8 month old - how much milk?

[BetteD]

My DD is 8 months old next week, I am b feeding her but since going onto solids she has naturally become less interested in her milk feeds. About 3 weeks ago she just naturally dropped daytime milk feeds. I bfeed her in the morning and just before bed and sometimes early morning (5am) if she wakes at that time. She has cows milk in her food plus lots of yogurt, cheese and butter.

Am worried that she is not getting enough milk as it's hard to know how much she is getting from me. The HV and NCT b feeding counsellor I spoke to both said it's not a problem but she has always been a slow weight gainer and this week when she was weighed had lost 6 0z in 2 weeks. She eats like a horse and is naturally slim and the HV just advised to give more carbohydrates. I'm worried she may be too young to only be b feeding morn and night, advice appreciated!

She sounds fine to me. Is she more active now? This could explain the weight loss. The main thing is she is eating like a horse and is having dairy. She may also be very efficient at taking her milk in her two feeds. Maybe you could offer some expressed milk in a beaker and see if she takes that at meal times? Well done for breastfeeding for so long. I'm hoping to go until 10 months but find it hard work.

Bette - 2-3 breastfeeds a day isn't a lot for a bf baby of this age, I agree with you. Of course many babies this age don't have any!

I think the weight loss is unusual, and could be explained as a blip, an error of the scales, an effect of extra activity (though babies don't usually lose weight with that)....obviously she is basically fine or you would have noticed, but if you are concerned, then offering her more breastfeeds might help. Babies don't usually fully drop daytime feeds as young as this, though of course it's normal for them to have a growing interest in foods and for feeds to be shorter...it may be you have misunderstood her lack of interest and thought it was permanent I wonder if she would be happy to have more bf if they were on offer?

If you don't want to do this, then it's sensible to keep an eye on her weight and continue with the solids as you're doing, I think.

You could try offering her a breastfeed before each meal, when you know she will be hungry, that usually works IME.
I agree it does sound like a low number of feeds at her age and I would also want to be giving more feeds than she is having.
Milk is ideally the most important source of nutrition in a baby's first year.
Some useful info here on kellymom
www.kellymom.com/bf/weaning/babyselfwean.html

Thanks, I'm going back to work soon so won't be able to b feed her in the day so thought it was working out well but whilst I am still at home I will try her with more feeds in the day.

I stopped expressing at 6 months as spending half an hour to squeeze out 2oz was just too stressful! she also won't take a bottle so feel a bit stuck!

I still think the scales are wrong at the clinic , she seems to grow taller each week rather than wider!

Well am sure she will be ok - you are obviously keeeping an eye pn her weight etc.
HAve you tried hand expressing btw? I do this in the shower (warm water is good to get the milk flowing) and get much more than I manage with a pump. You could try giving her a bit of ebm in a cup. This would also be useful for when you go back to work.