Breastfed 3 year old not eating

[mamma1234]

Any advice welcome. I am tandem feeding my 3 year old and 3 month old - my 3 year old is eating hardly anything.

He is pale and has dark circles under his eyes. He nurses fairly frequently through the day.

Should I limit his feeds? I am loath to wean him as he loves it so much but I'm worried he's not getting nutrition from solid food.

Calorie wise, breastmilk is not enough to sustain your 3yr old. Is he verbal enough to tell you why he's not eating?

A 3 yr old does not need breastfed, get him into a good food routine. Your new baby is the one who needs the milk.

There's a great group on Facebook 'breastfeeding older babies and beyond' which you might get better advice from. I have no advice as my daughter is only 12 months but you should be offering food before boob at this age, to ensure they are getting a good balance of nutrition. Breast milk still offers calories and nutrition beyond 12 months though, not to mention comfort, hydration and antibodies to boost their immune system so please ignore those saying that it's unnecessary to breastfeed at that age.

I day weaned my LB at about 13 months because he'd favour breast milk over food and was not gaining a lot of weight. Since day weaning he eats alot more but does feed alot through the night.

He probably doesn't like the taste anymore as it would have changed. Your milk changes frequently and it will be producing different milk for your 3 month old. Look it up, it will probably taste sweeter. Also give him more solids, he needs it.

Hey, OP. I bf my first til he was nearly four (when he self weaned) and currently bf my 2yo - I agree you’ll likely get better advice on the fb group than on here (as some responses already show!).

I think it’s great that you continue to bf your 3yo - emotionally and nutritionally I’m sure he’s getting a lot from it. I do wonder whether if you bf less he would eat more - I can’t comment on my own experience, because for my own sanity I had both mine on a schedule by that age (milk in bed in the morning, at bedtime, and sometimes after naps at the weekend); just thinking in general around the way both of my toddlers have been with food, when they can be ‘not hungry’ for something substantial but suddenly find an appetite for (say) fruit, fill up enough to take the edge off their appetite, and then decline the substantial food again...

That’s not really advice is it - sorry. I would maybe do lots of chat about food and it’s healthy and yummy and doing some cooking together to up his interest there a bit? Maybe you are already. And I would possibly think about limiting bf in some clear way so he gets the rules - if you feel ready to do so. (You might want to do ‘milk only at home’ and then find yourself out of the house most of the day - maybe that won’t work so well just now! - or choose a special ‘nursing chair’ and only nurse sitting in that, or whatever; or obv you can go for a clear schedule of feed times.) The great thing at this age is that you can talk loads, and even if they don’t agree they do understand, which helps.

Hope you find a solution.