dropping morning/evening breastfeeds...which one first?

[valentine]

My DS is 8 months old, quite small and thin and not a very big eater. He is on two breast feeds a day now (i dropped the others when i went back to work and he would not take the bottle instead). I now want to drop the morning and night feeds but I want him to take the bottle at these times as the Dr has said he needs the iron/calories in formula milk. I know he doesnt mind the taste of formula milk as he will take it with a spoon. Which feed should i drop first, the morning one (before his breakfast) or the evening one (after dinner and bath)> He drinks quite a lot at both feeds.....any replies gratefully received...

Why do you want to stop? Is it because you want to or because your dr says to give formula? If it's the latter, then that's rubbish. If it is the former, I'd drop the one your child is least attached to/desperate for.

I want to stop b/c DS is small and "apparently" needs the calories/iron - both a dietician and paedriatician have told me this - he is in the 2nd percentile....he eats about the same (as far as I can tell) at both feeds..

But that's mad. Formula milk isn't more nourishing than breastmilk and if he's not keen on a bottle then he is likely to drink less. As for iron, well the iron in breastmilk is much more easily absorbed than in formula. Is he not taking a bottle during the day? If not, why on earth does this doctor think he will suddenly take it night and morning. I think it is more likely he will refuse it then too, and then he will be getting far fewer calories. The World Health Organisation recommends breastfeeding for the first two years.

Just checked - I'm right. In fact, Breastmilk contains, on average, marginally more calories ounce for ounce than formula milk. Does your son take a bottle during the day? If not it seems a very risky strategy to remove his one reliable source of nutrition and calories - you.

valentine, I have two 'small, thin' children, both bf.

I bf dd for 12 months and she's now 2 3/4, still slightly smaller than average (but then someone has to be). I had a lot of pressure to supplement her milk but didn't.

ds is 12 months and similar to dd in size. The difference is this time that I have had more confidence in my own abaility to provide milk for my child.

If you're doing it for yourself fairplay to you but I totally agree with aloha, what the doctor says makes no logical sense. Also, if you change and then he doesn't take to formula, what then?

Some people/babies/children are smaller than others but some health professionals have a problem with this (my friend and I used to take our dd's to be weighed at the same time, her 95 percentiles got her lots and lots of praise, my 10 percentiles got me lots of disapproval but my dd was IN THE NORMAL RANGE).

Is your ds alert, happy and growing?

agree with what's been said here re: carrying on breastfeeding if you (and baby) are happy. now he's on solids, you can add calories to those eg cauliflower cheese with extra creme fraiche, yoghurts, etc. my hv advised giving dd1 a bottle when she was just a few weeks old as she was skinny, but I became v bloody minded and persisted through mastitis, baby weightloss & all to come out the other end with a chunky, happy dd and an easy life (no bottles to wash or prepare!). needless to say with dd2 i have hardly ever taken her to be weighed. iron, if needs be, can be added in the form of drops to solid food (but avoid abidec if you have any history of allergies as i believe it contains peanut oil)

Floradix is a nice fruit syrup containing iron and vitamins - get it from health food shops. Totally natural and delicious - my ds loves it. A MUCH better way to get more iron into him than giving up breastfeeding. Almost 100% of the iron in breastmilk is absorbed, compared to very little of that in formula. It's amazing stuff.

(btw we dropped the evening feed first, with dd1, at 22 months )

Also, is he losing weight? If not, then he might just be naturally small and slim. People are all different and 2nd percentile is small, but within the normal range. Someone has to be 2nd percentile after all!

valentine...what a shame your dietitian and the paed know so llittle about how to support optimal nutrition for your baby. Formula and breastmilk are about the same in calories (there may be a slight difference between brands) but the baby uses up more calories metabolising the formula so the net result is not the same. You cannot tell how much in terms of volume a breastfed baby takes either - it could be more, and is likely to be so if the baby doesn't take much from the bottle. Iron (as aloha says) is likely to be absorbed better from breastmilk, but an 8 mth old may well need more, if she is only on 2 feeds a day.....lots of foods have it, and the supps for infants are a good idea, too, if the baby is slow to take solids. But of course, many people are naturally smaller than others. Hope your paed and the sititian can take some of these points on board, valentine....it is horrible to be worried and to hear contradictory 'solutions' and not to even know if there is a 'problem' anyway.

tiktok, i saw some research today which said diagnosis of coeliac's disease rocketed in sweden when breastfeeding was stopped earlier (in the 80's) and weaning with gluten-containing products introduced earlier..now bfeeding advice has been updated the trend does appear to be switching back to the lower level of coeliacs.

Aloha - DD is 2 percentile !!!
But I agree with Tiktok and Aloha.... your pead has poor knowledge of breastfeeding but then again he won't be the first this is NOT something they study at med school after all........