what to do with my 8 month old who still feeds like a blinkin' newborn

[skidaddle]

DS is 8 months and BF, started on solids at 6 months and after a slow start has taken to them quite well and has three meals a day.

The thing is he still has about 12 BFs a day - including 2-3 nighttime feeds. Most of the time I don't mind but I do wonder if he is ever going to cut down. I have always fed him for comfort and fed him to sleep so i am sure some of the feeds are not nutritionally necessary but can i and should I try to reduce the number of feeds? And if so, how?Does anyone else has an older baby who feeds this much? I am back at work btw so am expressing like a mad woman to sate his enormous appetite (although he has fewer feeds when I am not there)...

Any advice / suggestions gratefully received

cant offer advice only company i'm in the same boat with my 6 motnh old, she wont touch a bottle and i can tell that a lot of feeds are just comfort especially the night ones.

she ususlly takes a feed to settle to sleep so if she fusses in the night then thats the only want to get her back off i know i need to stop it but i dont know what else ot do at 2 and 4 in the night i'm not really thinking about much other than getting back to sleep!
lol

i know that i've been told by friends that breast milk is thicker in the am and is practacally water at night so if you dont want to introduce formula such as night time milk then maybe express the thicker morning milk and give that at night to settle him and fill him up a bit more might help through the night, at least you might rule out hunger vs comfort!

if you find anything that works tho let me know too lol!

hi puddled - good to know that i am not alone at least! I am absolutely sure he is not waking from hunger at night - maybe maybe once but certainly not more than that - but like your DD he associates sleep with a BF so that's what he needs to get back to sleep.

tbh I don't really mind the nighttime feeds as they are only 5 mins and then straight back to sleep but I do wonder whether the daytime feeds are interfering with his appetite for solid food and don't know if that is a problem...

anyway hopefully someone worldy and wise will be on soon to tell us

DD was like this at that age, but worse! She fed hourly in the day and 2 hourly at night. I decided it was insecurity because she was getting more mobile and needed to be close to me. She didn't eat large amounts of solids either. She has slowly grown out of this, and at 13 months has about 5 or 6 feeds a day and 2-3 at night. She has also started eating loads of solids. So my advice is to just go with it and let them cut down at their own pace.

Skid my ds is the same. I've noticed a lot of them seem to be just snacks or drinks and that often during the day he sees me and thinks 'oh look its the food machine' so asks for a bf even though he doesnt really want it. I'd say only half of them are proper feeds,and like your ds he has fewer if im not there. If he seems to be on and off constantly i'll offer him some water but other than that i just go with it and figure he'll cut down eventually. Good to get them in the habit of drinking lots through the day anyway i think.just think what good skin they'll have in later life

My ds has cut down feeds even though he only has 2 meals a day, sometimes 3. He still feeds on the night, now down to 2 a night but they are full feeds. He probably feeds about 5-6 times during the day, but he is a very nosey baby and is very easily distracted. I try to make sure that I feed him some where quiet - feeding him in public now is nearly impossible as he just pulls off to have a look around after a couple of sucks!
Could it be that when your ds is feeding he is only taking enough to satisfy his immediate hunger/thirst because there are other things he'd rather be doing? You could try distracting him and offering him little snacks at the time he is only taking very short feeds? And take him off some where boring and quiet for others?

Wow guys thats a lot, Lily will be 8 months next week - I work 3 days a week so she takes a bottle well...
She eats 3 good solid meals a day and sometimes a snack say if we are out (a biscuit, cheese etc)....she has 2 bottles a day - one early/mid morning and one afternoon she usually naps straight after....
I breast feed bedtime - usually a good feed - and then our nights are variable maybe one waking before midnight or occasionally another early hours (rare nowadays) she will feed if she wakes, she wakes for the day anytime from 5:30 - 6:30am and then has a smallish breast feed then...I must admit I rarely feed her in the day now as she is so distractable I don't think she feeds particularly well...I will though if she seems desperate or needs settling ...or if I am too lazy to make a bottle
Skid he shouldn't NEED that many feeds so if you WANT to cut them down you will need to be firm and just offer a cuddle or a snack instead...but if you are happy to feed as comfort then I can't see any problem in it - guess it depends on what you want to do...

thanks all, that has given me a lot to think about...

BT I think being distracted is a big part of it but usually the distraction is DD and I can't very well shut her out of the room so she doesn't distract him! Will try and take him off to a quiet room when DH is around though

clairey - that has been my thinking up till now as well - if he asks for it then give it but i don't want to demand feed forever - would really like to get it down to 2-3 feeds a day by age 1 if I can...

macdoodle - that sounds like a great routine - don't think I'm quite ready to be firm with him though. Will try cutting down a bit and see how he responds

charchar - wow that is a lot of feeding when your DD was 8 months - maybe I should consider myself lucky! Good to hear she gradually cut down though, will hope for the same outcome with my DS!