breastmilk volumes at 10mo

[golemmings]

DS is 10mo, dairy and soy intolerant and has been bf.
He has a feed around 7am for 15 mins.
I try to feed him mid morning and mid afternoon. Occasionally he'll feed for 5 mins, mostly its one or 2 mins, sometimes not even that although can be persuaded to have 70ml from a cup - where he can see what's going on.

He then feeds for 20mins at bedtime, around 7pm and then has between 1 and 3 feeds totalling 20 mins or so over night.

I spend an hour expressing every morning to produce 100ml for cereal and custard.

With 2dcs under 3 spending more time expressing isn't really an option unless there is a quick and efficient method that I've missed.

If I stop the overnight feeds will he be getting enough bm?

Bump

If I were you, I would keep the night feeds if he is wanting them and just not express any milk. My DS is 7 months and I give him full fat cows milk in his cereal etc - it takes me ages to express even a small amount and I figured it was easier to go down the cows milk route - as long as they don't have it as a drink until 12 months, it is fine for them.

I think at 10 months its possible he still needs the night feeds especially if he's not taking much milk in the day. Have you tried offering milk more often in the day? Its still much more important then solids at this age.

I wouldn't stop the night feeds - and haven't - DS is 10.5mo and also on 4 daytime feeds, occasionally 5. No amount of darkened rooms, frequent offering etc can interest him more during the day, so he definitely tops up at night. As much as I may feel like night weaning at 3am, I'm not going to do it as he's already dropped a centile simply by being incredibly active, crawling & cruising.

I also use cow's milk for cereal/cooking etc. Started trying to express and quickly got bored decided it wasn't working for us as a family. An hour expressing is a long time! I try to offer cheese/yogurt as a snack, and at mealtimes, so he ups his dairy calories.

BM is still so important at this age. I'm going to get him to 1yo and then reassess (not giving up BF, mind, just reassessing night times!)

I agree with those who said to keep up the night feeds, that sounds like the time he is getting the majority of his milk.

Being dairy and soya intolerant is a PITA, mine ds is too. From 12 months you could start trying him on goats milk or oat milk (not rice milk, it naturally contains small amounts of arsenic)

I have tried offering more in the day but if they're breast feeds the more there are the shorter they are - so offering 4 means they're less than a minute each. If I keep it to 2 there is a fighting chance that one of them will last 5 minutes.
He'll feed happily from a cup during the day but at the moment I only Express enough for breakfast and sometimes custard - hence one of the solutions is increasing my supply and expressing more.
I'd love to get him to a point where he feeds during the day rather than at night. It won't be long before I'm back at work and I could really do with getting more than 3 hours at a time.

Dd slept through from 7mo and dropped daytime feeds at 8mo but I was able to fill her up with cheese and yoghurt and carried on feeding her morning and night until she was 17mo. I'd like to do the same for DS if I can but for my own sanity when I go back to work I need to be able to get some sleep too!

I wouldn't worry about the length of feeds in minutes - it's not really a gauge of 'how much' a baby is getting. Sometimes they're more efficient than others. Same as sometimes we schnarfle a snack down, but sometimes linger over a meal.