My 7.5 month old doesn't really seem interested in breast feeding anymore?

[Patchybob]

Hi My little boy is 7.5 months and breastfed throughout the day with a bottle of formula at bedtime. Until recently he was having a big feed when he wakes up, another at 10.30ish and then one at about 2.30 ish. He would then have his bottle at 6.30. He still has the big morning feed, but then the other 2 are so quick that I doubt he is getting much at all. Under 5 minutes, somethimes just a few sucks.

He eats well and I offer water with his meals which he drinks, probably a couple of oz.

Is this enough? I can't remember when my other 2 cut back, but it just seems quite early and I worry about how much milk he is having.

Also if he doesn cut out those 2 feeds, is it possible to keep the breastfeeding going with only the one feed per day? I don't want to stop yet but it looks like he is trying to tell me something!

Any advice? Thanks

Message withdrawn

It's possible that he's having a nursing strike and will return to it.

You might want to try expressing and see if he prefers to take it from a cup?

At this stage of BF I am sure it will be possible to keep going with just one BF per day. I know quite a few people who dropped to just the morning breastfeed around the 6-9 month stage and continued with this one daily breastfeed till well over 12 months.

I would also not worry too much about the two middle of the day feeds. If he is eating a good solids breakfast and lunch he probably doesn't need a mid-morning BF - just offer some water and perhaps a snack like a rice cake - and may well drop the afternoon one naturally too, particularly if he's eating a really good sized lunch.

At 7.5 months my DS1 was only having milk feeds at 7am, 2:30pm and bedtime, he dropped the 2:30pm milk feed at about 8/9 months as I remember, but was eating three good solid meals a day as well. So not wildly dissimilar to your DS.

Also remember that if he is also eating yogurt, cheese etc as part of his diet that will all count towards milk intake - as will any milk used on cereal or in cooking.

Thanks everyone,

Amberflower your ds sounds like my baby. Am a bit sad he wants to drop the extra feeds but I suppose thats how it goes. He wouldn't even latch on mid morning today so I suppose water and rice cake it is!!

Will keep at it as long as he wants and see how we go

Hi Patchybob, I'm going through exactly the same thing at the moment with my 7 and a bit month old son. He's on three pretty good solid meals a day and has a good breastfeed at 10.30pmish at night and a good one in the morning first thing, but the other three feeds, 11am, 3pm and bedtime are rubbish! It's been really stressing me out. He will only latch on for about 2 minutes and if I even breath loudly he pops off and refuses to go back on. Its very frustrating and I can't see that he can be getting enough milk at all.

Plus he doesn't sleep through the night and the helpline here in NZ basically told me that he's not getting enough milk calories and I have to try and up his intake, which is impossible! Gah.

I've tried him on a bottle at bedtime this week too, and the most he'll take is 50mls which equates I think to about an ounce. Anyway, the whole thing is driving me nuts, so it was a relief to see I'm not the only one this is happening to!

If you don't want to stop, why not replace last feed with breastfeed instead of bottle?

Do you ever offer him a breastfeed at meal times?

MmeDeWinter that is my ds you are talking about! I have to tell the other dc not to talk as he is soooo distracted! My health visitor told me to up the calories in his food with lots of butter, full fat everything to compensate for the lack of calories from the milk? It's a nightmare isn't it.

mears I don't offer him milk at mealtimes. I did in the early days of weaning but not since he has been eating so well. Should I still be doing that?

Good luck MmeDeWinter!

And to you Patchybob!

I keep telling myself in a couple of weeks he'll be 8 months and according to New Zealand guidelines at least, its not quite so much of an issue then, and you're allowed to offer milk after as a 'top-up' to the solid feeds. I guess because his digestive system has matured a bit and he'll be able to get more calories from solid food??

Anyway, i can't wait until he's a year old and I can just lose the formula and give him the same food we eat. So much easier! But I suppose toddlerhood comes with its own bag of worries...

MmeDeWinter I give ds more or less what we eat now. As I have the other 2 children the meals are kind of kiddy friendly but there are a few thigs he can't cope with yet. I put cows milk in his cereal as well. This morning he refused his morning feed also, which really upset me. He was far more interested in the dog!