Could 7 month old be cuttung down on bf too quickly? (sorry LONG)

[sallyforth]

My DS used to religiously follow the 2nd centile (after some early supply probs with supplementing in the early days, then me pumping like a mad woman, taking domperidone etc). HV said she was happy with this as he was clearly healthy, developing ok and gaining along his own line. He is a v active little boy (commando crawled at 5.5mo) so I just supposed he was burning off the calories.

Then! we started BLW at 6mo. And he just eats and eats and eats - so much so that he's been gaining 9oz/week since we started solids, so he's now halfway to 25th centile and has got noticeably fatter, and heavier to pick up, in the last few weeks. He is BFing less - still wakes at night but not swallowing as much as before and often only wants 1 side (used to be 2+!). At night he now often makes his latch so shallow that he is just "comfort sucking", which is making my nipples sore again for the first time since the very early weeks. Am trying to offer BF as often as I remember, but he just does not ask for it like he used to and his feeds are v short. I know they are supposed to self regulate how much they eat, but he doesn't seem to do this. If he likes the food, he'll keep eating until it's all gone. In contrast he takes hardly any water from his cup - if he's thirsty, he'll just BF.

I guess I am not that bothered if he's getting a bit too much food in the short term, as he is healthy and happy and still similar to or slightly slimmer than most babies we know in RL (mostly FF though) - but what I am bothered about is if he is cutting down his BF too much - surely his solid food won't give him the nutritional and immunological benefits that BF will.

Should I restrict his solids to make sure he takes enough BF? Or should I just trust him to eat and drink as much as he likes?

Complicating factor: am going back to work in a few weeks' time so this may all change...

I don't particularly have any answers but wanted to bump as I'm (almost) in the same boat and offer my own experience just in case it helps.

Briefly - I have an 8 month old who has always been a very efficient feeder. She has been sleeping for 12 hours at night for several months now and was blw at 6 months. She eats as much as her 3 year old sister and is in child care for 3 days a week.

My experience of blw and bf my elder daughter is that you really have to 100% trust them to take what they need. I wouldn't restrict solids, despite that 'food is fun until they're 1' underpins my approach, both dds have eaten like goats from early on - I guess some babies just do. Re the bf - it's likely at this stage babies are very efficient at feeding and will still be benefitting from bmilk however short feeds are. One thing I would say is - make sure the latch is right. He may feel such an old hand at bf he can get away with a shallow latch but it's a skill he needs to relearn.

You need to make sure he has milk FIRST at all meals - whatever sort of milk. But it does all even out in the end.

Sorry had to plug in laptop before it faded.

Change your breastfeeding position to the rugby hold (you will need a lot of pillows) this should provide a deeper latch. If you are ready to give up breastfeeding though - don't beat yourself up, you've clearly made an enormous effort already

Hi Sally. I'm in a very similar position: bf 6mo has been on solids for two weeks and loves them (currently on 2 meals a day). He has very noticeably dropped the amount he is bf during the day and although he attempts to drink water from a cup, in reality it just dribbles down his chin. He is just under the 9th centile, so also small, but from the advice I've gained on mnet, it seems dropping feeds is fairly normal once weaning has begun and apparently they often increase bfs a little later. I have been making sure I offer a bf before his two meals.

By 7 months my ds was only feeding 3 times a day. And tbh the afternoon one was only because I put him on, I don't think he would have been fussed not to have it. As soon as we started weaning him he loved food and went off milk for a long time.

I tried bf first before solids, but found that made no difference to how long he fed for, and sometimes meant he hardly fed at all as he was crying and fussing because he wanted his solids.

My HV said not to worry and just go with what he wanted as she was happy with his progress.

Thanks for your fast responses. Actually this morning he didn't really want breakfast..so maybe the novelty of eating is starting to wear off! I'll see how he gets on over the next week or two.