Weaning and drying up

[lollipopfluff]

Was wondering whether I could get some advice. Been BF for 5 months fine, then started weaning at 5 months. I had knocked the BFs down as my baby was not wanting them during the day and doing 3 bfs during the night. But I went away this weekend and did not express (and did not need to as my breasts did not seem uncomfortable) whilst I was away from my baby, and now when my baby comes to the breast he seems to be frustrated as if there is not enough milk there and keeps on coming off all the time. This will obviously make my milk dry up even more. Do I now keep on encouraging him during the day to come to the breast to increase my milk supply (although he does not seem that interested) and express to try and increase my milk supply. I was hoping to carry on bf for a year or so, so the situation right now does not look good. Can you also confirm that it is important that he gets his 500 ml a day, because if this is the case, I may have to introduce formula pretty quickly

I'm going to bump this for you, so you can get some good advice.

I'm not an expert really and I'd hate to misinform you here! In the meantime until you get some helpful advice, in my opinion I'd say feed him from you when you did before the weekend, as it going well then and don't replace any feeds with anything else and eat and drink plenty

• as it was going well then

How's it going?

I was hoping someone else would have seen your post and given you some advice by now.

no advice but in similar position dd keen on pureed fruit but not in bf during the day (she is 6 months old). Think my supply is drying up. Have been offering her bm before solids and after but she just doesn't want it. Tried expressing but only got 15 ml - very worrying. Hope your situation improves soon. I can't even give dd formula because she refuses a bottle.

I'm feeling quite gutted that no one has posted much on here yet. My son by 5 months was definitely getting to the stage of not being so interested in BF's. He also at this stage did not and would not take a bottle.

What is he drinking apart from you? Is he being weaned already so he's too full for breast milk? Or is it getting distracted that maybe causing some of the problem do you think?

At 6 months I found a bottle my son would take called NUK and used expressed milk in it as that what was he was used to. Which was nice if I wanted to have a break from feeding and let hubby do one.

I know it's early days at 5 months but Annabel Karmel's book called baby and toddler meal planner is helpful, as it tells you good first foods, when to start weaning by watching your baby for signs and how many BF to do and how much solids and has lots of recipes in. I didn't follow it exactly as I felt I'd never stop cooking, but I used the plan roughly and the recipes I liked. Don't know why I told you this, just crossed my mind I guess.

ladylush is right though the BF before solids once your baby is 6 months is how I did it, so I knew they were getting their fluids and that they'd take them. Also to begin with you're not meant to reduce milk feeds as it's still important in their growth so much when this young.

I only have 2 kids though so I'm not an expert, I was hoping someone else would have seen your post and had an idea for you.

lollipop....I think you'll be helped by speaking to someone in real life about this - any of the helplines would be good.

To be honest, 3 bfs in 24 hours are not usually enough to sustain a milk supply for a baby of this age, for most babies. Bf is not so robust that it will continue producing at 5 mths with minimal stimulation. On the other hand, or in addition, rather, a weekend without mum to a 5 mth old is something he notices and this may be causing some confused and confusing behaviour while he accomodates the idea that you are now back

I think you will need to talk to the counsellor on the helpline about a plan to effectively build up milk, which will mean some pretty intensive skin to skin and comforting. Your baby is showing sort of 'nursing strike' behaviour and comforting and connecting with him will help a lot with this.

Hope this helps!

Tiktok a slight hijack- is 6 to7 breastfeeds (often one side only) in 24 hours enough for a 7 month old? He is having 3 meals a day and bf before meals

chibi - there is no formal research on this and experience is v. individual, but I would say as a judgement that this is likely to be fine for most mothers and babies at the age of 7 mths.

The other thing with the OP is that I understood that there were no feeds in the day, which would mean a long gap. Long gaps = less milk.

thanks tiktok he is having milk every 2-3 hours in the day and once, maybe twice overnigt (by his own initiative)

sorry meant to say that this is what my dd did at this age but hvs have gotten me so paranoid about his growth anf bf in general it has been hard to feel confident despite my previous experience