Increase in 11 mth feeds caused by growth spurt or my milk not ''strong'' enough?

[upcydaisy]

My 11 month old is very hungry at the moment.

He is eating very well 3 x a day. I haven't introduced snacks yet but I am looking to do so in the next few weeks (He only starting eating well over the last couple of weeks, before then he was not very interested so I dont want to affect this progress, by pushing too much food on him).

Anyway he bfs very well when we are at home as he is too distracted when out.

I feed him as often as I can and this can be every hour when we are home. I counted 6 feeds yesterday and this included 4 in the night. Is this too many? That is 10 in total!! I don't think he is comfort sucking which makes me wary of night weaning.

Is there any chance that my milk is not as strong or nourishing as it was?

I would supplement with formula but he is more inclined to play with the bottle than drink from it, but I will continue offering him this as well.

Does this sound like a growth spurt or is this fairly typical for babies of this age?

I am concerned as other babies I know (even younger ones) are down to 2 feeds a day and one at night. He seems to be feeding like a newborn to 3 month old.

Hi Upcydaisy, well done for breast feeding your DS for 11 months - it sounds like he is eating food and breastfeeding in a good balance to get his nutritional needs met

Babies should be getting the majority of their calories from milk until around their first birthday, so I think it's great that you're still feeding about 10 times per day. This amount might start to drop off over the next few months, particularly as you introduce snacks and he gets the hang of eating meals too. I would take your lead from your son and breastfeed when he wants to :)

From a year, you could offer full fat cows milk in a beaker if you want to reduce the number of breastfeeds, but it's also fine to keep breastfeeding on demand without offering cows mill :)

Keep going, you're doing a great job :)

Just seen your second post ....

Ignore the other babies! I don't think it's what the other babies are doing, it's what their mothers are doing.

My twins are 19 mo and they're still having about 4 or 5 breastfeeds in 24 hours :)

If you're dc is eating 3 good meals a day and you're providing a good range if food e.g appropriate fats, calcium etc then 10 feeds is rather a lot. Are you still bf before/after a meal?

I bf first thing in the morning (6am) then DD has breakfast an hour later (1/2 weetabix). She has a small banana or a yoghurt at 10:30 with water. Lunch at 1:00. BF at 3:30. Dinner at 5:30. Then bf at 7:30 before bed. Don't feed during the night now at all. If she wakes up I offer a little water but she doesn't always bother.

If he's just sucking a few times it's usually just comfort and we stopped that by having cuddles and tickles for 5 mins to distract her. We also have a beaker with a built in straw which DD has her water in (superdrug own) and she has that on hand all day for sips of water. The sucking on the straw might quell the desire to suck, if like mine, your dc doesn't like dummies!!

The reason why he is feeding so much is because I started offering him more in the day (trying to tank him up so he would wake so much at night , but this has made no difference to his night waking yet (he had been waking only once or twice before this, I was actually th

Thinking of nIght weaning, but those plans are on hold for now).

I feed between meals, am I supposed to still be doing bf before meal at this age? As he doesn't like to feed when we are out I have been making sure I feed before we leave and when we c

Come home.

I know he is hungry as they are proper feeds, he has never been a very hungry baby before so that is why I'm wondering if my milk may have become less nourishing for some reason. Does this happen?

Sorry about the split posts an bf him now!

Thanks maples! Hard to remember about the night waking being normal when so many baby books say it is a problem if it keeps happening even once after 4 months :s

I will take him in for weighing this week just to check it out but he looks normal as usual (has always been on the lean side).

Also hard to know what the right portion sizes are, compared to your little one he is eating quite a lot, which has surprised me. Breakfast is usually 1 weeabix as well as about a cup of m

M

M

Miniwheats. Lunch is always when we are out so a pouch of baby food plus 1.5 pieces of bread or toast spread with cheese. Dinner is usually half a cup of meatballs, chicken pieces, or a slice of eggy bread & half a cup of roast veggies. As well as fruit for pudding! It does seem like a lot and a lot more than he used to eat.

Milk does not become less nourishing or less 'strong' - there is some research to indicate some changes with breastfeeding after about a year, principally with regard to energy content, which increases ie the milk becomes 'more' nourishing.

pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/116/3/e432.full

It is absolutely normal for babies to change the frequency with which they bf - this could be for developmental/behavioural reasons, not just nutritional.

He's quite likely to change his pattern again to something else in a short while :)

It can be really worrying when babies suddenly change their patterns like this. He sounds like he doing well and is definitely eating more food than my lot were at this age.
Could there be a reason (not milk 'quality') behind the sudden increase? Snuffly cold or theeth maybe?

theeth? teeth

He is not teething at the moment and is 100% well to,o so I'm putting it down to a growth spurt or just a general change in his appetite. Will wait and see how he goes.

That was a really interesting article too ticktok I thought that hormonal changes associated with the onset of ovulation again or weight loss may bring about changes in the content of milk. I did not realise that the milk improved with time.

It's not so much that it 'improves', but that nature sorts it so that the older baby who may be still getting used to different solids and whose other 'agendas' of walking and being involved in the world may lessen his total time feeding, can rely on breastmilk to continue giving him what he needs.

Anyway, there is a daft myth that breastmilk runs out of 'goodness' as the baby gets older, and that research showed it's just not true :)

upcydaisy - all 3 of mine have fed about 10-12 times a day at a year so it seems perfectly normal to me As others have said BM increases in fat content/immunological factors with time so BM is as good as it ever was even if baby is taking less but it's certainly not a problem if they are taking more.

This has some interesting guidelines on complementary feeds vs. BM on page 18 (it's even split the guidelines so that there is separate ones for developed/developing countries).