Weaning and BF - what am I supposed to do?

[Abubu]

Hi,

Apologies if this question has been asked a lot.

I have been weaning my baby for a couple of weeks now but a bit confused about what I am supposed to do now about BF.

She was exclusively BF before weaning. If she was feeding every 4 hours before, am I supposed to be giving her a little bit of a BF then solids, then topping up with BF as a whole meal every 4 hours, or should I be BF evenley spaced between meals eg. BF at 12pm, solids at 2pm, BF at 4pm?

I have been spacing it out but she doesn't seem hungry enough to take a full BF a couple of hours after her solids. My Annabel Karmel book says it is important not to reduce the amount of milk the baby is getting when weaning but I can't see how that won't be the case?

Thanks.

for the first few weeks of weaning, my dd was not really interested in eating much of the food i gave her, so she continued to bf pretty much the same as before. it was more a case of fitting the 'meals' into the bf schedule than the other way round. milk should still be the main food source during the first year, so i wouldn't stress too much about the solids. before they get the hang of food, babies fill up on milk rather than solids.

I'm no expert so don't take my word for it, but I think the AK advice about not reducing milk is for if you wean before 6 months... you don't say how old your LO is but I think before 6 months solids would be in addition to milk, and from 6 months they start replacing some of the milk... but a lot depends on the baby so I would say just take your baby's lead.

I always just offered food at our mealtimes (say 8, 1 and 6) and BF in between, although I know some people off milk and food at the same time. I think both DDs fell quite naturally into a routine of BF first thing, mid-morning, mid-afternoon and then at bedtime, with meals in between.

I think we used to do this:

bf on waking in the morning.

breakfast about an hour later

bf before mid morning nap

bf after nap

lunch about an hour later

bf before afternoon nap

bf after afternoon nap

tea about an hour later.

bf at bed time

(then during the night as well)

So, quite a lot of bfing still at this age. Solic food is really secondary

I found my DS was of course only hungry when he had less BF.

Also start giving some water to drink in the day.

Just in case it's useful, our "routine" is:

wake up - BF
breakfast an hour later
BF after nap (about 11 or 11.30)
lunch at 12
BF at 2.30
tea at 5
BF at 6.30
BF at 10.30

I have heard that once you get established you shouldn't give milk within an hour of solids as it reduces iron absorption. But at the beginning I know a lot of people (including me) find it useful to give a bit of boob just before solids so that the LO isn't starving hungry and has a little energy boost to give them a chance to get interested in solids.

Oh, also meant to say DD is 7 months and we started weaning just before 6 months (like, 5 days, so shoot me).