REALLY don't want to stop bf yet but looks like 6 mo DS does....

[Belgrano]

DS is 6 months old and being very weird about bf since about 10 days ago. He weaned onto solids at 5 months (please no high horses about waiting to 6 months, he was a hungry starving baby by then, who stopped gaining weight and wanted to feed all day and all night and doc said i should intro fruit and veg so I did and he cheered up and was lovely again).

Anyway he's now on 3 meals a day, still just pureed fruit and veg with baby rice and yogurt and strips of bread to chomp etc., no meat or fish or anything really mega filling yet. But he has totally stopped wanting to bf. I am gutted as I stopped bf DD when she did this around 7 months and really want to feed DS for a year or longer.

He just won't go on, and if I manage that then he looks around, cries, arches his back to come off the breast and won't wait for the let down. If he does get a let down he sometimes comes straight off and it sprays everywhere or he'll feed for about 2-3 mins and then get distracted by something else. Having a great thundering toddler DD running about hardly helps with him getting distracted and I can't really do anything about that. If I put CBeebies on for her, he wants to watch that so arches his back to see the screen. If I try to take him upstairs to the quiet to feed, he cries to come back down and she usually follows and chatters and asks questions which only further disstracts him.

He used to feed for around half an hour. Now the only time he does that long feed is at 11 pm. He doesn't even really want to feed at 7 am when he should be starving. He rarely feeds in the night now so must be getting so little milk.

I am worried about him not getting enough milk but also really worried that it will make my milk production stop. It did with DD. I am already much less hungry which is worrying. Surely he is too little to self wean at this age! Should I take the hit on no sleep and stop or reduce solids? Or is that cruel?

I've been loving bf and a bit pleased with self about getting through my thrush and mastitis related difficulties and making it plain sailing, up till now. Now panicking so please help.....

Hi will he take a bottle? how about expressing your milk that way he will get the goodness from you and you will still be making more milk. my ds has started weaning and he is 5 1/2 months he only bf 4 times during the day and for about 5-10 mins but is easily distracted specialy in the mornings when he is very awake!

Do you bf before solids? Or do you give solids and then bf after?

Up until a year bf should give a baby be the main source of nutrition and bfing should be before solids.

What sort of quantities is he eating at each meal? A teaspoon, a tablespoon or more like a baby food jar in size? Have you thought of letting DS totally feed him self rather than being spoonfed?

Here is an extract from Kellymom:-

Some toddlers are eating very few solids, or even no solids, at 12 months. This is not unusual and really depends on your child - there is quite a big variation. We like to see breastmilk making up the majority (around 75%) of baby's diet at 12 months. Some babies will be taking more solids by 12 months, but others will still be exclusively or almost-exclusively breastfed at this point. It is normal for baby to keep breastmilk as the primary part of his diet up until 18 months or even longer. An example of a nice gradual increase in solids would be 25% solids at 12 months, 50% solids at 18 months, and 80% solids at 24 months.

Obviously ignore the part about no solids at a year as your DS is obviously wanting to eat - it is there for reassurance to parents whose DC aren't interested. I'm not going to judge as DD2 started solids at 23 weeks after dive bombing DD1's petit filous!

I found that when DS got into the solids he lost interest in bf, but soon got back into it when the novelty wore off.
Followed by my worrying that he'd gone off his solids!

blimey he is already more like 80 percent food, 20 percent breastmilk I should think. And DD was not drinking any milk at 2, she just didnt like it and it was a struggle by her first birthday!
I think I'll take a hit on sleep and give him less by spoon and just let him mess about himself, a la baby led weaning. Shame, the sleep was lovely but its not worth giving up bf for!
Hopefully that will help.

Quick update - he was up four times this evening as a result of me only giving him what he could eat himsself with his fingers for tea - ie. some bits of banana and bread and some sticking his fingers in fruity potato-ey puree...lord knows what tonight will be like!
hmmm, it was a big change from normal - in answer to the quantities question, yes I'd say he's on about the small baby food jar amount of food per meal, plus finger foods of which very very little gets down. I am alarmed about giving him so much of his diet in solid form though if it's only supposed to be 25 % at 12 months, so will persevere with cutting back on the solids quantities and see how we go on bf. I bf on demand anyway so it should sort itself out pretty quickly. Thanks for your help.

there is something called a nursing strike, when they can go off feeding for a week or so. if you persevere, he might get back into it. ds/dd both did this when weaning started and got really distracted, but eventually got back into it and carried on until they were 2ish. Could he be teething?

He may feed frequently from you to match your supply to his needs. As the bulk of his food has been solids it may take a few days of manic feeds to catch up so don't worry. Your breasts are never empty and you can offer as many 'sides' as he wants (i.e. L, R, L, R, ad naseum ).

I wouldn't cut right back on all his meals all in one go though, just slowly drop down until he is more interested in nursing. You may even find he gains more weight than before as veg/fruit is very filling but low kcal (hence being great for dieters ).

Here is a chart with the kcal/fat values of breast milk and common baby foods. Carrots have 7kcal and 0.03g of fat per oz. Breastmilk has 22kcal and 1.15g of fat per oz. Best weaning food for babies (if you want to bump their weight gain up that is) is Avocado 46kcal and 4.21g of fat per oz! Greek yoghurt is also good at 130kcal and 10g of fat per 100g.

My DS did simelar, I got to 11 months by feeding him when he was about to fall asleep!! Sounds bizzarre but really worked. Also by distracting him.

agree with jellybeans about the feeding when tired. ds2 will feed a lot better just before a doze.

Sounds like my DD, now 11mths. She went for a week or two around this stage of doing just 5mins bfing and getting bored ... I was trying to sort if out in my head that she was self weaning when she suddenly started to get interested again and feed for half hour at a time.
It may be a phase.
Best of luck, sounds like your doing an amazing job