Confusion about BFing my nearly 8 month old

[BellaBalloon]

DS Currently BFs at around 5:30 then has 5oz of formula in a sippy cup, then a bf in the afternoon and one before bed. (it's often a bit more frequent if grumbly from teething or inexplicably whingy)

How much I should be feeding him. Should I offer or wait for him to 'ask'? I have been offering on the basis that the box of formula says that they should still be having a pint or so up until they are 1 and swap to cows milk.

I would be very grateful for any guidance.

Thanks

feeding him?

Hi BellaBalloon, my DD is 7.5 months and the majority of the time has 4 BF during the day, feeding looks a bit like this:
5:30 or 6 am - BF
7:30 am - breakfast
(nap)
10:30 am - BF
1 pm - lunch
(nap)
4 pm - BF
6 pm - dinner
7:30 pm - BF

Sometimes she will have another BF after lunch if still hungry/unsettled. The first and last BF are approx 45 mins to an hour as we both nap on the first one :) and she is sleepy for the last one. The day time ones are 10 - 15 mins and she's in a rush to finish... apparently there are more interesting things going on than BF! DD is growing well and sleeps for approx 10 hours at night so I'm being guided by her that she's getting enough, but would increase the amount of BF's if she needed.

That's almost exactly the same as mine! last one is at 6 first one at 4:30...
Will just go with the flow too - thanks :)

At 8 months milk should still be offered because they have a habit of getting distracted otherwise. 4 milk feeds a day seems quite low to me but it depends how much you're feeding at night?

Agree with jemjabella. The policy of 'never offer, never refuse' which gets talked about on here is actually a weaning technique.

My 8.5 m.o. DS's feeds are roughly:

6.30 am BF
7.00 Breakfast
8.30 BF to sleep
9.15 Offer BF again on waking
11.00 BF
11.15 Lunch
12.15 BF to sleep
(maybe BF twice more to get him between sleep cycles if necessary)
2.45 Offer BF again on waking
16.45 BF
17.00 Dinner
18.30 BF to sleep
1 night feed between 3.30 and 6.00 am

Plus any time he's grumpy - when he'll often take a reasonable feed. So usually 7 or 8 times per 24 hours (counting going to sleep & upon waking as one sleep).

Have been concerned this morning now that I'm not feeding DD enough either so I called the breastfeeding hotline (I'm in Australia and it's run by the Australian Breastfeeding Association).

I was reassured that DD is feeding perfectly normally for her age and that I'm not depriving her :). They said that based on the same information as above she is getting enough and just be guided by her and follow my instincts.

They said that 7-8 feeds (a mix of BF and solids) at her age is fine and that if she was hungry she wouldn't be sleeping through the night. She's also in the 75th percentile for weight for her age so there's no worries there either.

Bellaballoon, you know your DS best and if he is thriving and happy then you're doing a great job :).

Nobody said you were depriving your daughter, Overwhelmed, just that 4 milk feeds is comparatively quite low and that by not offering milk you run the risk of premature weaning.

No worries Jemjabella, I didn't take it as a criticism, it was a concern I had of my own after reading the other responses. I just wanted to follow up with the reassurance that I had received.