11 months old - how much (breast) milk?

[Tweetinat]

Still happily bf my DS but as he's approaching a year I'm beginning to wonder how much milk I should be offering him. I'm happy to continue bf at the moment so no desire to move to cows milk/formula and no intention of weaning.

At the moment he has 4 breast feeds a day:

4/5/6 am (whenever he wakes in the night really)
9 am (before morning nap)
2/3 pm (before afternoon nap)
7.30 pm (before bed)

He has a good breakfast in the morning (1.5 weetabix) but lunch and dinner can really be hit and miss (we're blw so very difficult to quantify volume but much much less than his puree weaned peers).

Given that his milk feed are 3 hr before a meal I don't think that's affecting his solid appetite (could be wrong) so I think he still needs these daytime feeds, but I just don't know. If I don't offer then he gets very grouchy and clearly wants milk (divebombing my chest)...

I thought this was okay but recently found out that one of my friends' DS only have milk every other day depending on if he asks (he doesn't have cows milk or much yoghurt either) and he's just turned one at the beginning of this month. I thought that they still needed about a pint a day at this age...

Don't know whether I should begin to try to drop the day feeds or focus on dropping the night feed [scared at the prospect emoticon] and then try to rejig day feeds so he the has one when he wakes and then try to cut down to maybe one in the day and the bedtime.

Urgh, confusing myself as I write so any input appreciated. Thanks!

That's pretty much spot on what I do Tweetinat and DS is one next month.

I would think that milk every other day is not way near enough for your friends baby.

I'm just going to carry on with this pattern until he decides he's had enough.

no ideas tweetinat, but i am interested in any answers. we are at the same stage with the same amount of bfs, although DS eats loads at dinner, has a good breakfast but lunch seems to be more like a big snack. he will drink cows milk at 4oclock but he is 1 week or so off a year so i have only offered it a few times just as a taster. i am also wondering what to do next.

if anything!

I was doing 5 bf a day at that age and 2 months later I'm down to 3 (rarely 4).

Watching with interest as my DS is 11mo and not v interested in milk (BF) - am just started teeny sips of cow's milk to see what happens

Jeesy peeps - when I read the first part of your post I thought all you were giving him was breastmilk! You do realise that weaning is when you introduce solids - not when you stop giving him milk?

Hi crikey & ruby - we always seem to bump into each other on this and the sleep boards ! Very reassuring to know that my DS is like most other DC and following the same patterns! Seems like we're on the right track eh?

musthave - thanks for the input - did you do anything in particular or did your DC just start to refuse/not ask for a feed?

mistress - hope you get the answers you're looking for here too

lal - lol. I see what you mean! Yes, I do know that I just forgot to finish the sentence which was '...no intention of weaning from the boob just yet...'

Oh and crikey - I also thought it was way too little too, but my friend points out that he eats LOADS. As in more than an adult for .every.single.meal. I have never seen any child eat quite so much. He literally has adult portions - it's quite unbelievable. But I do worry that he should be having more milk even so (hoping someone can come along and put me right either way?) but not quite sure how to or even IF I should raise it iyswim?

Tweet - sorry for hijacking! I feed DS immediately before meals (so 3 times a day) and am wondering if I should stop this - will it interfere with his solids? He eats loads at the moment so it doesn't seem to.

When I started weaning my hv said to aim for 3 x 7oz feeds a day - tricky when you're bfing! I think at 12mo they need a pint of milk a day?

I think that from 9 months the 'recommended' guideline is a minimum of 12floz up to max 20floz of milk per day, but this includes any milk on cereal/in cooking, and dairy products such as cheese/yogurt etc can also count towards it. And as mistressploppy says hard to calculate amounts when BF anyway!

I also have an 11 month old (though he has been FF since 7 months) and he still has three milk feeds per day at 7am, 2:30pm and 6:45pm. He has been puree weaned and eats a fair quantity of solids but he is still taking around 18floz of milk too, and even after a good sized lunch he wakes up desperate for the 6floz bottle at 2:30pm. I don't think your LO is taking an excess of milk at all, and would agree that your friend's LO's milk intake is probably on the low side (unless he eats stacks of dairy stuff).

If you do want to encourage his appetite for more solids at lunch/tea I would look at cutting back on breakfast solids rather than milk feeds tbh - 1.5 weetabix is quite a lot, and I had exactly this issue with DS1 when he was this age - he ate so much at breakfast he just wasn't bothered about lunch, the weetabix basically filled him up for the day!

DS2 has 6floz milk, then half a weetabix with another oz or so of milk plus a toast finger or two for breakfast, a few rice cakes etc around 10:30am and then lunch at 12ish - where he generally eats a really good meal, 6-8 tablespoons of a hot protein dish plus fruit, and same quantity of a veggie type dish plus yogurt at tea. I realise it is slightly different for you as you are BLW but it might still be worth cutting back a little on breakfast just to see if this encourages his lunchtime appetite...

Hijack away mistress! I just saw some info on another thread that you might be interested in: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/breast_and_bottle_feeding/1047862-Milk-vs-solids

Clicking through to the Kellymom links I found out that at 12m they should be getting 75% of calories and fat from milk! Much more than I expected... KM also suggests that you continue feeding before solids, so I think you're doing the right thing there!

www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/solids-how.html

www.kellymom.com/bf/weaning/babyselfwean.html

www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/toddler-foods.html

Thank you for your input dietcoke. I hadn't thought that the breakfast could be curbing the lunchtime appetite but I see now that it could be! I may give it a whirl but I'm muchly reassured that he's not having too much milk so I'm going to go with the flow a bit more and stress less .

Wow 75% of calories from milk Tweetinat- that seems like a lot. Guess it's hard to know exactly how much milk they are getting and how many calories other foods have.

Yeah, reckon you're right about being on the right track (must pop on over and update on the sleep thread!)