How many feeds at 8 months?

[pinkgirlythoughts]

DS is 8 months old, and currently has a morning feed, a bedtime feed, and usually two feeds during the night. Sometimes he still has a mid-afternoon feed too, but he seems to have virtually dropped this one recently. My health visitor advised me just before Christmas (when DS was 6 months) that at this age a breastfed baby should normally be having two to three feeds a day- apparently three is the ideal, but many mums find it difficult to achieve, so the health visitors say that two is also an acceptable number? But from talking to other mums, both in real life and online, it seems like a lot of babies at this age are still feeding every three to four hours. I'm getting myself really confused now, feeling like if I follow the HV's advice, DS is having far too much milk (especially considering he eats three reasonably sized meals a day too), but if I follow advice from other mums, he isn't having enough!

How many feeds does your 8 month old have over a 24 hour period? And how much food?

My three had more like 8 (if not much more)! Three bfs a day is what my 2y DD3 does

BM is the single most important part of a baby under 12m's diet and makes up the bulk of the calories:-

6-8m need 130 kcals of complementary foods and 485 kcals from breastmilk (approx 650ml of bm at 75kcals per 100ml) - total 615 kcals a day

9-11m need 310 kcals of complementary foods and 376 kcals from breastmilk (approx 500ml of bm at 75kcals per 100ml) - total 686 kcals a day.

12-23m need 580 kcals of complementary foods and 314 kcals from breastmilk (approx 420ml of bm at 75kcals per 100ml) - total 894 kcals a day.

Full details here on page 18. Pleae note that there is different values for industrialised/developed countries and developing countries. I've listed the industrialised/developed countries figures.

Next time you see your HV I'd ask her where she gets her 'three is ideal but if you can't do that two is ok' for a baby of 6m - that would mean they were getting over 200mls a feed if not over 300mls Not sure that works out with what is known about bfing....

He will feed as much as HE needs, all babies are different and some prefer to get their calories from food, some from breastmilk.
DD3 had only just got the hang of trying new foods at 8m so she was feeding a lot more than your ds.
Remember bm is the best nutrition until 1, the foods you add are supplementing your milk, gradually the calories from the food will overtake bm

I think as long as he's having three 'proper' meals a day and eating well, then you can give him as much milk as he wants. My DS2 is also 8 months and he's on about 5 BFs a day - before bed, around 2am, 6am, before morning nap and before afternoon nap.

If you are feeding at night that might be why, comparatively your baby appears to be drinking less?

My 8 month old had 4 feeds and 3 good meals. Happy and chubby. Sleeps 7 to 7.

My eldest was more of a grazer (still is) and had lots of little feeds till about 14 months.

My dd had 4 day feeds and 1 night feed at 8 months. She slept though from about 9 months, but still had 4 day feeds. Be led by your baby as he knows what he needs. DD was also on 3 meals a day and snacks too sometimes!