Is it normal for baby to not want breast as much? :(

[charlie13032017]

So my little boy will be 7 months in 3 days and he’s been having 3 meals a day and picked up really well with baby led weaning! He’ll eat majority of his plate every time!
I’ve noticed now that, he’s only having about 5 feeds a day roughly no longer than 5 minutes? Is this okay?
Plenty of wet and dirty nappies still!
I did want to wean him of the breast at a year and half maximum but I’m starting to think he may self wean beforehand, I really don’t want him to before a year as I wouldn’t know what to replace his milk with!
Is this normal of him?

Completely normal. There's no need to be sad. He's just showing you how well adjusted he has been to his solids!

If he gets to the point where he's almost self weaned completely, I would choose an organic formula such as Hipp.

They go through phases. Give it a few months and he will get a cold or a tooth and be nursing like a newborn again!

It can be a phase, they can come and go a bit - but my DS point blank refused at 9 months. It turned out he was teething, but from that day on he never wanted BF again and we switched to formula for a while, then eventually normal milk. (IIRC he liked Aptamil, they can be picky!) My DS was also loved his solid food.

I was so upset for a few days, but he just wasn't having it and I got over it - stopping was sad, but I felt freed up as well. DC2 was totally different and went on for almost 18 months.

Let him lead the way, it could just be a phase, but not a disaster if not. You've done great.

I agree about a phase. My almost one year old had pretty much given up on milk but then a month ago started feeding more than ever before.

I hope it’s a phase! I’ve really enjoyed our breastfeeding journey with no complications! But obviously if he want to self wean early there’s not much I can do. I know plenty of babies who weaned before a year to, just didn’t think milo would as he was always such a bookie monster.
His 2nd tooth is just about poking through so maybe that could be an issue to

A HV visitor said to me recently that a normal number of feeds per day for my baby (4 months old at the time!) was 5-6 a day. Since then I've stopped trying to cram in 7 feeds a day and let her drop to 6. She is noticeably drinking more though (I can tell by the amount I get when I express).

My dd started to go off bm really quickly when she weaned. By 11 months she had stopped bf altogether and was only having bedtime milk (that feed had always been a ff). I just made sure she had lots of other dairy products. She did it exactly as you describe, she had always been an efficient feeder but feeds quickly got down to under 5 minutes when she was eating too. I think the phrase 'food is for fun before one' is used a lot on mn to reassure people for whom weaning feels a struggle but loads of babies wean earlier that this and it's fine.

Mine both massively reduced their feeds once they were on food, around this age.

However they never self weaned - they dropped the mid morning feed but were quite happy to carry on with the others albeit they became shorter and smaller.

My dS self weaned at 11 Months. He dropped down to only feeding at night and then started sleeping longer so dropped those feeds too. However he loves a bottle of formula though!

Don't worry, reducing feeds is normal at this age, IME they go quite quickly from a pattern of feeding as their sole nutrition to feeding just morning and night by the time they're about one, though different babies do it at different speeds.

You can sustain an infrequent feeding pattern like this no issue now your baby is older because supply is very well established, so don't worry - and enjoy the freedom!