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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

confused - bf and solids, at nearly 8 months should bfs reduce or not?!

7 replies

wellieboots · 30/06/2013 12:18

DD is 8 months in about 10 days. She is ebf (apart from food, obviously) and now reliably on 3 solid meals a day, mixture of puree and finger food.

I'm not sure whether this is more a weaning question rather than a feeding one, but I'm confused about whether she should be reducing bfs yet or not.

My HV said that I should make sure until at least 9 months that she was still getting 6 bfs per day, although they might significantly shorten. She tends to be feeding 5 times most days (overnight, early morning, late morning, afternoon, and before bed), this has been her pattern for the last couple of weeks. She's gaining weight, eating plenty of solids most days and happy and healthy so I don't think that she's desperate for extra bm.

Then I read some other people say that they have dropped feeds and that their LOs of similar ages are on 4 bfs and they're wondering when to drop another. Confused.com, on one idea she's still feeding too much, on the other I"m "depriving" her of a sixth feed.

I know there's a huge range of what is "normal" but I was just looking for advice and experience as to whether what my DD is doing is healthy and "normal" or whether I should be trying to help her to either drop a feed or offer her another one. OMG, this parenting thing is a nightmare - everyone has a different opinion about feeding, sleeping, settling, and everything else in between!

OP posts:
nostress · 30/06/2013 13:00

Hi! Breast fed both mine and i can say quite confidently that i had no idea whatsoever how many times a day i would feed them! Its just so random why 6?! Also breastmilk varies from person to person some have more creamy milk others have more watery. The nutritional value will therefore vary to. If she wants milk feed but dont worry about it! Also long as she is hydrated/having wet nappies really dont worry! Also babies vary my ds1 prefered food whereas ds2 prefered milk!

minipie · 30/06/2013 17:36

Ha - my HV told me 2 breastfeeds per day was fine for then 7mo DD. shows you how wide the range of views is.

DD is just 8 months and has recently dropped from 5 to 4 BFs a day.

I think the official advice is they need at least 20 fl oz milk per day until 1. but obv if you are BFing there is no way to measure!

AnitaBlake · 30/06/2013 18:35

I think my similarly aged DD has dropped a few feeds lately, certainly I'm much less worried about starting work tomorrow! I seem to have a massive oversupply atm, which in assuming is due to a reduction in frequency/duration of feeds! As long as she's happy I wouldn't worry too much!

UniqueAndAmazing · 30/06/2013 18:38

don't reduce them

dd was still bfing exactly the same until she got the hang of solid food.
we didn't do purees at all, bit it's the same.
all your baby thinks that she's playing - she doesn't understand food.

just keep feedjng as you have always done and let her dictate what she takes.

BeyondTheLimitsOfAcceptability · 30/06/2013 21:42

To give you another idea of "normal", DS2 is a greedy child who has eaten ridiculous amounts of food since he first weaned. At 13m he was still breastfeeding about 8 times a day. By fourteen months, he'd dropped to one feed a day. Just now he drinks an unbelievable amount of water!

BuntyCollocks · 30/06/2013 21:47

I think the best thing is to be led by them. I'm another one with a greedy baby. Dd will have been weaned 2 weeks tomorrow, has put herself firmly on 3 meals a day (finger foods and a loaded spoon) since day 3, and still breastfeeds on demand every 2-3 hours a day.

Feeds are shorter, and maybe slightly less frequent, but she's still boob mad

wellieboots · 01/07/2013 12:00

Thanks for all the comments, just goes to show all babies are different and you just make it up as you go along Grin

Sounds like I should just keep doing what I'm doing. Now, if I could get her to drop the night feed next....Wink

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