7mo exclusively bf & starting solids - HV confused me!

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HV says my 7mo baby should be learning that food satisfies hunger. She seemed surprised that I was still breastfeeding 5+ times a day (i have always fed on demand, never expressed) and she said I shouldn't feed before breakfast, i should offer a breastfeed after solid meals and offer solid snacks where possible.

Everything else I've read says milk provides most nutrients and calories until age 1 but she seemed adamant that more and more calories should be coming from solids. Can someone talk me through this?! We do BLW, just recently upped it to 3 meals a day (started with 2 meals).

She's fine and happy as you are. I was told to offer food after formula and did so....but bf is a complete and nutritious food and I see no reason to give solids before milk.

Your DD is obviously enjoying both why change? Advice varies on this and someone will probably come along with solid evidence to tell you you're fine as you are. Do you need the HV still? I got rid of mine when DDs were about 2 months as they made me anxious!

If what you're doing is working for you then carry on :)

Do what ever works for you.

DD2 was always BF before breakfast, because she woke up far too early and we'd feed and with luck snooze in our bed for a bit.

I think you are right, and that milk is the main source of food until 1 year.

The advice I have seen (and tried to follow) is to try to breastfeed about an hour before you offer food, so that hunger is satisfied by the milk (and baby continues to take plenty of milk) but that there has been time to build up enough of an appetite to try solids when they're offered. It is actually quite difficult to do this, as your days get taken over by feeding again (especially with twins!), but it sort if gets you into a meals & snacks routine too.

A typical day for my breastfed babies at 7 or 8 months would be something like:

7am ish breastfeed
8.30am breakfast with me
11am breastfeed
12.30pm lunch with me
2pm breastfeed
3.30pm snack (mini yogurt/rice cake)
4pm breastfeed
5pm dinner
6.30pm breastfeed
Breastfeed through the night as needed!

It's a busy timetable! It didn't always work, sleep gets in the way, and I definately noticed a drop in Breastfeeding time and frequency at around 7/8 months. But with that plan in my head, I knew that whatever we managed would be a balance if Breastfeeding and solids, and we found a way through it :)

I found weaning difficult, because in order to fit in mealtimes I suddenly had to have a structure/plan for the day! That was a first for me, as I'd always fed on demand and let them nap when they wanted. I found going out for the day more difficult because I had to take the right amount of meals with me, so had to know where I was going/when I was coming back! I didn't BLW though because I eat too much rubbish so perhaps it will be easier that way.

Good luck! And just keep offering the boob whenever. Your baby will decide the right balance between food and milk :)

Sounds like your HV is in need of a bit of retraining. This is a really good article that might help you. How would you feel about writing to PALS about the information you were given?

Agree with happy - keep with the breastfeeding but we tended (at 7 mths) to use the b/fs as snacks. So "meal times" were solids - ie breakfast, lunch and dinner. We'd always start & end the day with b/fs and then as happy says, give a b/f mid morning and mid afternoon.

The article Eau posted is great. There is no need to drop milk feeds at this age, anyway who wants to drop the first lazy morning feed and have to get up and go downstairs and prepare breakfast instead?

You sound like you're doing fine OP.

I always bf before breakfast, we did bf on waking (7ish) and breakfast at 8ish. I'm sure that at 7 mo we were still doing 5 feeds a day - I found we had to juggle things around quite a bit as weaning progressed and they upped their intake of food - but ds1 especially fed like clockwork at 7-10-1-4-7 so I just slotted meals in at 1 and 4 to start with (after bf), the when he was eating a bigger lunch it changed to lunch without bf, bf on waking after nap, tea and quick bf at 5 instead. Eventually he dropped the morning feed and i brought lunch forward to 12. There can be a brief time where you feel like you're constantly feeding them and it helps just to go with the flow and follow your baby's lead, I found!

What you're doing sounds fine. We started weaning at six months with lunch, then after a couple of weeks added breakfast, then dinner, with milk first thing, last thing and in between. It was a few months before snacks were substituted, so at one, milk was just first thing and last thing (and occasionally in place of one snack).

This sounds to me like an HV who is confusing ff with bf.

A ff baby at seven months who gets five full bottles a day plus snacks of formula between time, and who begins the day with a full bottle of formula may well be 'crowding out' any intro of new tastes or textures (not that you'd worry especially at 7 mths.....).

None of this applies to a bf baby.

Perhaps you can ask the HV what her rationale is for discussing your bf as if you were ff?

Thank you so much for the replies everybody. Maybe you're right that she's confusing advice for FF with BF. I am going to carry on feeding on demand and offering the boob as a snack (like you said Mandy).

I think my confidence was dented as baby has started waking more often at night so I wondered if it was hunger. It's just a phase though I'm sure!

She is a lovely HV so I don't think I want to go as far as complaining - thank you for the link though Eau, I will read it.

DewD - I feel a bit like this at the moment, like we're constantly feeding one way or another! And Happy, i agree that getting a routine when we never used to have one is so hard, I was just getting on top of going with the flow and now I feel bad if we eat lunch separately if baby is napping!

That Kellymom article makes sense and has really reassured me, I'm going to stick with what we were doing! Thank you again.