confused about EBF baby starting solids and number of feeds

[lolalotta]

Hi,
I demand breastfeed my 23 week old baby and have just started her on solids today! I am confused about how many breast feeds I should be offering her now that I am weaning her onto solids and really how to go about it, I don't really have a clue what I am doing... I have some books from the library on weaning but they are not very specific with regards to starting solids and breastfeeding. Any tips from experienced Mums would be great, I want to make sure she till gets enough milk!

Milk remains the main source of nutrition until they are 1. DD was ebf and demand fed so fed at different times each day and a different number of feeds, of varying duration depending on her mood, the weather, the day of the week etc. So, there was no dropping of feeds like I heard people talking about. I just carried on bfing to demand and offered food from my plate when I was eating. Started off with just letting her help herself to a bit of lunch or dinner and then breakfast and she just sort of cottoned on to it herself and it was almost seamless. I had no plan and it just sorted itself out really.

I'd give feeds as normal and add in solids as extra. As the solids increase you will find that she will cut the milk down herself without you having to do anything.

What the other posters have said, carry on demand feeding and let her guide you as to how much milk she should have.
My DS is 8months and BLW so the amount of food he takes varies daily but I don't let it bother me. I still BF on demand and I haven't really noticed the amount of feeds going down significantly.
I was a bit perturbed recently when a friend of mine cut her (FF) baby's milk intake by half as advised by the HV, at just under 7mt old????? I really believe in the "food is fun until they're one" way of thinking and letting the baby take the lead.
Hope that helps.

Hi Lolalotta - I second the advice given here, but i just wanted to say that I know exactly how you feel. I'd just got a handle on feeding when solids got thrown into the mix and I felt like I was completely back to square one! The good news is that it does get easier and (as always) your baby will let you know when she wants milk and certainly up to the age of one, still feed on demand. I've found that as DS has got more interested in solid food, he's just forgotten to ask for his milk, or taken less (and if I tried to drop a feed that he still wanted, he just demanded it back!).

Hi Lollalotta.

Thanks for the thread! I'm gonna tag along if you don't mind. My DS is almost 24weeks and we are thinking about the weaning process. I'm really keen to do BLW and have let him try some things off my plate at mealtimes (nothing gets eaten though - just sucked and dropped. He did swallow al little piece of toast on Sat morning and it csme out in bits, but undigested in his bf poo on Sun)

I also feel really unsure about the whole situation especially since he likes to feed only when asleep and so I'm scared that I will stop offering while he is sleeping and he won't ask and then he won't get enough IYSWIM?

Perhaps we could support one another?

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