Too soo. to drop another feed?

[mrsalwaysawake]

DS is 9.5 months old, and breastfed.
He feeds on waking in the morning, mid-afternoon and before bed, and also just before I go to bed.
He eats 3 solid meals a day.
Until last week, he was also feeding 30 mins after going to bed, and once in the night, but has pretty much stopped waking for these now (hurrah).
Today, we're going to make it to bedtime without a milk feed since 6am - he had a long nap this afternoon, and just had a snack at about half 3.

Now I know that just because that happened today doesn't mean it'll happen every day from now on, but is it too soon to drop another feed, as he only dropped the night ones last week?
If he does drop it, he'll still be having 3 milk feeds a day, which is fine, and this is the feeding pattern I want him to have by the time I go back to work in July, as he will be away from the boob all day.

But are we going too fast?

This is such a personal thing because every baby is different and obviously nobody knows how much they can get from each feed. I don't think it matters as long as they're growing well and having enough wet nappies etc.

However milk is supposed to be the main source of nutrition until a year so 2 feeds in 24 hours doesn't sound like enough to me at 9.5 months. DS has between 4 and 6 at 15.5 months as well as 3 big solid meals and various snacks but like I say every baby is different.

I think if you were to ask an expert they would say make sure you're offering a milk feed before solid food so your LO isn't filling up on the solids and not needing milk (there aren't enough calories in decent food to help them grow at this stage) and make sure you're actually offering the breast (never offer, never refuse is a weaning technique and if you wean at this age you'll need to think about formula instead)

I don't think you need to worry too much yet about cutting down the feeds before you go back to work, your LO will be nearly a year in July and will most probably be able to cope with solids for nutrition and have milk as an extra by then.

Also are you offering an alternative drink? Breastfed babies don't need water but 12 hours is a long time to go without a drink if they're not having milk. Ultimately I'd say go by your baby's cues but for me I'd be offering the breast a lot for for fear of self-weaning/milk supply going down. I think a nursing strike is common but short-lived at this age. Best of luck :)

Sorry just re-read and realised you're talking about 3 feeds in 24 hours not 2..I'd be interested in what other people have to say in response to your post. I think I'd still stand by the 'keep offering' advice

I think dd was on three a day by this age. I wouldn't worry about going too fast. He'll soon let you know if he needs more, so I'd just experiment and see how it goes.

DS was feeding 3 times at that age IIRC. I fed him lots of cheese and yoghurt because he loved them, I think it was ok overall.

Oh, he does drink water with meals. Adds up to somewhere between 3-5oz in the day.
Today was a bit of an experiment. I hadn't intended for him to go all day without milk, but when he wasn't looking for milk when he woke up at half 3, I though I'd offer a snack (and drink) and see what happened. Quite often in the afternoons I offer him milk before he's even looking for it because it's about time he had some, and I don't want it to be too close to tea-time when he has his milk.
I'm certainly not worried about his growth: plenty of wet and dirty nappies, and still tracking on the 95th centile. Very active and a happy little chap.

I reckon I'll carry on offering the mid-afternoon feed for a while, but it was good to see that he was quite happy all day with what he had. I did worry until recently that he would struggle when I go back to work, as he doesn't take a bottle, but now he's drinking well from a cup, and I know that he can last from morning til bedtime if you keep offering him food and water, I think we'll probably be ok. We've got a couple of months anyway.

DS dropped his night feed at 6.5 months and had 4 feeds a day until he was 9 months when he dropped to 3. The afternoon feed was dropped at about 10.5 or 11 months - sooner than I expected, actually, but I wasn't going to push it as he was usually very distracted at this feed and I didn't want to be forcing him to feed if he didn't want to.

He drinks well and eats very well.