bf beyond 6 months - did you have a feeding routine?

[mollysmum82]

Dd has just turned 6 months and we've just started baby-led weaning. I was a bit worried about dd's weight just before she started solids, so I started to feed her every 2 hours. Now we're blw I don't think she's taking that much solid food in (she's still in the licking/flinging stage!) so I'm still breastfeeding her 2 hourly. Do you think this is excessive? She always takes it when I offer it to her but she is sick quite often (although she always has been). Do you think I should move this to every 3 hours or do you think I should bf on demand? I think I'm so used to feeding her so often I'm worried she won't ask for it if I don't offer! Or I worry she'll not have enough in the day and will be up all night!

The HV says to only feed her 3 times a day and aim for 2 soon but I'm not comfortable with this at all. What do others think?

Many thanks

I just kept on feeding on demand. In spite of eating everything in sight, it still took DS till 9 months to drop any feeds - your HV would have been horrified. Mine just said he was a happy fat chubby little boy who was learning to regulate his own food intake.

Thanks for that CMOT. If people did feed on demand how often ish did their babies bf? Did they still wake in the night? I know all babies are different, I just wanted to hear others' experiences. Cheers!

Your health visitor said 3 feeds and soon to drop to 2? Think I was still feeding mine 4 or 5 times a day at that age. I must say, every two hours does sound a lot! Early days if you've only just started weaning but she won't be as interested in her food if she's stuffed with milk all the time.

DS was still waking in the night then and had milk every 3 hours in the day

My dd is nearly 8 mths and we blw. I was asking the same q's as you- trust me she will cut down in her own time.

Make sure you offer water as often as you can.

My dd's routine now - approx as she has decided this

wake- milk 7am (This is her first bf of the day regardless of when she wakes- usually 6.45)
weetabix 8am

milk 11am (nap)

lunch 12.30

milk 3pm (nap)

dinner 4.30

bed routine 6pm bath/ teeth clean

last milk 6.15

hth

We did feeding-on-demand and BLW, and DS continued to feed just as frequently after solids as the month before they were introduced. I can't remember exactly when he started to reduce feeds - maybe 8, 9 months? I think your HV is a bit misguided - milk continues to be a very important part of their diet until they're a year old.

I'm sure I heard similar advcie from my Health visitor on feeds.

At 6 months my DS was feeding every 2 hours. No real interest in solids for first few weeks (blw) then started to increase the amount he ate. Slowly feeds spaced out til at 9 months he had 3 feeds in day and 1 to 2 at night. He's just turned 12 months and he now feeds morning and eve and the very occassional feed in night (only just recently sleeping through!)
The only feed I persuaded him to stop was the afternoon one as was finding it increasingly hard expressing that one when I worked (I'm part time) but he was quite happy with a snack and drink of water by then (10 mths).

just keep BF on demand and your DD will space/ drop feeds how she wants to

i would breastfeed on demand.
milk is the main source of nutrition until your child is at least a year old. breastmilk is the perfect food for her, so if you're worried about her weiht then you want mainly milk in her, not lots of other stuff.

i demand fed all 3 of mine, and they reduced feeds themselves naturally

oh, ds1 was FF by then, but still had 5 or 6 bottles a day until he was almost a year!!!

ds2 fed hourly day and night until he was about 10 months when he gradually started to slow down a bit

ds3 feeds maybe 4-5 times during the day and 2-3 times at night. he is 9 months

I still bf now (15 mo) and I did blw from 6 months. I'd say I still feed every 2 hrs until he was 11/12 mo. Just be led by him and ignore your hv

Oops sorry meant be led by her

My is 8 months and blw - he now has 3 good meals a day and has gone down to 4 bfeeds a day - first thing, mid morning, mid afternoon and bed. He led this, and my hv advised that he would let me know what he wanted, which he has. You've been given odd advice IMO.

Your HV is talking nonsense. Keep feeding on demand, DD will drop feeds when she is ready.

My DS will be 7 months next week and we've been doing BLW for nearly a month. He still feeds as often as before, about 6 times a day between 7am-7pm, so average every 2 hours. Sometimes he goes longer between feeds (up to 4 hours), sometimes he'll want it again after only 1-1.5 hours. I don't offer, I just wait till he lets me know he is hungry (he dive bombs my chest normally).

At this age they don't know food will help their hunger, and there's almost nothing you can give them to eat in sufficient volume to give them more calories and fat than breastmilk!

He is starting to eat more, but I have no expectation of him dropping feeds for at least another month. The main problem for me is trying to figure out how much expressed milk I need to send with him when he goes to nursery next month!

My baby's nearly 8 months and MrsVidic's daily diary looks a lot like ours, except for that DS is at nursery 8-5 and today they told me he wasn't much interested in milk at all for the first time - had porridge+fruit after 8am, mashed potato based meal at lunch and chicken based meal at tea - water throughout the day. Obv I'll still send him in with milk but tbh I'm quite keen to reduce my expressing sessions at work from 2 (late morning and mid afternoon) to 1 (at lunchtime).

Similar bedtime and rising time in the morning, but I also go in and feed him at about 2300 or whenever I'm going to bed. I might try dropping that soon, but it'll have to be at a weekend or when I'm on leave as I don't fancy my chances of getting 11 hours straight sleep from him.

I was doing 7-8 feeds a day on demand (usually 2 in the night) at 6mo, but by 8mo it was down to morning, afternoon, early and late evening, and roughly once a night, so around 5 feeds which was so much more civilised!

It was around 8mo that he really got into eating food (he made it clear that he wanted food faster than he could coordinate his hand to mouth so I should make myself useful and spoon it in, thank you). Took till around a year for him to want to feed himself.

dd is 8 months old and we started weaning 2 months ago. She is bf. Her routine is as follows:

6.30 - milk
7.30 - ready brek or similar made with formla
and some watered down fruit juice and a square of toast which she sucks the butter off
9.00 - milk followed by nap
12.00 - lunch with water
2.00(ish) nap
3.30 - milk
4.30 - dinner with water (sometimes naps after)
6.00 - bath
7.00 - milk then bed
00.00 - milk
04.00(ish) milk

formula - the u button on my keypad is sticky

My 10 month old is feeding loads in the day but has slept through for ages so I think she makes up for it in the day.

5.00am -BF
6.30/7.30 BF
9.00 breakfast
10.00 Bf -nap
12.00/1.00 lunch
2.00 BF nap
3.00 Fruit eaten on school run
4.00 BF
5.00 Dinner

Last feed is about 9pm I know she feeds a lot but I don't really mind tbh.

Thanks loads for the info everyone! Right, I'll try to stop just offering it to her every 2 hours then and wait for her to demand it! (I just hope she knows to demand it in the day and not the night )