Cold turkey?

[miarose22]

I have just taken my LG to the health visitor as her diet is very poor. She is 1 in 2 weeks and she hardly eats solid meals. She has a few mouthfuls and then refuses it. She still has a lot of breastmilk in the night, so the health visitor thinks she's just not hungry in the day due to the amount she's eating at night. Her advice was for me to go cold turkey and cut out breastfeeding altogether now. I'm ready to move on from breastfeeding so am happy to stop breastfeeding but was worried about what she's going to use to settle herself as she won't take a dummy. The boob was her comfort blanket. I've cried thinking this is the end of our breastfeeding journey, after an amazing year, but she needs to eat more food now. Is it just as simple as not offering it to her and then distracting her with someone else when she wants it?

TIA x

Not too sure to be honest. My LO wasn't the greatest eater but I offered her small portions every so often rather than big meals. The amount of solids did improve. Maybe try yogurt to begin with, even fruity yogurt. And sit and eat with her too. I think going cold turkey is a bit drastic as I think every child develops at their own speed. Plus food was just for fun in the first year so she has a lot of learning to do. She will get it eventually. :)

I personally wouldn't go cold turkey it could potentially be quite traumatic for your LG. I bf my DD for almost two years and found bf advice quite crap from HV most of whom had never bf. My DD bf through the night still at 1 she had about 2/3 feeds. How many does your have? I found it was more limiting her day feeds or atleast not having them till after a meal helped my DD eat better.
Also some DC do take abit longer with weaning. If your on Facebook there are some greater groups where you can ask questions and others who have had similar issues may be able to help. The groups are Breastfeeding younger babies and beyond (under 1) or breastfeeding older babies and beyond (over 1). They are closed groups but have over 10000 members.

@preggers506974215 thank you for your advice. She's hardly having milk in the day but almost constant at night. I need to stop the night feeds as I'm going back to work and I do night shifts. It's very difficult. Would otherwise continue but it's not going to work with the job that I do. I felt the health visitor didn't really offer me much advice at all. So feel a little helpless x

Your HV is suggesting you stop Breastfeeding when it's not what you want. How bad is her diet? She isn't quite a year old and it's not really that abnormal for them not to be on 3 meals a day. Some kids are not big eaters, some prefer to graze etc. Tbh I would be trying to work on that without stopping feeding. Seems like odd advice from the HV for a quick fix convo rather than because it's necessary. There are other ways to improve on eating

What I mean is an improvement by day will see a natural decline in night feeds. Cold turkey isn't the way to fix it though. It's the other way, work on food, it will fix BF. Stopping BF suddenly will just cause you both huge upset.

She's suggesting that because she eats all night that she's not hungry in the day. So she won't be interested in food until the breastfeeding at night is cut out x

I realise that. I think she is wrong to suggest you tackle it by night rather than by day. She said cutting out BF at night will help the food in the day, but equally if you fix the fat problem the night should ease up. What's the food intake like?

@snowybaubles I'll be lucky if she has a couple bites of a sandwich and about 4 spoons of dinner. That's it. Breakfast is a real problem - she doesn't eat any of it! X

It does seem like she possibly is filling up too much on milk if she's not having any breakfast at all. I have heard of a night weaning approach but I can't remember where I read/heard it. Basically you don't go cold turkey but start to put time restrictions on how often you feed. It might mean you have a bad few nights so obviously before you go back to work. I think they basically recommend you start by allowing one last feed say at 11pm and then don't bf her up until 3am. Instead if she wakes offer her water/cuddles etc. Then you slowly start to extend the time. Never did this myself I admit but came close to trying it afew times.

@preggers506974215 thank you, that seems like quite a sensible thing to do. I will perhaps try and give this approach a go, rather than completely stopping x

Her advice was for me to go cold turkey and cut out breastfeeding altogether now.

I’m no health professional, but that seems quite bizarre and extreme for a child under 1.

How have you approached feeding solid food? What kind of foods does she seem to like? It didn’t work for me but a friend of mine got on really well with BLW while still breastfeeding.

@Pinkblueberry I thought so too, we're doing a don't offer but don't refuse method and that seems much kinder.

I do BLW but also offer her mashed up food with a spoon as I find most of it goes on the floor x