Dropping from 3 to 2 Feeds-Gina Ford

[katinthehat3]

hi
Can someone who has the Gina Ford book (I've misplaced mine) remind me when the 2.30pm feed should be dropped. My 10 month old is not that interested anymore but am scared to drop it in case she starts waking at night.

I'd recommend dropping the book, not the feed.
Babies are living breathing beings, not machines to be fed and watered according to a clock.
She'll have to do that for most of her life so why not enjoy the spontaneity of now?

I think she drops it well before 10 months. You could substitute it with a snack and a drink of water and give more food at the evening meal and plenty of milk at bedtime

p.s. I didnt 'do' Gina Ford but both my lo's were down to 2 feeds by 11 months

I think my guys just dropped the 2.30ish feed (nearer 3pm for us usually) quite naturally between 8 and 12 months. Dd1 was the most keen on it and used to wake from nap desperate for it and I was keen to stop for various reasons so I bribed her with a lovely snack of blueberries/strawberries, warm milk in a cup etc etc for about 3 days and that just broke the habit. Dd2 quite often had a wee feed between 3 and 5 until about 14 months if she was grumpy but I was quite over GF by then!

Made no difference to night waking for my 3.

(I did GF pretty much for no 1 and less so for 2 and 3 as had toddler/school runs etc to fit round!)

Thank you -Seonia.
Moondog-isn't it a pity that mothers are so judgemental of others. You know nothing about me or my way of raising my children but feel you have the right to judge me and send such a harsh message.

In that case, better not to use a public forum.

Ideally babies are best on around 50% milk, 50% solids at around a year, although few have this much milk in practise.

Despite the fact that She-who-must-not-be-named and other self-professed "experts" state that if thou dost not follow their rules exactly (OCC thinks about Tizzie Hall's mad, mad, mad "catch the bus" 7pm bedtime "rule"), babies don't read these books.

If you think she's ok to drop the feed, she's ok to drop the feed. She may start to wake at night but if she does it will not, I promise, be because she's dropped that one feed. No matter what SWMNBN might say is a fakt coz she's looked after billions of babies so she knows, what.

Moondog's message wasn't harsh. My message was (unusually I hope) harsh.

There is a woman writer who is a fool and her books are seriously dangerous. But I can't mention who I am referring to because she might sue (again).

dropped middle of the day milk at around a year, just followed guidance about how much milk Ds should be getting at a year, 350ml instead of a pint before a year, not that a baby follows anything religiously like GF seems to think. hope this helps

I found the Gina Ford book helpful, though we are a minority here!
My daughter wasn't interested in her 2.30pm milk feed at nine months so I fed her a yogurt instead, trying to keep her dairy intake up. Nearing 11 months now I don't usually bother with the yogurt. Her last bottle of milk intake has increased as a result.
Her sleep has not been affected at all :)

brices it depends on what you mean by helpful :)

Unless a mum has a massive oversupply, her feeding advice is almost certain to scupper BFing. For mums who plan to FF this isn't necessarily a problem, but feeding to a schedule will cause most babies distress and pain.

Some babies appear to do brilliantly on one or another of these directive books. Usually, though, they are babies who would have thrived on any kind of schedule/none-schedule - just babies who are very flexible.

So when it works for a mum, that's brilliant :). It's one of those things where it's likely that the advice will suit a few people somewhere but most people it will cause problems for.

I've been doing GF and am pretty much ebf (he sometimes has a bottle mid morning/afternoon) and our afternoons don't/can't follow her routine at all.

my 11month old has a drink and snack with his older brothers around 3pm (even though she says do not feed after 3:15). he is really hungry at the moment so has bit of a feed, then water and whatever we're having for a snack. he would have a full 6oz bottle of formula if i offered but then wouldn't eat a proper dinner till 5:30, but i have toddlers so that fits our day better.

Thanks to those who gave a constructive reply. Has helped so thanks.