5 month old BFing a lot (specially at night) but I don't want to wean now

[schroedingersdodo]

Since DS was born, I have kept a log of all his feeds, times, etc (control freak, I know). He has always fed 5 or 6 times a day, consistently. He started to sleep through at about 2 months, I guess, but when he was approaching 4 months he just started to wake up several times in the night to feed.

Having read about the 4 months growth spur/sleep regression, I just fed him more frequently and all was well (sleep improved after some time). Despite some people saying that might be a sign he was ready for weaning, I decided to continue BFing as I thought milk has more calories than weaning food. (He is exclusively breast fed).

Now he is 5 months (will be 5 months in 2 days) and has been feeding a lot of times a day! 9 or 10 times, to be precise, lots of these during the night (yes, he started waking up again...).

The point is, I don't want to wean him now because I'm too lazy to prepare food now prefer to wait until he is more developed so he can grab things, swallow, etc, as I want to start BLW before mashed food.

He can't sit by himself but if you sit him he stays upright with no support for a long time. He can grab things quite well, he shows interest in our food, but he has no teeth at all.

I'm also going to visit my family for a month in October/November, and I don't want to have to worry about weaning, preparing foods and all those things while I'm there.

I just wonder if he would benefit of some solid food by now (I'm a bit impressed with the 9 feeds a day!) or should I just stop worrying, put him on the breast, and get busy with other things.

Has anyone here been through the same thing?

ps: he's gaining weight fine, no health concerns.

If you're planning on BLW, he might let you know when he's ready. I started BLW at about 24 weeks when DS stole a banana out of my hand, two days in a row In the meantime he was still feeding like fury at all hours of the day and night, and continued to do so for quite a while afterwards.

You sound relaxed about leaving it until you know he's ready, so I would trust your instincts.

BTW my DS had no teeth until he was 1, but it didn't stop him eating an enormous variety of foods between 6-12 months.

I am in the same boat as you except that dd (nearly 19 weeks) has always fed about 9 times a day or more and never slept through.

From 15-17 weeks she fed two, occasionally three hourly virtually round the clock and the HV (and everyone else) insisted she was ready for food (HV - "just start with two meals a day though") but thankfully she suddenly went to one night waking - although she then got a cold which still hasn't cleared up so she's been waking for other reasons.

She can't sit even with support for very long but since 14 weeks or so has been able to grab stuff and put it in her mouth. I am very keen to hold off on weaning for exactly the same reasons as you - we have a holiday abroad in four weeks and don't want any worry about food while we are there. Want to go the BLW route.

No advice really but just wanted to say I'm going to try and get through to 26 weeks too!

cyteen and GoldenGreen, thanks for the reassurance!

Maybe ds just needs more milk, after all :) I will wait a bit longer then, and start solid food only when we come back, when he will be 6 months and 10 days.

(well, probably in the meantime he will end up eating a couple of things as my mother can't wait to give him food, so guess I'll let her give him some finger food as I don't want to deny her this pleasure while I'm at her place during holidays)

BTW, "only 2 times a day"? Shouldn't we start with solids once a day, and then gradually increase the meals? Well, that's what I'll do anyway :)

Yes, I found that advice hard to accept - to go from exclusively bf to two meals a day within a few days seems a bit hard on a young stomach frankly!

9x a day at 5 months sounds normal to me - my 9 m.o. feeds 6/7 times and eats loads of solids.

Is it that he thinks he needs bf to go back to sleep when he wakes, rather than being actually hungry when he wakes in the night? The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley has some ideas for this sort of situation.

I bf'd DS every time he woke but by the time he was around 6/7 months he started waking at the end of every sleep cycle looking for a feed, even though he wasn't actually hungry. I would settle him without feeding as often as I could, and feed him when I couldn't. He went from waking for feeds 6/7 times a night to once a night.

We started BLW at 6 months and I'm so glad we waited. We started with 2/3 meals a day but it's fine with BLW - they just eat (or not) the amount they can manage. Just offer food whenever it suits you, whether that's once or 3 times a day. It usually takes a while before they really swallow much.