10 mo ds...if i miss the afternoon feed, should he have water or a little ordrinary milk?

[louloubelle]

My 10 mo ds has been exclusively bf, and has 3 feeds a day, morning, after nap and before bed. He is easily distracted at the afternoon feed by my dd, and isn't too bothered about it. I will have to miss a few feeds soon, and my question is should he have some water on waking (can drink easily from a cup) or should he be given a little cows milk? I don't want to introduce a cup of formula, as I intend to feed til he is at least one. With my dd, I started her on cow milk about 11 mo. I know the arguments about iron, and he has lots of dairy (milk on cereal, cheese, yoghurt etc. Any views?

I don't see the point of giving cow's milk when human milk is available to a baby, and always trusted my children to take what they needed, so if ds isn't bothered about the afternoon feed, maybe he doesn't need it. Water or dilute juice in a cup helps solids down at mealtimes, and I suppose there's no harm in offering a cup after the nap but wouldn't be surprised if he'd rather play. At that age I gave them fruit, veg, cereals and fish, and kept them away from refined sugars, meat and dairy, which they came to soon enough. But each to her own.

i gave ds access to water at all times as soon as he started solids. he has a non-leak cup in cot at night too.

And presumably by this stage if I miss the occasional afternoon feed it won't mean it affects suply the following days will it? Thanks for advice so far...

I think by the time a baby is 10 months, the milk supply is so well established that dropping one feed a day will take quite a while to affect supply. If you were to drop all the feeds at once, it would still take quite a while for the milk to dry up (and you'd be lucky not to get mastitis!).

I am exlusively bf too and looking for advice on giving up the afternoon feed as my 10 mo wasnt hardly taking anything from the last feed of the day and was guzzling at the 2:30 feed. Now I have stopped her having the 2:30 feed she is taking very happily from last feed and doesnt seem to miss the afternoon feed, however not sure she getting adequate milk as noone else I know up to one year has dropped to 2 feeds. Is it ok to give only 2 feeds at this stage?

I bottle fed dd but she was down to 2 feeds a day by 9/10 months - dont know the implications for breastfeeding. I substituted a snack and a drink of water for the milk feed.

Well I missed the afternoon feed yesterday, and he was absolutely fine, ate well at teatime and enjoyed milk at bedtime! Hoping it will be fine to go back to feeding him today, sure it will. As for dropping to 2 feeds, this is what I did with my daughter, and now she has 3 cups of milk, same time as baby (she is just 3). I think 2 breastfeeds a day is fine, as long as they get plenty of healthy food and water the rest of the day. Thanks for the advice!