How many bf's at 8mo onwards?

[Clueless79]

Just what it says in the title really! Was just wondering what the pattern is with other babies from this age onwards? I know they're all different and there's no right answer but I'm interested to know how is has worked for others as their dc's have become more interested in solids.

I'm back at work from 7mo so DD started rapidly dropping milk during the day. (She takes a bottle). During the week, she does a feed when I wake up at 7am. Then another when we get home at around 5:45. Followed by another after bath at 6:30. Then she has a night feed at around 1-2 at night. So 4 feeds only. During the weekend, she usually packs in 1-2 more bf during the day. This is ofc when she's not having a growth spurt. I think she clocked up 9 a day during the 9mo growth spurt over xmas. It ended when she started to crawl!

I all 3 of mine were having about 8 bfs in the daytime along with 3 meals and some snacks (roughly - before breakfast, after breakfast, before lunch, after lunch, mid afternoon, before dinner, after dinner, bedtime, then a couple (or 4 or 5 - DD1) in the night).

Bfs still need to be before complementary feeds - approx one hour before - so that food doesn't get eaten at expense of BM, so that might help give you an idea of how much to offer.

8?! wow! I'm making sure I've bf'd within an hour of offering solids but haven't been offering afterwards so will typically manage 5 or maybe 6 during the day/evening. Ds is very busy with his toys and generally being active and nosy so rarely 'asks' anymore, particularly if we're away from the house. He'll feed once or twice through the night. If I didn't make a point of offering bf then I'm not sure whether he'd bother to have any!! He is, however, very interested in trying lots of different types of foods!

DS is 10 months and still having 8-9 bfs in 24 hours. And this is a recent thing that I'm hoping will last. Until about last week he was having 11-14, regardless of the amount of solids he ate. He's quite slim, too, so it's not as though he's a huge boy needing to fill up.

He's just a milk monster.

It didn't seem like much at the time .

A very rough outline for a day would look like:-

bf at 6ish, breakfast at 7.30, bf at 9, small snack at 10, bf at 11, lunch at 12, bf at 1, bf at 2, small snack at 3, bf at 4, dinner at 5, bf for bed at 6, bf at 10, bf at 3, bf at 6......

Just to give you something the other end of the spectrum - my dd is 10 months and I went back to work when she was 6 months old. She has never taken a bottle or formula from a cup etc. On the days I'm at work (3) she just had one feed at 7am and one when I got home from work, until she was about 8 months was feeding once in the night too. I feed her before her pm nap on my days off too and at weekends unless we're out with buggy. I was worried at first but the HV assured me that as long as she was eating plenty of solids with dairy then there was nothing to worry about. I've since realised that she was right and that all babies will soon tell you if they need it. As long as they are putting on weight ok then no need to worry. One thing the HV did say was that you can give them additional vitamin drops if you breast feed after 6 months because apparently formula contains different types of vitamins that bm doesn't.. although if their diet is well balanced and healthy I don't think it's too necessary tbh.