9&1/2mth DD still taking approx.8 breast feeds a day and has lost 2 ounces in last 3 weeks. Some advice pls

[LovePotatoes]

Hello, i hope you can advise me.
She is between the 9th and 25th centile and has lost weight since last weigh in three weeks ago.
SHe is progressing well with milestones and is a happy little baby, thankfully.
My DD EBF and been quite fussy with solids. Her food and drink diary is something like this:
5-6am ish has BF
7.30 ish BF
9-10am Breakfast (ready brek/weetabix few spoons, raisins, 1-2 squares toast an few sips water.
(occasionally has 11am breast fed but trying to replace with snack and water)
1-2pm Lunch (a little fish/pasta sauce/rice with toast/pasta and yoghurt SHE LOVES and few sips of water)
4-5pm ish BF.
6pm ish dinner (one of the other choices in lunch menu)
8pm ish BF
10pm ish BF
Midnight Dream feed BF
3am dream feed.

She has been teething and another one on top is poking through. Today I gave in a mid-morning and gave her a BF. Am wanting her to not have BF during day as I go back to work in July.
Please can I have some advice in how to reduce BF and boost her solid intake for increased calories. She will only really accept yoghurt from a spoon (mixed with double cream) and will let me hand feed her savoury rice.
Any advice greatly appreciated.
:)

im eagerly anticipating your replies :)
x

My lo is now 10.5 months old and is eating a lot more than she was a month ago.
Things she eats well(she doesn't like to be spoon fed so eats with her hands) are baked potato mashed with a lot of cheese and butter and then put back in the skin (sometimes she eats the skin!), quiche (homemade with cream) scrambled egg (in big lumps not creamy)and fish fingers (I remove a lot of the coating so she mainly eats the fish).
We're still on at least one feed during the day and at least one during the night. I'm hoping that the balance between bf and solids will gradually change.

If I am honest, it looks like she is relying on the BF to fill her up and therefore has no need to be hungry and fill up on solids. I would also say that at 9.5 months, she doesn't need to have a dreamfeed or a nightfeed - they will now be a habit, especially if she is waking 2-3 hours later at 5am for another feed.

If you want her to eat more solids, you will need to dramatically cut down on the milk. If she wakes in the night, offer her water (your partner may need to do this so that you don't give in, especially if she can smell your milk!).

DS2 (10 months) has the following:

7am: 4 oz milk + weetabix made with 3 oz milk + fruit
9-9.30am nap
10am water + snack
12pm lunch + water
12.30-2.30pm nap
2.30pm 5 oz milk
3.30pm water and snack
5pm tea + water
6.30pm 8oz milk
7pm BED!

At this age they need about 18oz of milk including that which is used in cooking (e.g. a yoghurt is approx 2oz).

Hope that helps

I think you need to drop some of the milk feeds if you want her to eat more. I'd swap the late pm milk and tea, to get more solids in her. More protein may make her feel fuller, and drop at least some of the evening / night feeds. Are two milk feeds also necessary? Why not bring breakfast forward and drop the second milk?

X-post!

But everyspring - the baby is consuming a huge amount of BM already and NOT putting on weight! By offering protein, full fat diary and carbs regularly, three times a day plus additional snacks she will put on weight. However, she is not going to consume any volume of solids if she is always topped up and full of BM!

Thank you for the advice :) Addictedtofrazzles, I will offer breakfast earlier than Iam and give her tea at 4-5 instead of the BF & take it from there. If I didn't have to go back to work when i do then i would be more laid back about the BF. Everyspring, I agree that the BF must be more calorific. Thanks again everyone. :)

Thank you for the advice :) Addictedtofrazzles and ilovemountains I will offer breakfast earlier than Iam and give her tea at 4-5 instead of the BF & take it from there. If I didn't have to go back to work when i do then i would be more laid back about the BF. Everyspring, I agree that the BF must be more calorific. Thanks again everyone. :)

I would seek advise a breastfeeding expert (LLL maybe). If she won't eat solids you don't want to cut down too much of the BF - she'll be taking in less calories overall. Make sure the solids you do give her are nice and calorific - sod the carrots and bring on the creamy mashed potato for example.

Has she just started crawling or just started nursery or something? She may not be having the huge amounts of BM everyone thinks too - my DS2 used to feed a lot (never counted) at that age but only for 5 mins or so - I think he was just quenching his thirst every now and again.

If she continues to drop weight you might want to get her checked by the GP. I wouldn't worry too much now about July either - the little sods change a lot in 2 months. Mine dropped BF completely between 10 and 12 months even though I wanted to carry on morning and evening.

Thanks Owlingate. She is now crawling and is much more active. She only drinks for 5-10mins at a time.
Iam going to see the health visitors again in a month. Iam adding double cream to cereals and yoghurts and mash potatoes etc so lets see if that boosts her weight.
If her weight drops again i will see the GP. I will take each day as it comes and not worry about July for now. Thanks again :)

Food isn't just for fun at this stage, I can't link as I'm on my mobile but even the WHO states that a good balance of solids from six months is important.
There was a thread a while ago asking for evidence to support the "food before one is just for fun" mantra, nobody supplied any.

I'm going to be pedantic and point out that breast milk doesn't actually contain more calories than all food, kellymom has a list and for example bananas and avocados actually contain more calories per weight than breast milk.
Op, sounds like a good plan. Hope it goes well.

I agree with you entirely ilovemountains.

Good luck OP - I hope it goes well and remember that with any changes, your little one will need time to adapt (and will no doubt protest in the mean time!). Give yourself a good week-fortnight or perseverence.

Maybe she's not BFing because she's hungry but because she's thirsty and/or it's comforting for her gums when teething. My dd still BFs way more when she has new teeth coming through and she's now 17 months. She was always around 25th centile and although I have no idea of her centile now, she is the same size as others her age and is walking, talking, feeding herself etc. Your dd won't necessarily stay small forever - or on the other hand she may just be a small person, they do exist!

I wouldn't be trying to cut down the BF, but I would be trying to ensure she isn't being offered food when she's full of milk, I would try to cut down the BF at night (we went with the dh doing night time wakes and put dd into her own room at 8 months - it took 3 days of very little stress and she's slept through ever since) and I would also choose some mor filling options for her food. At 9.5 months she can eat most things - bar the honey, sugar, salt type things. Give her the same as you're having. Oh and remember that until she has more than a few sips from a cup you are her only source of 'drinks'

thank you everyone for all your advice :)

No advice on the weight loss, but thought I would share my experience of number of bfs / amount of food (although may not be completely relevant to your situation because of the weight loss which may mean you have to do things slightly differently).

My dd is 10.5months old now and has only really started to eat significant amounts (and then not every meal) in the last 6 weeks or so. At 9.5 months her routine was:

7am bf
8am breakfast
9am bf then nap
12 lunch
1 / 1.30pm bf then nap
4pm bf
5pm tea
7pm bf then bed
11pm dream feed

Plus one (sometimes two) feeds at night. So she hadn't dropped any feeds but they did seem shorter.

Over the last few weeks, the 4pm feed has been replaced by a snack then today she didn't want her 9am feed. Therefore in dd's case, it seems she is gradually reducing her feeds herself.

I go back to work in July as well and was worrying but I'm now feeling more confident that she will be ready to either go without milk completely during working hours or just need one milk feed in the middle of the day.

DD also tends to cut back on solids almost completely and up her milk hugely when teething, then gradually goes back to normal.

Sorry, very long post.

I seem to be doing a very similar pattern of feeding to waterhorse except I don't do the 4pm bf and do tea at 4.30 or so. This means dc3 (10m) is very hungry at tea but sometimes only takes one side at 7pm. I also don't do the 11pm dreamfeed.
potatoes I think if you keep giving as much solids as you can that by July you'll find the daytime feeds are not a problem , that if she's hungry she can have a lot of plain yog or some thing else other than bf.
I sometimes wonder if making food too rich can make them feel too full too quickly, and also wonder if babies have a short attenton span for food and will eat more if you offer 4 or 5 diff things (egg, then cheese on toast, then pear ,then yog, then banana) and only let them eat a huge amount of the last thing.

Thank you for your advice. That is very good advice re. offering 4 or 5 different things. My LO took more today doing that so lets see... :)

Bumping this to ask if things are going any better lovepotatoes.