7 months old refusing breast

[CuteLittleToes]

My 7mo DS has been on solids for about 7 weeks now. We started a week shy of 6 months. For the first few days he was spitting everything out but then he got the idea and is really enjoying his food now.

Before he even was on 3 meals a day he dropped a day feed from 5 to 4. He was about 6.5 months. Now he's on 3 meals a day and it looks like he wants to drop another feed or even 2.

He feeds well first thing in the morning and the feed before bed used to be ok too. He has refused that recently as well but I think he was very full.

Day feeds are a battle. He arches his back and pushes away, if I manage to calm him with a dummy he might suck for a couple mins and then pushes away. He feeds slightly better if he is tired.

One of the most recent developments was him refusing expressed milk. He would take boob but not bottle. He does drink other things from bottle though. Just not BM, which he used to in the past.

Do I just have a baby who is not that keen on milk but is more into solids? It just makes me so sad he doesn't want my milk anymore

I went through this as well! DS is almost 9mo now but at about 7mo he was almost impossible to feed during the day.

He's back on track now although he only feeds before naps and bedtime - 3 times during the day. Sometimes he'll take some milk when he wakes up but not every day.

I tried everything when he was being so fussy - quiet room, when he was sleepy etc but if he didn't want it then nothing would convince him to latch!

Think I concluded that like everything else with my DS, it was just a phase. HTH, I know it's hard and frustrating.

Thanks. I guess some babies just take on solids quite well and don't need that much milk... There was a big change in environment for him as well, so I hope once we're back home he'll start feeding more.

My 9mo just went for 10 days with only one bf first thing having been feeding 5/6 times a day alongside solids. Thought that was the end but suddenly she's gotback on it! I wouldn't try and force it and have a look at Kellymom for advice

once our dd went onto solids she didn't really want milk on its own, was fine in porridge and some other foods but that was it really. now at 18m she will only take it now and at best twice a week. I wouldn't force it if he doesn't want it.

hi cute with us what worked was offering the boob a bit less frequently. also how are your timings with bf and meals. maybe leave more time after a meal? esp the bedtime feed. fwiw I do as below at 7,5m. she doesn't always have loads at the day feeds but I do offer
6.30, 10ish, 12.30, 3ish, 6.30pm bf
meals at 8, 11.45, 5
naps at 9, 12.30, 4 if a short lunchtime one

if your ds is more into his food then poss have meals less time after bf, so he's hungrier again after bf. having said all that I think we have to learn to trust them to take what they want/need

Thanks all.

When he was about to drop one feed, I did start to offer bf later as he simply wouldn't take it earlier. So they naturally got more spaced out. The issue now is that when I offer bf I know he is hungry but he's just not interested. If after that I offer him a solid meal he'll happily scoff it...

I went to bf support group the other day about this issue and they said that since I'm going back to work in 6 weeks it's actually not a bad thing. And the rational part of me understands this but I can't help feeling sad about it... They also said that as we're back home now he might pick up the feeds again.

Today he's taken his morning feed as usual and one after his morning nap which hasn't happened for a while! This is after yesterday he only fed in the morning and nothing at bedtime. To be fair though I need to give him his dinner a bit earlier I think... We'll see what happens next, maybe it was a temporary thing, fingers crossed!