10 month old - getting enough milk??? (sorry long)

[babyredsox]

Hi, my 10 month old son has been exclusively breastfed up to 6 months when I started him on solids. I used BLW ideas to an extent and we do a mix of spoon feeding and letting him self feed. It's going great and he eats a huge amount of solids and a pretty good variety of food.

I always breastfed on demand until he was probably about 7.5 - 8 months when we naturally fell into a kind of 5-a-day schedule (waking up, pre-lunch, pre-dinner, post bath, late night), he then dropped the late night feed fairly recently and now (the past week or so) I'm only really getting 2 good feeds into him per day (sometimes 3).

I think part of the problem is teething (he's getting all 4 of his front top teeth at once) but it now seems like he'll only feed if half asleep so the only 2 he's getting are first thing in the morning and after his afternoon nap. Sometimes he'll have a late night feed too.

I'm just worried he's not getting enough breastmilk and I really don't want to start him on formula at this stage in the game (especially as he's tried it and hates it). I was hoping I could continue to breastfeed him morning and night and gradually introduce cow's milk in the daytime when he's over 12 months.

I think he's fine, but I just don't want to deprive him of breastmilk nutrients and am unsure what to do. It might solve itself when his teeth come in properly but I wondered if anyone has a similar experience?

Thanks for reading, I know I prattle on!

Sounds ok to me. My bottlefed lo's both went to 2 feeds around 10/11 months and I just made up the rest of their intake through their food. Milk in cereal, in foods, etc and dairy products all count towards their daily intake. From 1 year the minimum requirement drops to about 350mls (approx 12oz) and your lo is not far off that age anyway. Has your lo tried cows milk? I gave the odd drink of it to my ds from 9 months (not every day or anything). As long as the main drink remains breastmilk then a little extra cows milk isnt going to make much difference.

Teething can muck around with milk consumption. But here's something you can try: apply teething gel to the gums before offering the breast. Worked for me.

DD went off it for a while when teething - but not to that extent. Sounds like you know what you are doing - just keep at it. You can cut back on his food a bit if you are really concerned about his low level of milk intake.

i posted similarly when dd was ten months...everyone said to me...'she is fine!'

My DD was a nightmare to get milk down at that age. In fact, I still maintain that she drank more bathwater than milk at that time! We were trying to switch her to formula during the day (and had been for a few months...) and she wasn't having any of it. I re-introduced a dream feed for my own peace of mind, especially as she was dairy-free. Then, all of a sudden, when she was a year old, she suddenly took to formula/mastered the sippy cup/decided she was thirsty after all/had a growth spurt (we'll never know which one it was!) and started gulping it down and we haven't looked back since. That is, apart from when she is off colour and then she goes back to preferring the bathwater!