How many milk feeds a day at 6 months?

[Zinger]

My DS is just over 6 months and still on 4 milk feeds a day: 7am, 2.30pm, 6.30pm and 10.30pm (3 breast, 1 bottle). He has 3 meals of solids a day. I keep reading he should be on just 2 milk feeds at this stage (amounts are no use to me because of the breastfeeding, but he has 6-7oz from the bottle at the end of the day). I'm trying to phase out the last feed, but am very cautious about this because he's only been sleeping through the night for a few weeks and I don't want to mess with this. But should I be looking to drop the 2.30 feed too? He feeds for at least half an hour on the breast at each session; if I'm out and about at 2.30 and he's distracted, however, it's a lot less and he doesn't seem to suffer.
Is there anything I need to beware of if I do/don't drop this feed, e.g. potential sleep problems, not eating enough solids etc.? (He does seem to have been eating less lately, but I'm not sure that's connected - could just be the hot weather or something?) And should I wait till he's happy without the 10.30pm feed before I think about the 2.30 one?

hi Zinger ...
Just a quick answer from me ... am only online for a couple of minutes ...
DD is 6 months old ... she has 4 milk feeds at the moment (all breast) 7.30am, 11.30am, 2.30pm and 5.30pm and 3 solid 'meals' ... 8.30am, 12noon, and 6.30pm.
Next week I am introducing protein into her solids (just chicken at the mo) at lunchtime and so will drop the 11.30am feed (milk inhibits iron absorbtion apparently so best not to give milk with protein) and then will give her a drink of water with her lunch. I will then give her veggies for her tea at 5pm and give her a bedtime breastfeed.
It looks like she is rigidly following a Gina Ford routine but I promise I didn't force her! LOL !
HTH ...
I am pretty sure that from 6 months it should be 3 milk feeds a day ... 2 sounds very little ...

When does he get the solid meals and how much? Milk should still be his primary source of food for the next month or so as the amounts of nutrients and energy he's getting from the solids is not very much in comparison to the milk.

I would suggest (but it has been a while and my memory isn't that great!):
7am - boob
9am - solids
11:30-12pm - lunch
2:30pm - boob
5:30-6pm - solids
7pm - boob
If you think he can go through without the 10:30 feed it may be worth thinking about dropping this one, as long as you're sure he's getting enough in the day.
As the amount of solids increases you could look to moving the lunch a bit later and removing the 2:30 feed completely, but if I remember rightly this was around 8mo and by 9mo-ish we were on 2 milk feeds a day.

I think it's in this thread that refers to what my ds was on around the same age. HTH

That is what I was trying to say Karen, but you said it so much simpler!

That's reassuring Karen & Ghosty - that's what I'm currently doing. It's just that my HV has said I should get it down to 2 a day, and that NHS booklet they give you (Birth to 5 Years) says the same - hence my confusion.

My ds2 is eight months and he has four bottles a day. 8am, 12pm, 4pm and 7.30pm. He also has breakfast at nine and then dinner at 12pm, tea at 4pm. He's not over fed or under fed and is bang on target with his weight. He has in total about 30oz milk a day.

Zinger ... I am back
I just had a little peek (only a peek, mind ) at my Gina Ford book and up to 9 months she still suggests 3 feeds (breast or formula) a day.
Somewhere between 9 and 12 months she suggests the 2.30pm feed should become a 'drink of milk, water or diluted juice from a cup'.
I know that many people hate GF but really her advice on feeding is very good ...
Here in NZ they say that milk is the most important source of nutrition until 8 or 9 months.
Re. dropping the 10.30pm feed. I dropped that with DD at 5 months ... basically because she was hard to wake up, would only feed for a couple of minutes and then actually wasn't that hungry at 7.30pm. If your DS is having a big feed at that time and is only just sleeping through and is still starving at 7am then I would keep it going for a while ... whatever you do don't drop a daytime feed though ... the 10.30pm feed should be the next dropped when the time is right.

should read, "not that hungry at 7.30 AM ... "

My dd had 3 real big feeds and two top up one boob feeds each day.... this continued until 8 mths when she finally dropped her mid day feed and both snacks.

Hi ghosty - thought we were on the same track! To be honest, I didn't realise I just duplicated your times as I went off to see what I used to do! Great minds eh...!

Yes, zinger, agree with the others about the milk feeds. You'll soon realise when you need to drop a day feed as the day meals will be quite substantial by then and you'll find the milk puts them off their food which is the wrong way round by 9mo iyswim.

If you're happy at the mo, why change it?

We've just gone from 4 feeds to 3 (all breast), though 2 were half feeds and I've made it a big one if that makes sense. We have a pretty similar routine of
7:30- breastfeed
8.30 breakfast
11:00 lunch
2:00 breastfeed
4:30 tea
6:30 breastfeed.
One thing I have noticed is that her feeds are much shorter than they used to be, except for her last feed. I presumed this is because she's more efficient? She puts on around 1lb a month now.

Spod

message withdrawn

Thanks Ginababe, and everyone else. As I said below, the NHS book 'Birth to 5 Years' (given to me by my health visitor) says to give a milk feed at waking and bedtime after 6 months. HV backed this up. Instinctively I agree with you though, and DS seems to as well! So I'll carry on and, as you say, cut back on the last feed with caution.

I've looked through the Birth to 5 book, and though it is not the latest edition, I can't find anything about a milk feed being offered only in the morning and evening. My edition says to make milk the main drink for at least the first year. Are you (and the HV) thinking that when they say to give a milk feed morning and evening, this means 'and only ever at those times'...because I think this is deffo a misunderstanding

DS is on 3 9oz bottles a day and he's 7mths. My HV says (and the books say) that they should be having about 1pint of milk a day up until they're a year old.
I reckon if you want to drop a feed, I'd drop the 10.30pm one. My DS feeds at the same time as yours except for the last one. He goes to bed at 7pm(ish) and will go through until 6.30am.
Hope I've helped.

Admit NHS book ambiguous but HV was very clear - I did query exactly what she meant!

HVs frequently are (a) clear (b) talking bollocks, in my experience which is admittedly limited because I got so fed up I haven't had anything to do with any HVs for ages now.

The HV could only be right if she thought you were bottlefeeding exclusively and giving a whopping 8-9 ounces each time (I couldn't drink that amount of milk as an adult so I'm always surprised when babies are expected to!). My HV told me to cut down around that time, but to 4 times a day rather than the 6 times in 24 hours I'd been doing! I trusted her because she herself had breastfed her daughter till 12 months (and you'll probably find few HVs who have).

I don't usually post on boards, but my HV advised the same thing as I was going back to work and didn't want my DD to go on formula. DD has been on two breastfeeds a day for 4 weeks now and is happy, healthy, and gaining weight and growth steadily.
I was concerned when the HV first mentioned it so I did some research on the composition of breastmilk. Other than my antibodies and hormones which she wouldn't be getting on formula anyway, DD gets everything she needs from solids as long as she has a balanced diet. She is also getting at least some hormones & antibodies in the morning & bedtime feeds anyway. Advise is so dependent on current trends, I think you just have to go with what your instinct tells you is the right thing to do. What HV's are telling us now, will probably be frowned upon in a few years anyway