Weaning, went to a La Leche League meeting and now unsure about everything

[Zombieladymum]

Have already touched on this in another thread but: DS is coming up 10 months and we've been doing BLW since he was 6 mths. It's going well, he's eating many foods and seems to be satisfied.

Recently, he started to lose interest in bf in the day (too nosey/wanting to be up and about), except for at nap times when I would feed him to sleep. Have stopped feeding to sleep as due to go back to work and want him to be able to fall asleep for dad/without boob so ended up only bf morning and evening, giving him a cup with water in between. He only drinks one cupful at a push and doesn't like formula.

So.. went to a LLL meeting today and was told it's best to keep bf until he's 1 (or longer) and that breast milk should be the bulk of his diet. I'm confused, doubting myself and worried that I'm not giving my child the nutrients/fluids he needs to thrive.

Anyone got any thoughts on this?

As I understand it there's a scale between 100% breastfed at 6 months to food becoming the major part of their diet after 12 months - however there's going to be big variations on how quickly babies move towards food becoming the major part of their diet.

Breastfeeds morning and evening sounds pretty normal to me at 10 months.

If he is happy, is thriving and growing well (for him - not according to some arbitrarily chosen centile), has enough wet nappies that don't smell too strong, is not constipated, and is getting a good variety of age-appropriate foods, then he's probably doing fine. You are offering him water throughout the day, and I assume he is competent enough with a cup to drink when he wants to, so if he gets thirsty he'll drink. And he could be getting quite a hit of breast milk when he feeds morning and evening. And as for the comment about it being advisible to continue BFing until 1 year+. Well, you are still BFing, you don't give FF and so you are in a great position to continue BFing for as long as you and DS want to.

Milk either formula or BM is supposed to be the main pairt of there diet even at 12months it should be something like 80%. I'm sorry if this has made you doute what you are doing.

If you are BLW I would have thought this was quit clean. When I did this with DD it was quit clear that untill they where 1 you offer milk before solid food. Has this changed? I think she'd have milk about an houe before solids so wasn't hungery but not full either when I offered solids.

The WHO recommends that between 6 and 12 months breastmilk is 50% of a child's nutritional intake. Between 12 and 24 months they recommend that breastmilk is a third of a child's nutritional intake.

Obviously babies don't go from 0% solids at 6 months to 50% solids at 6 months + 1 week, so it does increase gradually such that before the age of 1, the majority of their nutrition comes from milk (if you're following the WHO guidelines).

Many people (e.g. Kellymom) recommend that until 12 months you offer bf an hour before solid meals to ensure that solids supplement bf rather than replace it. If you offer before meals and your baby doesn't want bf then, I wouldn't worry about it.

After 12 months, it's normal for solids to start replacing breastmilk rather than being given in addition to the existing milk feeds, although for some babies this starts earlier than others. (E.g. my DS was 11 months when he started to get grumpy if he missed a meal - bf wasn't enough to keep him going from that point onwards.)

If you want to read more about what is 'supposed' to be the case according to scientific research, the WHO have a useful paper on complementary feeding of the breastfed child (ie how to ensure that solids are introduced in the best way).

HTH

Agree with Angel Dog, offer the breast at times during the day when he's awake and not stuffed full of mashed potato already, and if he doesn't want it, you can't force it.

It's called baby led for a reason

Thanks all for the info and AngelDog, I shall read the paper once I get a quiet moment.

I think making the offer of the boob's the most important thing right now but I'm also conscious of the fact I'll be returning to work in 2 months (allbeit part time but nonetheless, I won't be there for 5 hours a day)...
I keep having to remind myself that everything will be fine! :-)

This has bothered me as well - my 8 month old will only feed in the day when sleepy, so he generally only has BFs before his two naps. Then he has a feed at bedtime and two more overnight, and sometimes another day one. So he still has 5-6 BFs a day, which I think seems reasonable. But of course those daytime feeds tend to be an hour or so after meals rather than before meals. I have tried to keep a mid-morning and mid-afternoon feed going instead of solid food snacks, but he just isn't interested - there's too much else going on. I do worry that he should have more milk and fewer solids, especially as I didn't end up doing pure BLW. But he is healthy and growing well, so I'm just following his lead. Many HVs are telling people with babies of this age that they should just be on 2-3 feeds a day.

Well,

8-10 months is a classic age for distraction for many babies. Again, Kellymom has some info - lots of people think their baby is self-weaning when they're not.

My DS was very distractible at this age. He wouldn't feed at all when out of the house, so I had to make sure we were always at home an hour before meals so he'd take a bf. It stopped the moment he hit 11 months though. :)

IME HV advice is so rubbish varied - at the same clinic I heard that a 10 m.o. 'should only be on one feed per day', and also that 6 or 7 feeds a day sounded about right for a baby that age.

Zombie, I wouldn't worry too much about returning to work. 2 months is a long time away, and by that point you don't need to worry about offering bf before solids. I went back to work (albeit only for one day a week) when DS was 11 m.o. I was away for 9 hours and he missed 5 feeds. He wasn't particularly interested in taking any EBM during the day, and it didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. He didn't even feed any more than usual when I came back - and if I got home when he'd just had dinner, he would refuse bf until bedtime.

FWIW, I always feed to sleep at bedtime and always have (and did for naps till it stopped working around 8 months), but DS will happily let himself be rocked to sleep by DH, and is now (at 14 m.o.) increasingly moving towards being able to go to sleep more independently.

Oops, not sure what happened with that 'well'.