Giving water to a bf 12 month old

[AngelsfromtherealmsofgloryDog]

I didn't know whether this was a weaning or bf question, so apologies if it's in the wrong place - and apologies if it's just a bit of pfb paranoia.

12 m.o. DS is bf about 4 or 5 times a day and usually once or twice a night. I give him water at meals (3 meals a day, we don't do snacks yet). Up till now I've been following Kellymom's advice to just give a few sips.

He's becoming more vocal in making his views known and (as far as I can tell) is wanting more water with meals. So for the last couple of days we've been letting him drink as much / little as he wants. We put a very small amount in his Doidy cup and he drinks independently. We've then refilled it as often as he seems to want. He loves drinking from the cup and has been drinking quite a lot (and throwing the rest on the floor / tray when he doesn't want to drink it. )

I wanted to check whether this is the approach I should be taking, or whether I should try to limit the amount he drinks at meals in case it has an effect on his milk intake.

Over the same time period he's had very loose, unformed poos. It could be coincidental and at first I put it down to an excess of fibre from lentils/rice cakes, but I'm wondering now whether drinking more water might be having an effect.

Any advice? I've looked at Kellymom and read the WHO info on complementary feeding, but they both seem to be a bit vague on this issue.

Hi Angeldog

My DS (who I think is exactly the same age as yours) has water available at every mealtime. It's only been in the past few weeks that he's started drinking an appreciable amount and so far it doesn't seem to have made any difference to the amount that he's BF. He was getting a bit bunged up and the increased fluid intake does seem to have loosened things off a bit which both he and I are grateful for.

I'm just going with the flow and letting him take as much as he wants. And my DS also bangs his cup on the tray/waves it around/tests the structural integrity of my kneecap with it. Am just wondering how often the properties of gravity have to be tested before it's accepted as being a constant.

I offered water with meals to DS from around 7-8 months and noticed that he started to drink more water around 12 months, he really likes it. If you are still feeding on demand I wouldn't worry about it at all, he will let you know when he wants you instead

DS is also 12 months.

I feed on demand (usually 4x/day and about 3 at night) and offer water with food and whenever he seems thirsty.

We are currently in South Africa on holiday and it is very hot most days so he doe drink a lot more. I haven't found that offering water outside of mealtimes has affected his desire for milk in anyway really.

(But then we have a long and not so interesting history of breast refusal and only feeding to sleep etc)

As an aside.... He also doesn't really eat much most days (BLW) but I keep telling myself that he is happy, healthy and developing at a rate of knots so he must be getting enough.

Thanks everyone - sounds like it's pretty normal at this stage.

His nappy contents have continued to be very loose so I may try to limit water a little bit. We do EC and I could usually tell when he was pooing by the strain / grunt. Now it just all comes out in one big rush, which I think means a halt to nappy-free time for the time being.

Cups are such fun, aren't they, cairnterrier?

Feeding on demand has always been tricky for me. I still can't tell when DS wants milk. I've always just offered lots & lots, although I've recently cut out 2 day feeds in an attempt to get my periods back so we can TTC DC2. But I guess I do offer whenever he's cross and I can't find another explanation. I'm really hoping he'll start signing it before too long as it would make my life a lot easier!

MBJ, DS started off BLW eating huge amounts, but it dropped noticably when we hit the 9 month sleep regression and he started having more feeds at night. IIRC Kellymom says that at 12 months only 25% of their calories should come from solids.

AngelDog - We must have twins separated at conception. My DS and yours sound IDENTICAL . (ANd I too still struggle with telling when he wants milk )

We also want to TTC DC2 but I fear I might have to do some night weaning to get my periods back.

I've only just got my periods back (had first one) and am still feeding twice at night. Typically I had my first period in 19 months 4 days before my smear was booked.........

angeldog - that's reassuring about the calorie intake at a year. So far DS has had 6 spoonfuls of porridge and a suck on a satsuma segment and it was about the same yesterday as well! I keep having the 'food's fun until they're one' mantra running through my head but no-one appears to have told DS that solid food is a Good Thing yet :) apart from chocolate buttons obviously.

MBJ, I don't just have the problem with knowing when he wants milk - knowing when he's getting sleepy is virtually impossible as well. I'm not sure whether it's him or me who's bad at communicating!

Apparently the return of fertility can be kick-started by a sudden drop in the frequency / length of feeds, not necessarily at night. I found the info on Kellymom useful. I did try to reduce night feeds at the same time but we co-sleep and I couldn't wake myself up enough to start worrying about feeding/not feeding.

I'm definitely going to offer less water as the nappies still have that newborn out-of-the-nappy-and-up-the-back quality. It's hard to know whether he's shouting for more water or because e.g. he wants my fork, so I'll try other options first.

My own view on solids, cairnterrier, is that as long as you're offering it, they'll eat when they're ready. DS doesn't get buttons - I wouldn't share my chocolate with anyone!

I find that DS is very distractable and that although he will indicate to me that he wants milk, unless he is very tired, he won't feed in a busy environment. Although I really try to feed on demand it often happens that I know he will want milk at certain times of the day and then I take him to a quite place (at my convenience) in order to feed.

The reason I think I will have to night wean is that those are the feeds I'd most like to get rid of, but like you we co-sleep, so it may be too difficult. Am thinking about trying Jay Gordon's night weaning approach when we've settled back in at home after our holiday.

DS's nappies are also often still like newborn poos, but occasionally he will gorge hmself on solids and then be constipated for about 4 days. I don't think DS's nappies are the way they are because of the amount of water he drinks but rather, the amount of solids he eats.

Well, I'm rapidly drawing the conclusion that he has a stomach bug as he's had less water at the last 2 meals and still has very wet nappies and horrible farts which are bothering him a lot. I suspect it's just coincidental that it happened at the same time as reducing feeds / offering more water.

The poor thing was up for ages in the night because he'd pooed and I'd not realised. He's not pooed in the night for months and months now.

DS was very distractible between 8 and 10 months, but he's been much better since. If we're out & about, he'll feed for a shorter time than he would at home, but in the distractible phase he would writhe and scream his head off when I offered a feed, even when I could tell he was desperately hungry.

I'm trying to feed him more to help get his digestion back to normal, so that scuppers the whole cutting down attempt.

Yes, I'd seen the Jay Gordon approach. TBH I quite like night feeds - well, the first one anyway. Sometimes we do a second, sometimes not, but I'm lucky that he's happy to be jiggled on my chest rather than fed back to sleep. :)