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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

hv advised to cut down bf my 9 month old.

33 replies

pinkyp · 01/09/2011 15:35

he currently wont eat breakfast and have from 3 - 5 feeds during the day and we co-sleep and feed in the night. he'll eat some lunch & tea though. my hv says we only need to be feeding am & pm and can give water during the day. Is this right? If so how would i do it? he only feeds on one side per feed so would i do morning - right and bedtime - left? I'm also thinking of expressing a feed for durin the day rather than bf myself perhaps around 2-3pm ish. What do you think and when do you 9 month old feed?

OP posts:
Gincognito · 01/09/2011 15:40

Rubbish. Feed him as much as he wants and you're happy with. Did your HV draw their qualification themselves?

My 10mo has had four feeds so far today. I expect to feed him a couple more times today, then through the night (we also co-sleep).

Wrt expressing, that's fine if you want to - do you actually want to?

MrsTerryPratchett · 01/09/2011 15:40

She's hate me Grin. 9 month old DD feeds about 4-5 times per day. If she's teething or sick or anything, it goes up to about 8 feeds per day. I give her sips of water but she wouldn't take a lot of water instead of a feed. And, she has a FF in the evening and solids.

About from the no breakfast issue, is he well and happy? Gaining weight?

MrsTerryPratchett · 01/09/2011 15:41

She'd not she's [lack of sleep emoticon]

Gincognito · 01/09/2011 15:41

Ooh pinky was it you that had mastitis as well the other week? Certainly don't want to be drastically cutting down if you have a tendency towards that.

Cosmosis · 01/09/2011 15:41

If it were me I would ignore her and feed on demand.

What is her reason for wanting you to do this? To encourage more solids? Babies build up solids eating at their own speed and generally advice these days is to let babies drop feeds when they want to not force them to if they are not ready.

I was at work ft when my ds was 9m, so it was a bit different, but he was having wake up, 2 x 4oz bottles of ebm in the day, 7pm and once or twice in the night. On a weekend he was fed on demand. I did try to feed about an hour before a meal though to make sure he wasn?t completely full at meal times. I?m sure there will be plenty of people coming along soon who say that their babies fed as much if not more than yours at 9m.

Paschaelina · 01/09/2011 15:44

My nearly one year old has between 3 and 4 feeds a day, and a bottle of ebm before bed. He didn't start eating in any great quantities til gone 9 months. Ignore her and carry on regardless.

Bunsouttheoven · 01/09/2011 15:46

Yeah tis nonsense, feed on demand, bf babies do not need water either until more than a year.

Original poster
pinkyp · 01/09/2011 16:01

yeh it was me who had mastitus, only finished taking anti-biotics for it yesterday lol! She asked if i fed before or after feeding, but i dont do either, our day is kinda:

wake up - bf
mid morning - bf
lunch - solids
mid afternoon - bf
tea time - solids
evening - bf
late evening -bf

dont know how many times during the night we bf. Have i done solids wrong? am i suppose to bf then offer food straight after or give food and bf straight after? i'm dead confused now :s I did fancy cutting down a little to maybe 3 feeds during the day (morning, afternoon & evening) and then as much as ds wanted on a night only because i have to go back to work soon. Hv thinks he might be feeding for comfort.

re the breakfast, i ment he wont have solids, he'll just have a bf instead.

OP posts:
Original poster
pinkyp · 01/09/2011 16:04

stressed out now :s

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nethunsreject · 01/09/2011 16:08

She is talking bollocks.

Advice is to bf on cue till aged 2yrs (WHO) or aged 1 (DofH).

Breastmilk or formula is the main source of nutrition BY A MILE for babies.

karlmarxthespot · 01/09/2011 16:11

Smile. Nod. Ignore. Don't go back.

Paschaelina · 01/09/2011 16:12

You could try a bit of breakfast an hour after first BF in the morning, have yours at the same time and he might start copying you. I would just put a couple of bits on his tray - toast/weetabix/crumpet etc and let him play with it.

drcrab · 01/09/2011 16:16

that's what my HV said to me too. My DD is 11 months old and isn't big on solid food. having said that her weight has been a steady 25%ile since a couple of months after birth (she was born 8lb 10, but I think her built is like mine - I'm 5ft 3; dh is 6ft2 - and my son's built is more like his).

I think what she's suggesting is: if you want to increase his solid food intake, then it's best to cut down bf. That does make sense to me. To me, it's like drinking milk shakes all day long and then wondering why you're not hungry enough to eat other types of food.

Doesn't necessarily mean you need to listen to her though. I co-sleep with DD, so she feeds on me. I'm bloody knackered and am back at work. It's something I wil be considering once she turns 1.

I bf-ed my DS (3.6 years old now) till he was nearly 2 years old too. But he was a good eater and wasn't really snacking on the boob all night long... DD is snacking.

tiktok · 01/09/2011 16:17

This is unusual advice, pinky, and you deserve an explanation from her of why she thinks your baby would be better off with less breastmilk - nothing you have said in your post indicates anything out of the ordinary at all, and continuing as you are doing now (assuming your baby is healthy and thriving) should surely be an option, unless she has a sound reason for thinking otherwise.

Not sure why you would want to express - direct bf is so easy at this age, whereas expressing and giving in a bottle/cup and all the faff that entails is not :)

HarrietJones · 01/09/2011 16:20

Dd3 is nearly 11 months & stuffs herself at snack/lunch/snack/tea but won't eat breakfast. She picks and I figure she will eat eventually and isn't a morning person!
She feeds all night + 3-4 in the day. She's just swapped a bf for snack.

eaglewings · 01/09/2011 16:22

DD2 had no solid food til she was 12 months. We sat her with us at the table and gave her finger food at every meal from about 6 months. She is now very healthy and has a very varied diet at 9 years.

Managed this by never telling the HV about how she was eating!

If the HV wants to talk to you ask about car seats or reading books or another subject you can let wash over you, then smile and say, thank you that was very helpful.

IHaveAFeatureWallAndILikeIt · 01/09/2011 16:22

I thought that food was "just for fun until they're one"

I went by that and demand fed until we stopped at 13 months. I needed him to be off by 16 months and "started" stopping at 13 months as I thought it would take a while to gradually wean him off. He stopped overnight! He didn't eat much in the way of solids at 9 months.

hellymelly · 01/09/2011 16:24

my "routine" at 9m was much the same as yours sounds,I just fed on demand.That is waht they need at 9m,it is much too young to be only feeding twice a day.Ignore your daft hv and happily go on as you are.

MumblingRagDoll · 01/09/2011 16:30

The advice isn't bollocks. All babies are different. But I would say to offer water now and then in the day in addition to letting him feed on demand. He''ll know what he wants.

moomaa · 01/09/2011 16:33

Tiktok Interestingly I have just had almost exactly the same advice from a HV, DD 8.5 months. DD eats food and drinks water like a bottomless pit though. Have since moved to morning feed, evening feed and one at some point in the day and have had no moaning from DD. Am not going to go below this until she is 1 though. Just doesn't feel right.

RitaMorgan · 01/09/2011 16:44

My 13 month old still has 4 milk feeds a day. If your baby is happy and

RitaMorgan · 01/09/2011 16:45

...healthy then who cares if he eats breakfast!

Zimm · 01/09/2011 19:28

Many adults don't eat much solid food til after 10am - not everyone like breakfast. your HV is, like most them, a plonker.

Original poster
pinkyp · 01/09/2011 19:35

Thank u all. I always presumed he would self wean / cut his feeds down when he was ready. I might stop offering as much, he might be taking it sometimes because it's offered.

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cluelessnchaos · 01/09/2011 19:43

Ds2 has a similar schedule to the one you describe and at breakfast he just has a bit of what I'm having, fruit, toast cereal it nearly all ends up on the floor, there's no pressure. It suits me fine not having to worry about getting loads of food into him, he's just not hungry and neither would I be.

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