Night weaning a breastfeeder

[Beansprout30]

My dd is just over seven months and started on solids at six months which started great but then she seemed to give up, will only take yoghurt on a spoon or Ella pouches which I can't afford for every meal so trying BLW and although she is showing a lot more interest, she's not actually swallowing much.

I understand it's really early days but my problem is she is refusing to nurse during the day now and is waking more for night feeds and I feel like I'm getting into a cycle of feeding at night instead of during the day! Have tried in quiet rooms etc but she just pushes away. My hv says I need to break this cycle and then start cutting back milk feeds in order to get her to eat more solids!

Gosh I just feel this is getting harder than it's supposed to be. Should I think about night weaning? I'm also going this alone 90% of the time as DH works away.

Any advice would be appreciated

Sorry what i meant by going it alone is that DH wouldn't be able to help with settling dd at night

I have fed 4 babies and think it sounds normal. Sometimes they don't want to eat much food, 7 months is still very young. One of my twins was similar but eventually she did eat more solids. I still feed them in the night (aged 1) even though they eat 3 meals plus snacks.

Personally I'd ignore the health visitor and just take babies lead. We give finger foods and spoon feed. I've always fed on demand but I do co sleep.

a cheap idea for baby food. We use an instant pot for 8 mins but you could use a slow cook. Chop lots of veg (we use the chopping attachment on the blender) put in the instant pot with chopped toms and herbs/spices and cook. It lasts a few days (you can freeze too) my babies love it. You can mix with rice or cous cous. Or add fish. Today cabbage, onion, kale, broccoli, courgette and leek were zapped, then put in the instant pot with chopped toms and spices. We ate it too with fish.

I find they prefer spicy food or food with flavour -sardines, mackerel. Lamb tagine is very popular too!

Mine love Ella's too. Lidl do really good substitutes, the brown one is very similar (prune and butternut squash).

Thank you that's made me feel better. I've just chucked a load of veg and chicken into the slow cooker hoping she might like something a bit tastier!

I find my twins wake at night more when learning a new skill. Is your baby trying to crawl or sit? Or is she really nosy and too busy taking everything in? You may find she feeds more in the night because of this.

Mine do change their feeding habits regularly, I think I notice it more this time because there are two! Also because I have twins I am really aware that their personality dictates so much not my routine, one twin is more fussy (spat out the first mouthful until a year old) and the other just ate everything happily -despite being given the same routine, food etc. twins make you confident it's not you doing it wrong!

Good plan! Mine go pretty crazy for salmon! And tinned sardines - very cheap and easy on toast. One loves grapefruit and oranges, the other passes them to her twin! You could try normal Greek style yoghurt (65p for a big tub from lidl) instead of the expensive kids ones. Omelettes are really popular with tuna, cheese etc.

Cutting back on feeds for solids at 7 months???! Your health visitor is insane!
Sounds perfectly normal to me. I despair of health visitors sometimes.

PS This is a rough patch but night weaning now is v v early and it should get better soon anyway. Developmental leap about now. It does pass.

A lot of HVs seem to talk rubbish! Milk should still be an important part of a baby's diet for the first year so don't cut back on feeds! I would feed during the day at every mealtime (see whether it works best before or after solids) and on demand. Rather than night wean try and get more milk into her during the day. Some babies just take longer with weaning. DD1 was the same but not eats like a champ!

You have all confirmed what I was thinking - to take her advice with a pinch of salt. 43percent she is the nosiest thing ever, doesn't miss a trick and yes, desperately trying to crawl. I get myself about panicky because her 4 month 'regression' was torture and seemed to go on forever! Will continue night feeds and keep going with varying the solids!

Also consider if you do night wean, baby is still likely to keep waking up and then you've got no way (or it's more difficult) to get them back to sleep. At least breastfeeding is usually a guaranteed way of getting them straight back to sleep.

At that age, I just fed them whenever I ate (if they were awake). Some days they ate lots, other days barely anything. What you describe sounds completely normal.

Have you tried different positions for nursing during the day, sometimes as they get a bit older they will nurse better sitting up on your knee / straddled across your knee or even next to you so they can see what's going on!

kellymom.com/parenting/nighttime/sleep/

Will try different positions littledinaco, im trying to get her to use a spouted cup thingy too as I'm worrying about when she starts nursery but I'm offering that randomly throughout the day

There's always something to worry about isn't there! How old will she be when she starts nursery?

Tell me about it! She will be nine months when she starts nursery. Always been a bottle refuser too

It's not advised to night wean before 12 months, and just stop buying those pouches, we've just given what we eat since 6 months, no way was I paying for processed pureed food when we have plenty of lovely healthy food here for us!

My 8 month old is the exact same! I still wake up to 4 times a night, think teething has alot to do with our problem though as she was sleeping better at 6 months! We're also doing BLW, some days she eats tonnes and then we can have days where she eats next to nothing, the only time I give her pouches is if she's a little constipated I'll give her an Ella's kitchen pouch of prunes. But even when she's eaten a lot she's still up in the night, I personally would just go with the flow and let baby take the lead

Thanks mamma, teeth seem to be popping up rapidly she's had her first and two more look like they're following. Last night her sleep was great and only woke once, wonder what tonight will bring