14 mth old - bf too much??

[weeonion]

Hi there.
I am still bf my 14 mth dd. we had a load of problems at the start with bf but kept going and now - it is one of the things i am pleased about. i am back to work full time with crazy hours but lift her to feed her early a.m. and then dash home to feed just before she goes to bed. she very often gets up around 11pm for another feed. it really does feel like the special time for us - its the best chance i have to cuddle her and chat. i express as much as i can at work but some days - i really cannot do it due to my schedule. the amount i get has gone down from around 300mls to about 150mls. she gets this expressed milk in a cup at nursery. she is not a big eater - more of a grazer and soem days eats very little.

ok - so that is the situation. i am worried she is getting too much milk and fills up on this so she doesnt then eat alot of solids. i am starting to get a bit paranoid that i should be cutting her feeds right down. it is a bit of a nightmare as she will not take a bottle and wont settle at bedtime with a cup of milk. i cant therefore head out for a night out or be late home from work.

any ideas on how i could get her to settle and am i giving her too much milk??

So you're bfing her once in the morning, and twice in the evening, and she's having some expressed milk during the day. That doesn't sound too much to me.

yep - 3 feeds a day with a cup of milk as well. at the weekends - she might take another feed from me when we are together.

Hi WO

No advice I'm afraid. Izzy is still bf and doesn't eat fantastically, but she will take milk from a cup if I'm not there. Not so easily granted, and DH says she sometimes grizzles for about 30 mins (where as if she has a bf, she generally settles within about 10 mins.

Are you happy with her bf still/so much?

Meant to add I really don't think that is too much. Izzy still bf morning and night, occasionally in the night and often early evening.

doesn't sound too much to me, I was breastfeeding twice a day on working days at this age, and three times a day when I was at home with dd.

for the nighttime feeds - have you tried having someone else put her to bed, if you're around she will almost certainly want to breastfeed. I discovered more or less by accident that my dd2 was quite happy to go to bed without milk if I wasn't there. And we just gradually moved towards having a quick feed, then brushing teeth, then a nice story, then bed. And that distanced the 'going to sleep' from the 'feeding' enough to mean she was happy to be put to bed by someone else.

well, my 2 year old is still breastfeeding and has both sides in the morning, at nap-time and before bed. She's eating well and growing well. Life is hectic and breastfeeding is like our little oasis of calm, away from the toddler tantrums and stresses of life - we both enjoy it. If you're not happy you can change it without guilt but if you and your dd are happy - then keep on enjoying it!

At 14 months she'll be fine with juice/water to drink when she is away from you during the day. If you don't have time to express during the day for her.

Some babies are natural grazers and the amount of milk given is unlikely to effect that. If you reduced the number of breastfeeds your DD, that does not follow that she will eat more solids.

I am not sure what you mean by 'get her to settle' You don't mention any difficulty in getting her to sleep and she just waking once at 11pm for milk, a lovely way to bond after mummy has been away all day.

i do love bf and its not a problem for me - as i say - its our special time together.

It has only been difficult when i am late home from work. she gets a feed before bath time etc and then to bed. she goes over to sleep great but wont on the evenngs she has missed that feed from me.

I am reassured tho' that her milk intake and grazing may not be linked!

But as you can not help being late home from work, there isn't really anything else you can do ?

Here is a link from Kellymom about feeding solids to toddlers and in the link list at the bottom there are some good links. I like the Dr Sears links myself. They mention grazing as a way some toddlers like to get energy little and often and nothing to worry about. Kellymom webpage