Bf 8 month how to drop feeds?!

[Yawner247]

Lo is coming up for 8months and eats four meals a day & before each meal (usually about an hour) she has a feed except the supper...we do food first then upto bed for night time feed.. With each meal she is also offered a drink of water. Was wondering how to start dropping a bf in the day as not sure how to go about it! A few weeks ago she went all day without a bf...fed at 8am and again at 7pm but then was up a lot in the night feeding I will be returning to work around her first birthday and will be working three shifts which may mean sleepless nights full of feeding!!!

Are you feeding on schedule? I do bf on demand but give 3 meals and an afternoon snack at roughly the same time everyday. It works much better this way i found because it adapts to growth spurts. If DD doesn't demand, then it's time for solids again before we get to milk. An example is 2 weeks ago she was having her 9mo growth spurt and had 9 bf plus 4 solids a day. It's come right down this week and she's back to only one bf during work hours.

I just don't see how you can adjust to growth spurts if you do it on a fixed schedule.

And don't worry about work. Your little one will be much older and eating more solids. Also if you are going to nursery, they offer food at such frequency that I can't see myself do at home! My DD one does breakfast at 8, snack at 10, lunch at 12, snack again at 2 and tea at 4.30. I'm sure if you want to drop milk feeds closer to when you return to work (say a month) and can stomach cooking and cleaning high chair that often then feel free to copy the nursery schedule.

PS. I just check my app and actually I only manage 3 meals the last few days now the growth spurt is over.

We are on demand feeding she just seems to have settled in to that pattern...if she is unwell or teething or going through growth spurts obviously she will feed more but as a general rule we are down to the four feeds through the day! Thanks for your reply...and I did think by the time I'm back to work she will be eating more but sometimes you need to hear it from someone else

Meant to mention the nursery schedule is a bit barmy!!! No wonder they charge so much...it's all the food they purchase for them!!!