Confused about weaning/reducing BF

[Rainycity]

Hi, a FTM here with a 8.5 month DS with a seemingly voracious appetite for milk, and I’m not sure how I can go about reducing his feeds!

I BF on demand which tends to be every 2-3 hours in the day, and I tend to do 3-4 feeds at night (maybe 5 on an unsettled night).

I was hoping that his milk feeds would reduce when he started solids but it has made minimal impact so far, 3 months down the line.

We have had to introduce solids very gradually as he really wasn’t keen - we started with a couple of teaspoons of purée twice a day. We’re now up to the equivalent of 1-2 pouches per meal, three times a day (e.g one lot of homemade veg/fruit purée mix, followed by an Ella’s Kitchen fruit purée). I’ve always offered finger food but he hasn’t been interested until recently...he is fearful of lumps and usually gags and vomits. He will have those Organix snacks that melt in your mouth though.

When he was a younger baby we tried formula a handful of times but always sick, and never cared for a bottle. When we started weaning he was also sick after dairy (e.g yoghurt). My GP suspects a milk intolerance offered prescription formula, but DS isn’t keen on the taste.

DS feeds to sleep for most naps and at night. I’ve tried to avoid this (DH tries to help settle at night) but he just cries until he gets fed. I’m just going with it for now and hoping that as he can take more sustantial amounts of food, his milk feeds will reduce. But I’m worried as I return to work in the new year when DS will be 11 months old. How do I go about reducing his milk feeds when he can’t/won’t have formula? Or will he just have to go cold turkey when he goes to nursery?

Any advice from mums who’ve been through anything similar? Thank you for reading!

[teaandbiscuitsforme]

At this stage, I wouldn’t worry about the number of feeds. Is he not having dairy at all for now? If not, he absolutely needs his BM!

As for going back to work, I’d try not to worry about that too. My DD went to Nursery at 12mo and I didn’t sent any milk with her. She was offered cows milk I suppose though. Then she would always want a good feed when I picked her up and she continued to feed a few times at night. BF babies are quite adaptable and if you’re not there, they won’t be thinking about milk! He’ll be pleased to see you when you pick him up though!

[Rainycity]

Thanks for replying Teaandbiscuits, reassuring to hear your experience. Yes we are excluding all dairy for a few months before trying to re-introduce to see how he gets on. The lactose free formula tastes nothing like milk so I’m not surprised he’s not keen! I hope my DS will be happy enough to wait for me too, I need to arrange a day to leave him with DH and with sippy cup of expressed milk to see how he gets on...

[silkpyjamasallday]

My DD is 13 months and still breastfeeds a lot, several times a day and sometimes constantly at night (but she has had her MMR jabs recently which have made sleeping and eating go to shit) She eats an incredible amount of food generally and has since weaning at 6 months but still seems to have space for a hell of a lot of breastmilk. She still feeds to sleep for 95% of naps and nighttime wakings. I'm just going with it though as I'm going to be a SAHM until she is two.

She was never a fan of bottles (has had maybe 4 bottles of expressed milk in her life) but will drink cows milk or water from one of these cups https://www.buysend.com/Product/392540/240ml-babys-nuby-360-mini-handled-cup/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvoz03JiB1wIVFRMbCh0lGAGJEAQYAiABEgJqFDD_BwE Might be worth a try? Dd is totally happy for hours and hours without milk if I'm not there, so when your DS goes to nursery he may well just want feeding at night and will be happy with water or milk during the day.

[Rainycity]

Hi Silkypyjamas, thanks for sharing your experience. My DC sounds similar to yours in that they seem to have completely separate stomachs for food and milk!

I’m hoping that my boy will also be willing to wait for milk when he starts nursery. I’ve decided to try and build up a supply of expressed BM as his nursery are happy to offer it to him. DS will sometimes accept a bottle from DH, but only if he’s calm and not tired! We do actually have that Nuby cup but haven’t tried yet as it seemed a bit big for him to use at first. I think it might be good to try his expressed milk in that one. We’re making a very tentative start at attempting to reduce nightfeeds but is being slightly thwarted by DS cutting some teeth right now...