Has anyone exclusively bf til 6 months (a very big and hungry baby)?

[crokky]

DD is a big baby. She was not born big as she was born 3 weeks early due to my complications, but she has grown and clearly now genetics have taken over (me and DH are giants!) and she is tall and built. I have only bf her up til now and she is 20 weeks. Can I realistically go on til 6 months? She is very hungry and I am very tired. I fed DS til 6 months and 1 week, but he was skinny and content to suck on empty boobs so it was OK. She is so big and I wanted to hear if anyone else had been OK just bfing a big hungry baby til 6 months.

Yes on 99th percentile.

I will try to go on then!

Mine was 9lb 6oz at birth, and I breastfed him exclusively until 6 months. Look at it this way - it's your milk and your milk alone that has made your DD grow so big - it's amazing stuff, and it can and will sustain her until 6 months

DS was moderately large and at 20 weeks I was getting advice to wean him from various corners (not least my HV - totally unsolicited, btw!). MIL said to me "he'll need some solids soon, because he's a big lad you know". It was all I could do to keep my trap shut - he was big because of all the milk he'd had from me already!

You say you're veyr tired. It sets alarm bells ringing to me, because when you start weaning it won't make a jot of difference to the amount of feeding you're doing. In fact, it's more work - the mess a 6 month old baby can make in a few minutes with any item of food is beyond compare, and the hassle of preparing food also has to be factored in. BLW is a bit less labour intensive though .

I think the main issue here is that after 5 long months you are tired, which is normal, but you need to be getting some help so you can rest a bit. I found that at 5 months everyone had stopped treating me like the new mum royalty and expected me to get on with it (which was crap because DS was feeding as much as he had when he was a week old, and sleeping a LOT less!). Don't feel bad about asking for help

Crokky - am in the same boat as you! DS 5 months and weighed 18lbs a few weeks ago (just over 28 inches long). He gets frustrated at the boob and I'm tired - but agree with IARCFB that it's probably more tiredness in general catching up (also have a 2 yr hyperactive monster wonderfully energetic dd to contend with!) and I think the fussing at the boob is just plain nosiness at what is going on around him - he feeds brilliantly if he wakes at night.

Am keen to try the BLW route and am amazed at how much he's developed in the past few weeks alone wrt sitting up and bringing toys to his mouth, so am still hanging on in there - not so many weeks to go now

Ds1 was 10lb 5oz and excl fed until nearly 7 months. Ds2 is 29 weeks (9lb 7oz) and still excl b/fed (bar the odd bit of bread he has swiped from me and munched on!!)

Nature is not stupid - if your body made that baby, it can feed it too!!

I excl bf my big fat baby till 6 months too (91st centile). She fed often (still does, ha ha, at nearly a year), and I was very proud of the fact that it was "all my own work".

It is exhausting looking after a baby no matter how he/she is fed, and I also found the 5-6 month part very challenging (the start of teething, the cumulative tiredness). I got run down and went underweight. Are you eating and sleeping enough?

At times I felt like DD was having a growth spurt every two weeks. It was totally exhausting. Best of luck in the next few weeks.

jopin this thread for support

My ms and ys were only 9 oz apart at Birth, but then developed really different, ms being a very thin little thing and ys being a chubby little boy....both had great apaetites and both were exclusively breastfed for 6 month....you just feed more often....solids only fill the child up without giving much in calories....

yes did ds till 6 months and he was over 22 lbs by then iirc

i was THIN!

I fed both 90+ centile babies for six months exclusively, but found that the last month was especially tiring. You have done brilliantly to get this far. It might it help to take some iron to build yourself up.

I agree with IARC that the feeding adds a level of stress and work and that the tiredness needs looking after as a thing in itself. Both of mine still eat like horses and 5 and 2, though they look starved ...

ds was 8lb10 at birth and was huge by 9 months, he's grown out of motherease onesize nappies his bum was so big and he was always long. he weighed 8kgs at 5 months.

i exclusively bf til 2 weeks before he was 6 months when he took matters into his own hands and grabbed some potato from my plate we started blw then so he wasn't getting a huge amount of food til a few months later but her was happy

yes. ds ebf till 6 months and HUGE. At 28 weeks he's now completely filling his 6-9 months clothes and we're contemplating the next shopping trip to upsize his wardrobe

Started weaning a week ago, but he's not keen on food, and hasn't actually swallowed anything. 5 months was a hard time - think there's a long growth spurt (on long hungry grumpy phase at least). hang in there - it does pass!

Yes, goodpoint that babe big because of your milk, not despite it!

DD2 was on 75th centile, BF her exclusively for 6 months. She was not a particularly ravenous baby though. Even at 6 months she was desperate for food..

she was not desperate for food

DS was on 95th centile and exclusively bf for 6 months, stopped bf at 15 months. I remember that at about 4 months people expressed surprise that I wasn't starting him on solids, but there are a lot of allergies in our family and I wanted to continue exclusively bf until I felt he was ready. Still big for his age now (aged 7).