is it ok for a 10 month old to have no milk all day?

[honeytea]

I will be going back to study when ds is 10 months old so dp will be at home with ds.

I asked my hv today what the best plan would be regarding milk, should I express or give ds formula. She said it would be fine if ds just at food breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner.

I thought babies were supposed to get their calories mainly from milk up until they turn 1.

I'm not in tge UK but I am British so I'd be interested what advice UK hvs give regarding milk.

Thanks!

if you feed him first thing in the morning, and then in the evening he should be fine. I say that assuming he is eating a good varied diet?

I'm in Germany and here nearly all babies seem to only be breastfed at night by 10mo. Most of my friends don't give their babies milk at all during the day. They then breastfeed every two to three hours during the night. (I'm only talking for my friends, obviously, but the midwives and paediatricians all think this is fine.)

Everyone thinks I'm nuts for having nightweaned and feeding DD during the day instead.

Your baby will be fine. Dd1 was a bottle refuser and I went back to work when she was 7 months. You can give milk in cereal, yoghurts and cheese during the day and then breastfeed morning and evening.

My dd2 will drink cows milk mixed with chamomile tea from a sippy cup (she is older though), but not milk on its own.

You can also express and try and see if getting your baby to take milk from a sippy cup is more successful with you not there.

He does eat a varied diet just not very much food, he will have a couple of spoonfuls of porridge for breakfast, a 1/4 of a jar of savory mush with some fruit mush after for lunch and dinner. We started with blw but it was just too messy and I was very stressed because of allvthe cleaning.

That's interesting about the night feeding in Germany, ds has naturally night weaned, he sometimes has a feed at 11 but mostly goes all night without a feed ( he does laych on and suck but mostly to use me as a dummy.

Does anyone have any experience as to what will happen to my milk? Can I feed him throughout tge day when I'm at home and just wear breast pads the day's I'm away?

Thank you fir all tge advice! :)

If you feed him less often your body will produce less milk - your body will make what it thinks is the amount required. If you chop and change and feed less some days, your supply will fall. Unless you express on those days to increase the stimulation, but pumps don't tend to stimulate supply as well as baby suckling does. I'm a GP in the UK and yes we say the baby should get most of their calories and nutrients from milk until they are 1. The beauty of that is that it takes the stress out of feeding solids - you can try them with lots of things and give them a wide variety of tastes, but you don't need to stress about how much they are eating. A lot of toddlers become fussy eaters anyway, so anything that helps reduce stress surrounding feeding at this early important stage is a good thing. I'm a little surprised at your HV's advice. The other thing about dropping all those milk feeds is that he will never take that volume in water, and is likely to get constipated at the fluid reduction. I do appreciate as one poster above said that some babies are a nightmare to get to drink milk - ds1 was one, and in and out of hospital for nasal tube feeds as he refused point blank to drink (other medical problems) - but if your baby does drink milk happily enough, then continuing 3-4 milk feeds a day would be beneficial. It doesn't matter if you express for these or switch to formula - you've done so well to BF up until now and he has got all the goodness from your milk. Advice does vary from country to country - ours in the UK is based on a lot of research and what we consider to be best for baby. I'm not trying to lecture, really, just answer your Q about the advice we give in the UK.

I went back to work when dd was 10mo, although only for 2 days a week. She was missing 2 breastfeeds when I was away. I fed her in the morning before leaving for work and as soon as I got home for the first month and after that she just had a morning and bedtime feed. I left expressed milk for her but she wouldn't drink it. However, she was still feeding 2-3 times overnight, so I think was still getting quite a bit of milk.

As regards to expressing and supply. I expressed at work for the first month or so as was full and very leaky, but gradually my supply adjusted and I didn't need to express at all for comfort. My supply didn't seem to be affected, but this was only 2 days a week and I fed as normal on the other days.

HTH