Do I need to actively drop feeds?

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

DD is now 7 months and I have been doing BLW with her since she was 6 months. By the looks of her poo a few bits and pieces are getting in, but not a lot yet.

I was wondering, will she drop (breast) feeds by herself, or do I need to actively drop them. I have no problem with her not dropping feeds, I am in this for the long haul , but will she prefer milk over food and hence never move to food?

[spidookly]

I didn't do this with DD1 and she never quite took to solids and I ended up with her at 9 months barely eating any solids at all.

With DD2 I deliberately dropped her second breakfast feed so she'd be hungry enough to feed at lunchtime (around the same time 2nd breakfast used to happen) and she has a much better appetite.

Although TBH I think she probably would have had a much better appetite anyway, she's just a different child.

But my experience of BLW with a baby that wasn't that interested in food was that "food for fun until 1" because "food? nah, can't really be arsed, give me some milk", and later "food? Is it sweets? If not, not intersted"

[RJandA]

My experience of BLW is different to spidookly's - DD seemed to eat quite a bit from the beginning so she naturally has dropped her feeds. She is now 9 months and we bf morning, afternoon and evening, and sometimes one mid morning if she asks for it.

Don't worry, your DD will eat food in quantities when she is good and ready! Until then, if you're happy and she's happy, what's the problem?

[AngelDog]

We started BLW at 6 months; DS noticably reduced the amount of milk he took around 8 months.

I'm working on the basis that I wait for him to drop feeds, so I still offer at the same frequency I did before, and he still accepts every time. He's 11 m.o. now. He's always eaten a fair amount and definitely enjoys his solids despite having 5-7 bfs in the day and 1-4 at night.

I think how fast they get into food is as much to do with personality as anything else.

Gill Rapley talks about it being at least 9 /10 months before babies realise that solids fill them up like milk does. Even now my DS can happily miss a meal or have it really late, as long as he's had bf. It makes life a lot easier IMO!

Kellymom recommends offering bf an hour before solid meals until at least 12 months to ensure that milk remains the main source of nutrition till then.

HTH

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

Thanks all for the replies. :)

[SirBoobAlot]

If you're happy to still be mainly feeding, then keep going :) Milk provides the majority of their calories until a year anyway.