Down to three feeds - what next?

[Imeg]

Baby is 8.5months and is now having three feeds a day - first thing, afternoon (time a bit variable) and bedtime. I was also feeding him if he woke in the night (usually doesn't) but have now stopped and offer water instead. He is guzzling three meals a day plus snacks and generally doing very well.

I just wondered when I can drop another feed, and if so which one? The afternoon one would seem logical but he doesn't always take much at bedtime because it's quite soon after his dinner, and because he's often sleepy. Would it be weird to lose the bedtime feed and keep the afternoon one? Also, he always has both sides, could I try giving one side only at both the afternoon and evening feed instead of dropping one?

I'm keen to cut down as soon as he doesn't need it any more because I'm still losing weight which I can't really afford to keep doing as I'm not exactly large to start with.

Unfortunately can't offer any advice Imeg as I'm still feeding mine 5 or 6 times a day (not night now, thankfully) and he's not interested in food at all! (apart from to play with and make a mess).

Our babies have been quite in synch up to now!

Mine does also play with it and make a mess, but a fair amount goes in...

I think it's too early to drop any more feeds. I would drop afternoon feed sometime between 10/11 months.

If you want to cut out breastfeeds you need to replace them with formula at this stage.

I would agree there. They still need plenty of milk until one. If you want to breastfeed less then perhaps giving them a breakfast that is very milk based such as porridge or weetabix? I wasn't breastfeeding at 8 months (stopped at 7 months) but both my children had 3-4 bottles a day and then were on 2 by about 10-11 months. I remember I replaced the lunchtime feed with a cup, then the breakfast one. At 10 months DS started day nursery so he had a bottle first thing and then went in to have usually weetabix for breakfast with cow's milk on. Then at a year he was weaned onto cow's milk and cups. His last one to go was the bedtime one, which he dropped very naturally at 13-14 months.

Thanks :) Sounds like we need to stick to three times a day for another few months, if I'm getting fed up I'll swap one or more to formula - don't really want to be faffing about with powder etc but I definitely want to stop breastfeeding by 12 months so I suppose this would be a way to make it more gradual. He has either milky oatibix or porridge made with milk for breakfast and also loves yoghurt and cheese so he is having plenty of dairy as well.

I stopped bf at 13 months with dd. I dropped the mid afternoon milk feed at 11 months. Then at 1 I swapped the evening feed for a beaker of cows milk and two weeks later I did the same for the morning feed. Kept the morning feed til last because I liked the extra doze in bed instead of traipsing down to the kitchen.

I just wanted to say I'm in a very similar situation. My dd is 9 months and had dropped down to about 3 feeds in a day / night. Sometimes she still has 4. I'm going to keep at about that amount for now and then cut down a bit more at about 10 or 11 months. Then by a year start swapping over to cows milk I think...not sure how it's going to work really! Totally playing it by ear! My dd also has porridge with full fat milk every morning and a full fat yoghurt after dinner so she does get lots of dairy.

Thank you for the replies earlier. He's now 10 months, still eating solids well and having plenty of dairy during the day (full fat milk on/in breakfast, cheese, yoghurt) and still breastfeeding first thing, afternoon and bedtime. His afternoon feed is still bigger than the bedtime one, which isn't surprising as he has dinner at 6 and then bedtime at 7 so he's not really hungry.

• My aim is to swap to cow's milk at 12 months, preferably without formula (nothing against it, just can't be bothered with measuring out the powder when I could just feed him myself).
• I could drop the afternoon feed, which does seem logical in some ways, but I'm not sure this is the right one as it often seems to be his biggest one?
• I think he would like his dinner earlier eg 5-5.30pm, which might mean he takes more milk at bedtime, but I eat with him and not sure I can face eating that early!
• I don't feed to sleep, (although the feed is the last thing before I put him in his cot) so wonder whether to drop the bedtime feed first instead - has anyone done this?

Any other suggestions?

My DS is almost 10m/o and has three feeds a day. His routine is:

06.00 - wake and have a breast feed.
07.00 - breakfast
09.30 - morning nap.
11.30 - lunch
14.00 - breast feed.
14.30 - afternoon nap.
16.30 - dinner time
18.45 - breast feed
19.00 - bed.

He has about 5oz of cows milk on his weetabix at breakfast and drinks water though out the day, usually about 15oz in total.

I go back to work soon and as I work shifts some of his BF's will have to be replaced by formula. I definitely want him having milk at least three times a day at this age.

Thank you writer :) Hmm, maybe I'll just carry on as I'm doing for now.

My feeling is that if you swap the afternoon feed for a snack, a 10 month old will probably compensate at one of the other feeds. I went back to work with both of mine at 10 months, so they just fed morning and evening. (Actually, number 2 was so unsettled by me going back to work that she went on nursing strike, and I never did coax her back to the breast )

It seems to me like you'd be happy swapping the evening feed for a small cup of cows milk. Why not do that? Cow's milk isn't supposed to be the main drink for under 1s, but I think you'd be fine on that score - main drink would still be breastmilk, taken in the morning and at lunchtime.

Thank you schoolclosed, he has milk on his breakfast and plenty of yoghurt/cheese etc so I can't see that a small drink is going to make much difference.

I'm with you. Both of mine had drinks of cow's milk before age 1, but not as a 'main drink'.

Hi Imeg. I've stopped feeding now and DS has 3 formula feeds. Our routine is something like this

7am wake and breakfast
8:30ish 7oz milk
10-11:30 nap
12pm lunch
2pm 7oz milk
3-4pm nap
5pm dinner
7pm 7oz milk

I'm going to cut down the 2pm milk from now as he keeps refusing dinner and then wanting more milk at bedtime. HV said fine to start offering a snack with some cows milk in a beaker at this stage.