Almost 7 months

[MotherTryingHerBest]

I am writing this message on my wife’s behalf. She is struggling alot with our best 7 month old who is stuck to her breast all the time, especially at night. He will feed 10 times within an 4 to 5 hour period and that can consist of both an actual hunger feed or comfort to actually sleep. He started on mashed vegetables which he eats. But we thought this would fill him up more but it seems like he wants even more milk. He loves the breast and will not go near a bottle. Tried everything! It would be great if i could take the feeds atleast soo it gives my wife a break. I would also like to hear some stories from other mothers because she feels shes the only one going through this. But i know for sure there must be many many more people going through the same or worse

My son was the same at this age. The only way we improved our nights was by me not going to him when he woke up. We started off with my partner going in any time before midnight; if the baby woke up after 12 then I would go in and feed him. Otherwise, my partner would go and rock, sing etc until he went back off. He stopped waking up between 7 and midnight very quickly. After a couple of weeks of this, we pushed the time back so I wouldn’t feed him unless it was after 2am etc. By this point he was sleeping until 6am most nights.
Reading this, it sounds easy but it was hard for a week or so. He would wake up expecting me and get upset when it was his dad. He soon got used to it though and now (15 months), he prefers his dad at night if he ever wakes, which thankfully is not often.

It’s normal. Babies go through phases when they need more comfort feeds - teething, colds, etc.
It gets better, but gradually and not in a linear way. It’s very difficult for first time mums as it’s quite the shock to completely lose body autonomy.

Offer help and have the baby as much as possible between feeds to let her have some respite.

Agree that it's totally normal.

You've had some great suggestions on here already.

Some things that might also help are:

Putting them in their own room and making sure their cot smells the same as your bed, so maybe sleep with the sheets fit a couple of nights before putting them on the cot.

You going in to settle LO for some feeds.

Offering more protein and fat in the solids foods, there's a good guide on offering solids between 6 and 12 months here which includes a sample menu for a 7 month old

You getting LO up in the morning and changing him and offering him breakfast so that your DW can either have a little more time in bed or get a shower in peace

You can also take him out for a couple of hours on your days off, take him when he's unlikely to be wanting a feed and take something for him I eat and some water and go and feed the ducks/go swimming/go to the library/a dad's okay session anything really to improve your bond and give DM a break.