How often do you breast feed your LO when BLW?

[PigsWiggle]

My LO is 8 months old, she normally has 4 breast feeds a day at about 7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm and "eats" (or throws on floor, rubs in her hair, smears into her bib) 3 meals a day but no snacks yet.

My health visitor is telling me to drop her 11am feed and give her a snack and water instead. At the moment I'm ignoring her advice as I thought the whole point of BLW was the baby decides when to drop breast feeds, but she has now put doubt into my mind and I'm worried I'm "doing it wrong".

I would be intrested to hear how often other mums who are following BLW are breast feeding their LOs and how many meals or snacks they have in a typical day. Also at what age do babies generally start to drop breast feeds and what feed do they tend to drop first?

I bottle fed and ds still had 4 milk feeds at that age. He didnt drop to 3 feeds until about 9 months at which point he got a snack and drink of water. If she wants the feed then I would still give it.

my dd had way more then that at that age, only when she was eating proper amounts at 10m did she reduce the milk intake by herself.
just keep on going, your dd will lead the way.

8.5 month DD has maybe 2 or 3 very short feeds in the day, and 3 large feeds in the night. She's always been fed on demand though rather than at any sort of set time, and she chose to reduce her feeds almost immediately. I obviously only feed expressed milk, and normally when DP was out for 5 or so hours in the morning (which we've done at least once a week since a couple of months) and she went from needing two milk feeds in that time, to now generally not wanting any at all, mostly rejecting it even if offerred.

She eats quite a lot.

My 8mo DD has a similar schedule - she has 3 solid meals and has breastfeeds typically 6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm, 10pm, 4am (plus often more in the night). I still feel like it's a bit young to be dropping any of these breastfeeds, and that she isn't eating well enough yet to be able to. Plus, they are useful to get her to nap if she is resisting!

I'm not doing entirely blw, but am leaning more towards finger food overall. She dropped bf a lot once I introduced solids, so I feel like she's definitely taking less milk than she used to, and I don't want to rush it.

In a few weeks I might start to give her a snack alongside one of these feeds and see what she does. But I am basically making it all up as I go along, so might be doing the wrong thing!

Much the same as everyone else my DS who is now just 8 months is on 3 substantial meals a day, spoon fed and BLW mixed, and water offered throughout the day, I also BF on demand, no set times, he seems to be lessening each feed so believe he will wean himself off as and when he is ready. I am in no hurry (mentally or physically) many of my friends BF'd for 18months.

I am a strong believer that your LO will tell you when he/she if ready

DS is 10 months and has slowly increased his food intake, he has 3 meals a day. Used to be he ate a few bites with most of it on the floor, but now he'll eat quite a bit (as long as he likes it, that is... otherwise it definitely goes on the floor!), and as such has reduced his milk feeds. It's all quite slow going and I wondered whether to cut out a milk feed as well at first, but I'm glad now that I didn't, because he dropped one (and then another) by himself. So I do think it all just adjusts automatically (and I notice I am less hungry now that he's breastfeeding less!).

DS is one on Thursday (hooray us)
an average day might be something like this
6:30 Breast milk
7 Breast milk
7:30 porridge and water
8:30 breast milk
9:30 breast milk
10ish snack
11ish breat milk
12ish lunch with water
1ish breast milk
3ish breast milk
5ish snack
7ish dinner with water
8ish breast milk
10:30 ish breast milk
and a couple over night

he eats quite a bit at each meal lunch is 1 or 2 pieces of toast with some thing. all meals (apart from breakfast are a two part meal so either yogurt or fruit after) I also random;y offer him water through out the day.

hazchem does DS demand or do you offer on each of those occasions? DD does the same as you from 10:30 to 7am, but after that has only 2 or 3 small feeds during the day, normally only at nap time if she doesn't settle immediately. rest of time it's just 3 meals at similar times, and sometimes snacks depending.

I offer a fair bit but DS also asks a fair bit.

Short answer is, whenever they want!

DS didn't drop to 4 feeds a day til 10 months, and wasn't down to three (cow's milk by this point) til about 15 months.

DD is 11mo and her day goes like this

6.30 bf (yawn, sometimes even earlier)
8.30 breakfast
10 cows milk in cup
12 lunch
2 snack
4 tea
5.30 bf
6.30 more bf after bath
9.30 dream feed
then 1-2 overnight

She's at nursery during the day which makes her drop all the day feeds. I think she might be more like hazchem's LO if I'm still on maternity.

Thank you all for your replies.
It is interesting to see how different every baby is!
I'm not in any hurry to stop breast feeding at all, I think I'll really miss it when she decides she has had enough.

I'm returning to work when she is about 13 months so I was hoping it would be realistic for her just to need breast feeds before and after work by then.

It is wrong of your HV to tell you to drop feeds at this age. Whichever way you feed your baby the milk is the most important thing till 12 months. It really isn't an issue how much solids they get but it is an issue if they have too little milk.

Pigs x-posted with you their. That is a realistic aim. You may want to post on the breast/bottle section for some advice on how to do that or ring one of the bfing helplines and talk to a trained Bfing Counsellor who will help you draw up a plan and answer any concerns you may have

There not their