How to wean a 6 and a half month old?

[wonderw]

I'm ready to stop breastfeeding but I need some advice on how. I'm planning to slowly drop the number of breastfeeds a day but how do I incorporate solids? Do I feed him three times a day from the beginning? He has had some tastes of food but there's no routine.

Are you going to introduce formula? Milk needs to be his main source of nutrition for many more months.

@NowEvenBetter

Are you going to introduce formula? Milk needs to be his main source of nutrition for many more months.

Yes

Hi!

NHS provides a good overview, but there are some good weaning books and Instagram accounts out there, which are created by nutritionists.

Begin with 1 meal a day and gradually increase over the coming months. I can’t stress enough that all babies are different and will wean at different rates - some may love milk, others may love food. Up until 1 they are still getting most of their nutrition from milk, breast or formula, so weaning is more so learning about different textures and exposing them to different foods, essentially building blocks for their future with food!

Ice cube trays are a great way to store foods you’ve made. Begin with individual fruits and vegetables, trying a new one each day over a period of a few weeks. Everyone does it differently, I know with mine I will introduce vegetables first (Charlotte Stirling-Reed follows this) as babies prefer sweet things, so would prefer to start on savoury, but again this is personal preference .

Hi, I did the same and it's tricky. We started with just one or two meals per day, and swapped each breastfeed for a formula feed. She still doesn't drink nearly enough formula. We had to try multiple cups and ended up skipping a bottle and going straight to a sippy cup. At this age, formula is much more important than food so I'd focus on making sure he gets enough of that.

There are some really supportive and helpful groups on Facebook where you'll be able to ask advice from parents who have done this before. Breastfeeding yummy mummies is a good one. I'm in the same position but with my 19 month old and that group has been really useful though I'm yet to take the leap😬 Good luck!

I did this!
I know what you mean. I just swapped one feed at a time. So for example boob feed two of the day I swapped for a bottle. Did that for a few days..then feed BEFORE the bedtime feed. Switched that.

Literally did feed by feed like that over many weeks.

Advice said offer milk with food but it didn't work like that for a while with me.

I carried on feeding with boob in tandem with meals and didn't change the time I'd feed to fit in with food...but she took a while to be interested in food. So I didn't cut back at all on feeds.

At the point then I was boob morning boob before bed, bottles in day it fell nicely to have a "meal" then give a bottle of formula after the meal.

Eventually it does fall into place but for me it took months, but because I chose for it to go super slowly.

She's just about to turn 10months and last week she had her last breast feed. My boobs kept up really well doing it so slowly!

Good luck. Just remember milk is more important than real solid food at this stage!!

Ps mine didn't have three meals til 8months. A "meal" was a sample of one type food mashed up. Started with "lunch". Then we added breakfast but dropped lunch and just did brekki and dinner. 8months we added lunch back in.