be a long haul in getting Ian adjusted to eating different textures. I am not shocked by that since it's taken 6 months to get him to eat stage one baby food without gagging. I can't even picture Ian eating table food for many, many more months. He said to just gradually thicken up the food that I feed him.

The doctor said I'm giving him too much milk. He only wants Ian to have 15-20 oz a day of whole milk and the rest should be water. He thinks maybe if we cut back the calories Ian takes by bottle that he'll be more motivated to eat. I highly doubt it. I just think Ian will be a very hungry, cranky child, but I'm going to try to cut back his milk intake at least a little. Tomorrow I'm going to just keep track (baseline data). My guess is that he has about 45 ounces of milk a day (five 9 ounce bottles) plus I nurse him once. You can see why the thought of only giving him 15 ounces a day sounds frightening. Many days he eats only 1/2 a jar of baby food by spoon over the course of a day. Every once in a while he has a good day and will eat an entire jar in one day. I am concerned that he's going to start losing weight if I cut his caloric intake down that drastically. He already fell down on the curve some the past 3 months. A dietician is one of the members of the feeding team. I didn't have the heart to start cutting back his milk today since he got two shots this morning (Chickenpox vaccine and Prevnar). He did really well at the appointment.