EBF and weaning. How to find the right balance?

[zoobaby]

I've posted a couple of times on the weaning board, but I think this one has more traffic, so hoping for more advice (thanks, by the way, to JJJ if you're over here too).

Basically, DS is coming up to 8 months and has been weaning since 6 mo. It's going nicely and he's enjoying the exploration of food.

I'm having difficulty getting a nice balance between his milk and solids, so much so that it's affecting his sleep. Eurgh.

Any hints? Even though I'm not keen to FF due to the hassle, I'm seriously considering a mix feed purely so I can measure his intake. Maybe formula at 10pm?

He is having 3 x solids and 3 or 4 BFs each day. He's just too distracted by life to feed properly in daytime and maybe I'm over compensating by giving too much solid food. I really don't know. Even on days when I feel like he's had really good BFs, and maybe it'll be enough to get him through the night, I'm proven wrong at 3am.

I miss my sleep and so does he.

My guess is the waking at night issue is probably not linked to how much he is eating in the day. If he is having 3 meals a day and 3 or 4 bfs a day imo he should be able to go all night without needing another feed.

Is he waking because of habit, teeth, wet nappy, too hot/cold? I would rule out all of those things first before and feed him only as a last resort, offer water first as well.

Agree with girliefriend. My 9month old eats the same, 3 meals a day and 3-4 BFs. She is waking at the moment due to teeth.

Thanks for replying girlie and babs. It's such a difficult thing to suss out. Really wishing for an instruction manual right about now. I did consider teeth as he is feeling warmer (weather aside) these days and while he's been quite dribbly since 3mo, he's been moreso this last week. But the poor sleep has been on and off for 2 months (!) now. Could it be teeth for that length of time?

Tried giving just water 2 nights now. First night was about 5:30am so he managed, while 2nd night was 3am. He went off for 1 hour then cried even more, and guzzled milk at 4am, so I felt bad for trying to starve him or something.

I seriously thought it must be an imbalance of food and milk. Or too small portions / incorrect types.

May be habit as you say. Starting to consider it's time for him to go into his own room as been holding him back due to temperature and also not wanting to "abandon" him while he's so unsettled. Maybe we're all preventing each other from having sound sleep.

Some babies do go thru a sleep regression at this age, not linked to food. Have a look at Isis website www.isisonline.org.uk/

Babs, can I ask, what do you do for your DD?

She has a dummy for night time and if I give her this she goes back to sleep really quickly, likes to use it for chew her gums on, if that doesn't work then a quick comfort feed and back to sleep straight away. To be fair though we are pretty used to broken sleep as we have a 2yr old and 4yr old that like to go walk about in the night, mostly the 2yr old. The joys of parenting. I do have bonjela and calpol on standby but haven't needed to use it yet, teeth not that bad just enough to wake her.

Oh if it helps this it what she eats
BF
Breakfast = porridge, fruit, fromage frais.
BF
Lunch = savoury, fruit, 2 fromage frais
BF
Tea = savoury,fruit, 2 fromage frais
BF
Then bed.

5 fromage frais a day? They contain a lot of sugar.

We use natural yogurt with added fruit or the own brand fromage frais which tends to have less sugar.

Hmmm. Same here except for all the fromage and yogurt. Can I ask portion sizes? DS will have 2 (dry) tbsp of ready brek or half a weetabix with 2 cubes of puree fruit mixed in. Just started trying toast. Lunch is 3-4 tbsp of a savoury meal including meat content. Tea is some variety of savoury without meat, vegies or pasta or baby rice (with fruit). Just started on finger foods too so something like grated fruit, cooked vegies, bread stick or rice cake. Maybe yogurt might be a good thing to have more regularly.

Also is her lunch before her nap or after? DS has his at 11:45pm which gives us time to do everything before sleep at 12:30pm.

Also lunch is normally larger quantity than tea. It's just what he takes. Wondering if I should try persuading him to have more or just let BF take care of it.

I must say... the joy of parenting 3 DCs... it sounds joyful indeed! DP does keep talking about a sibling for DS and my answer this last week has included the phrase "only child"

She's got quite a big appetite, porridge is about 4 heaped tablespoons mixed with boiled water, portion sizes roughly the same amount that's in a baby jar, which must be about 100-150g (trying to work out what my freezer cube trays size is. There the kids one you get in boots. I cook in bulk and then freeze). Can't get her to eat finger food yet, she eats too quick, boys were the same so probably portion sizes are bigger due to this. She has a nap at 9am and then again at 2.30pm. You'd think with all she eats she'd be huge but she's a wee poppet.
Lunch and tea are same size of portions. She drinks water with her meals as well. Hope this helps.

Sheesh. She's a hearty girl. Good on her. May be teeth, may be food. I just worry that DS isn't getting enough. But it's not like you can MAKE them eat when you WANT them to, so maybe I just need to suck it up . Cheers for the info.