help! 5 month old hungry baby refusing breast

[Aldegirl]

So... my baby is 5 months old and has started to refuse breastmilk, mostly in the mornings. He is on 2 meals of solids a day following the advice of HV, GP and LLL counsellor: he's almost 9kgs (birth weight = 4 kgs), almost sitting up on his own, grabbing food from us at the table, the works. I always offer him milk before a solids feed.

Over the past week he's started refusng the boob, getting properly upset if I try to keep him feeding, and only cheers up if he gets his solids. He eats everything and looks like a wee starling with his mouth wide open waiting for the spoon.

Up to now his feed times have been (roughly): 7pm before bed plus bottle of formula because he's still hungry after boobs, 11pm, 3am, 7am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm. Lots, I know, and he's been taking a full feed each one.

He's now started refusing the 7am feed and also the 11am feed.

The question: is this "normal"? He's my first baby and I have NO clue. Maybe he doesn't need the 3am feed if he's not hungry for milk in the morning? But he eats lots of solids at 11ish.

Hmm.

Thanks for any advice

Hi
this is a very interesting post.. did this start before your baby had solids or once he had them?

...my 17 week old has started refusing breast too ( but she isn't on solids yet) . she will take feed in the morning and her night feeds but will not breastfeed during the day unless I am lying down on my bed .. so i have to faff around and express or just give formula as have 3 year old running around trashing the house at the same time!

I have read that babies under 8-9 months never wean themselves like this and have read that teething can often be the case?

Hi Jenster

expressing with a 3 year old running around!

This started before. He was feeding even more during the night and not wanting his morning milk(s), now he feeds less during the night but still refuses boob pretty much until midday. Very odd.

He's not really teething - I mean, he is drooling and chewing away but cheery with it, and he does still have regular "good" breastfeeds (early afternoon, early evening, bed, in the night still argh.)

I mean, he's doing really well, very chunky and happy. he was a right girny wee thing for a week until we put him on solids and then his night feeds became less (hurray!) and he became really chilled and playful (double hurray!)

Mysterious things, babies. I've read all sorts of stuff too but am still baffled.