When did you bf baby milk feeds reduce?

[newmum2018385]

This is to any bf mamas not formula as most of my friends formula feed and seem to need to feed less than I bf. I know all babies are different but just wondered when your baby started to have less feeds during the day? DD is currently 9 months old and I hope to bf till she is at least 12 months. I would actually like to carry on past this but as I am going to be returning to work part time I'm not sure if it will work. As she still feeds so often during the day ( approx every 2/3 hours).
We are doing blw sometimes she eats fairly well other times she not too interested. We do have three meals a day, although she never eats much at lunch time. Will it be a case of when she eats more her bf will reduce and will this happen naturally?
For some reason I was always under the impression when weaning started milk feeds would reduce. Whilst I would say she has probably dropped one feed I have heard others say they were only bf about 3 times a day.
I actually don't mind bf her so often I suppose I just want to make sure this is normal?
Thanks

It sounds fine, and normal.

There’s a few reasons why she might want to feed, and ‘just because it’s nice’ is one of them. If you want to reduce feeds, or space them out a bit - then it’s fine, you can distract or just say ‘in a minute’. But she’s still getting the majority of her nutrition from milk, so it’s fine to still feed fairly often.

Btw, going back to work shouldn’t get in the way of feeding - I went back at 11m, and was able to carry on until my son was two. Your supply is pretty solid by then, so you should be able to feed on demand for as long as you like.

For each of mine it was when they started becoming too busy playing. Food didn't affect frequency, just quantity taken.

So dd1 becane very busy at about 14 months and feeds dropped to one or two a day. Still lots at night until about 2 though.
Dd2 was about 10 months, and night feeds reduced then as well.
Dd1 is 18 months now and became too busy to feed at about 14 months. His night feeds are just starting to reduce now. Thank fuck!

Oh and I went back to work at 1yo with DDS 1&2 but not Ds. Has had no affect on my time with them, although night feeds increased a bit for a while with both on working days.

I'm still feeding twins at 2. They are down to between 1 and 5 feeds each a day. Depending on whether I am at work, if we are busy, if they are ill or teething.

It sounds pretty normal to me. I had no problems with milk supply and working. But you may find she reverse cycles. She will adapt. You will probably have to feed her the minute you see her if mine are anything to go by!

It's true that they adapt especially when feeding is well established, when they get going very little phases them or gets in the way. I've been feeding for over 5 years, two kids, fed through the second pregnancy when loads of people said that it isn't possible, Dd1 had two weeks of me in hospital in a different town, that didn't stop her, she fed till she was about 3 so I tandem fed a toddler and a newborn, which people also said wasn't possible. Dd2 is still feeding at 3 and I've worked through all of it which, of course, people said wasn't possible. Dd2 is just starting to cut down now and it seems to be dropping off quite quickly but then I've thought this before, she's down to 1 or 2 feeds a day.

Thank you everyone that's reassuring as tbh I really don't want to stop. Did any of you pump at work to keep your supply up? Or was it not necessary?

I did for a while at least until they got used to the new routine and I was worried about my milk reducing. I also felt an almost overwhelming NEED to feed which can be distracting at work and pumping made that go away.

I stopped expressing at work the day he was one, and nursery would give him dairy milk instead :)