Weaning and Breastfeeding / Night Waking Advice

[Latium123]

Started weaning my 6 mo three weeks ago and it has been going quite well. I am doing some purees with some finger foods and she manages both well although loves to do it herself, grabbing the spoon / finger foods. I have been a bit worried about how to get the balance between breastmilk and solids right as i am aware they need just as much breastmilk to start with but my LO has already started to take less BM. She gets very distracted during the day when feeding and on some occasions has been very fussy, refusing the breast and screaming despite seeming to be hungry. I started off with only one meal a day then increased to two and planned to stay that way for a while. However, Health visitor has said I need to get her on 3 meals a day asap. Since i put her up to the 3 meals a day she has been waking almost every 2 hours at night needing breastfed. I am feeling exhausted especially trying to fit everything in during the day now we are doing 3 meals too!

My question is, does anyone have any advice on what is going wrong here and next steps? Is this normal at this stage? Do you think she is taking too much solids therefore not enough milk during the day and making up for it at night or is she not taking enough solids and still hungry therefore needing more at night? I'm just so confused about what to do for the best. She has always been a really good sleeper up to now so this has thrown me somewhat.

This happened with me at about the same stage (dd is now nearly 10 months). I spent a few days at home so I could feed her with no distractions. I offered lots of feeds and just persevered. I don't agree with the getting onto 3 meals ASAP as this will likely just fill him up more and make him even less interested in milk. Saying that we quite quickly got onto 3 meals with good milk feeds too, good luck!

We definitely had a stage of feeding a lot at night to make up for not feeding in the day. I can't remember how long it lasted because her sleep was very very bad anyway! But it did pass. You may also consider food intolerances too as that could be a factor, or maybe just wind - dd was quite windy for a while on weaning.

Thanks for your response. I have resolved to try not to worry and just trust my instincts with what I was doing anyway. She seems a bit more interested in breastfeeding again and only woke once last night so that is already progress. Fingers crossed it will all just click into place. I know staying relaxed helps that but it can be hard.

Around 5 months my dd started getting distracted during feeds. Her feeds during the day are now very brief often 3 minutes per boob. Before bedtime and during the night she feeds for longer. She doesn't seem distressed from lack of breastmilk during the day.

I too found that when DS started solids he took less milk during the day so decided to make up for it at night!

This may not be a solution for you or something that you want to do, but I found that moving from breastfeeding to formula feeding when he was 8 months has solved it. He now has 3 good bottles during the day and pretty much sleeps through the night. (He does occasional wake early, say 4-5am so I do bf him back to sleep then)