Breastfeeding 1 year old and solids

[GreyLemur]

My just turned 1 year old is still breastfeeding many times day and night, he is barely eating any solid food., never has so it's not a new thing. Has anyone got any experience of a breastfed baby and solids? Will cutting down on feeds make him eat more? Will he sleep better? (Wakes 3-6 times a night). Where can I go for support?

Hey, this was my situation (LO is now 16 months) and it can be so stressful! I'd say she started eating more when she was about 14 months and in the last couple of weeks has ramped up. Weaning onto solids has been slow and frustrating. The past few weeks I have also day weaned, I bf in the evening and 1-4 times overnight. I don't think it has impacted sleep unfortunately!
I would say if you want to cut down bf then it will probably get him to eat more but you might go through a period of more night feeds first. I think it's fairly common for bf babies to be slower to take go solids than ff.
If you have any local bf cafes or support groups nearby I would recommend, they don't only help with tiny babies.
And give yourself permission to cut down bf if you want to, you've done so well! Equally if you want to go at his pace that's ok too, he won't be living off milk forever.
I decided I would day wean, and then re-evaluate the situation at 18m or so, and that helped me take the pressure off myself.
Good luck

@SpringOneThank you for your reply. I know of lots of good breastfeeding support groups, but I thought they might only help in the early days. I will go there for support! I don't necessarily want to stop breastfeeding but I know he needs to sleep better and eat better (he's tired too!)

Yes I was surprised to find my local groups also support with bf toddlers not just newborn latching etc so hopefully yours are the same!

Mine was like this, I found it very frustrating. From around 9 months I offered food when she'd had a couple of hours since a BF so she was actually hungry, that helped. Even if it wasn't a 'mealtime'. Mine went to nursery at 11 months and that helped as no BF available and she learnt from the other kids. I then stopped day feeds when she was about 14 months, was actually not as bad as I though, I offered snacks and cows milk if she did ask for BF but she adapted better than expected. She's now 19 months and she still doesn't eat lots but she's growing fine so I think she's just a lower appetite toddler. I also did partial night weaning around 14 months where I'd send my husband in if it was before 2am, and I'd feed if she woke after that. She started sleeping through mostly around 18 months. I don't know if the BF reduction helped with sleep, I think mine is very low needs and it was moving to 1 nap that helped as she is always ultra tired at bedtime now.

My boy was the same and we just kept feeding on demand/offering solids as usual as I figured it would work itself out. He has in the last few weeks just really ramped up his solids at 15 weeks (starting walking seems to be a factor). Still feeding though more at night and to fall asleep.

Yes reduce breast milk feeds … you are filling him up on milk so he doesn’t need to bother eating which is harder work. Waking because he’s getting hungry at night as the milk doesn’t fill him up enough to keep him full all night.

Any advice on here isn’t as worthwhile as a Drs check over - but on that note…

My toddler hated weaning. Didn’t eat hardly anything until 18 months old and showed no interest in food until 2 and then naturally weaned off the breast as they became more adventurous with food (coincided with more teeth and teething pains subsiding). Developmentally sound and growth at 75th percentile.

Breastfeeding is demonised as the fault of everything but the natural weaning age is 2 onwards so I don’t believe a bit of breast milk is filling them as much as people say. It’s usually a MUCH smaller volume of milk than a bottle but it somehow always compared.

Mine is 13 months and has always been a good eater. He still doesn't sleep though and feeds 4 or 5 times in the night despite 4 meals a day! Sorry! How active is yours? Maybe a run around at the playground now the weather is better to work up an appetite then shove a banana in before going back in the pram? The change in setting might help them learn to eat and break any negative associations that have formed at home.

@MightyDandelionEsqThank you. I suppose I'm just looking for others experiences as I don't know anyone in my situation (ebf 1 year old, doesn't eat, doesn't sleep!) and facing pressure from my husband and mum that it's all breastfeedings fault!

@PaaseitjesThank you. Good idea. He's not walking yet but super active crawling and going from one thing to another!

How many times a day does baby breastfeed? I remember going to a class/group thing when we were weaning my daughter and the advice was essentially that just like with formula feeding if baby is full of milk, they won’t be interested in food because they just aren’t hungry enough so to keep the important feeds the same (morning, naps if you feed to sleep & bedtime) but around that offer food before milk, or about an hour after milk so that they are hungry.

My daughter weaned really well but is 2 now and still doesn’t sleep through the night, my son is 6 months old nearly and also breastfed and has slept through the night pretty consistently for a good few months now so I do honestly think sleep is just pure luck! I haven’t done anything at all differently😂

My youngest was a bit like that. Didn't really eat a lot until I stopped breastfeeding him at about 15mo.

What solid foods are you offering? He didn't like finger foods until he was a bit older, was better with food off a spoon but also didn't like standard puree type stuff. He much preferred proper food mashed up, especially stronger flavours. His older brother ate everything with his hands (except yoghurt - I drew the line there!) I know baby led weaning is very much the thing but it might be worth experimenting with different types of food (and delivery mechanisms!!) to see if any work better? (If you aren't already)

ETA he wasn't really a great sleeper even after I stopped breastfeeding but my older dc definitely slept much better once they were eating a decent amount of food.

It's definitely not breastfeeding's 'fault'. My daughter was ebf and took to solids quickly from the get go. She's also always been a good sleeper (with the odd regression thrown in!) All babies and children are different.

If you cut down on the feeds then yes he will be more hungry and therefore may eat more. I do restrict my daughter's cows milk intake (she's 2.5) to make sure she doesn't just fill up on it.

But ultimately you're giving him amazing nutrition and immune support with breastfeeding. The only thing he may be low on is iron so it really depends on whether you want to continue feeding on demand or not.

It's been a while since mine were that age, but remember very much stressing about how little my eldest DD daughter ate as a baby. I had a friend from my NCT group who had to move her DS up to the next age category of baby food, because he would wolf down the entire jar in one sitting and still be hungry. I struggled to get my Dd to eat half a jar in a day. She also was a terrible sleeper. She is now 10 and in some ways hasn't changed. She's very much not keen to go to bed. She also isn't very food orientated. She does competitive swimming. On days she trains she'll eat a lot. On other days she's not that interested and will only eat small portions. She is the lower end of healthy weight. I kind of think it's not a bad way to be (especially as someone who struggles with her weight). I generally think babies aren't going to starve themselves and will eat if they need to. In regards to sleep, I was advised to try giving them baby porridge before bed as it will keep them full for longer (assuming you can get them to eat it). It might be worth a try.

My now three year old barely ate until he was about 18 months old. He would eat but seemed to prefer milk. It just improved over time, I did get pregnant however which slowed the millk supply down, which might have kickstarted the eating. While the breastfeeding is still ongoing, I stopped feeding to sleep and stopped feeding at night at about 20 months, as I wanted to avoid relying on boob to fall asleep whilst having a newborn too

Do you want to reduce breastfeeding or is it just because of the concerns about eating?

How are you feeding him? From a spoon or fork? From his hands? What are you doing while you feed him?
I found that eating next to my little one made him automatically want to grab and eat what I had. So I'd just give him whatever I had but mash it a bit on my plate. Obviously not steak and chips but Weetabix, fish pie, veggies were all fine.

What are your qualifications for saying this? Because I'm pretty sure there is no research to support this whatsoever and you are talking nonsense.

OP, my breastfed toddler also ate very little for a long while - wouldn't even pick up food and sucked everything like it was a boob rather than biting. One thing that helped was sitting together at the table and giving him what we ate. The other was just time. He's now 2.5yrs and eats an amazing and varied diet. Some days he's hungrier than others but is totally normal. He also fed overnight until he was 29mths and the one night he just....stopped waking. I didn't actively try to change anything.

You don't find breastfed 18yr olds who wake up and find Mummy multiple times a night. All children grow up eventually.

Are they in their own room? I found night time feds reduced once they weren’t next to me.

Have you tried any night weaning yet?

One thing we did was DH got them up in the morning at this age and went straight to breakfast whilst I slept or got ready.

Thanks for all the experiences. I don't necessarily want to stop breastfeeding, but would like him to eat and sleep a bit more!

He generally has what we eat, we eat together, and a large variety. He has finger foods and will only be fed yoghurt if he's holding his own fork haha.

My one year old was exactly the same until a couple of weeks ago when he started nursery (3 days per week). Because he can't be breastfed there (obvs) he very quickly realised that he needs to eat and now he eats loads! Even when he's home with me, it's like it's just clicked that you eat when you're hungry! He still feeds a lot in the night though 😢 in the day I have started to put boundaries on when he can feed so it's not on demand anymore (morning, lunch, around 5pm/end of nursery and bedtime), eventually I want to also do this in the night so he's only allowed to feed a couple of times but don't think there's anyway he would accept that yet!

OP me again, to just say that you don’t have to limit Bf purely to increase food uptake. Some kids just take longer to get there with food. I stopped day feeds because I was just done with them; not to increase food. Yours sounds completely normal. What’s his sleep schedule? There might some changes you could make there to help the nights.

This happened to a friend of mine and the health visitor was really helpful. She saod give him three meals a day plus a pud, then a supper. It really helped

@Peonies12We're working with a responsive sleep consultant and they identified him as low sleep needs so he sleeps 8.30pm-6.30am and 1 hr 45 daytime sleep over 2 naps.

@AzureFinchI offer 3 meals a day plus 2 snacks and yoghurt for dessert, but very little gets eaten!

Thank you, I had forgotten about the lack of iron. I will focus on getting some iron rich foods into the little that he does eat!