Which milk feed should I drop? I'm confused!

[MrsMar]

Currently ds (6months) has:

8am, breast feed followed immediately by breakfast (cooked fruit with a bit of baby rice or porridge or something similar)

12noon (ish) breast feed followed by lunch, currently some cooked veggies with baby rice

3.30pm approx, short breast feed (one boob unless he's desperate for the other one)

6pm breast feed plus top up bottle of at least 4 or 5oz ebm

11pm dream breastfeed.

Thing is I want to start introducing a third solid meal and some protein at lunchtime. My sister says that milk can inhibit the absorption of iron so I should drop the lunchtime milk feed, but the 3.30 one is the one I get the impression he's not so desperate for iyswim. Plus with a third meal at about 5pm will he need the 3.30 feed? But... if milk causes problems with iron absorption, perhaps I should be dropping the lunchtime one and giving him some protein then.

Sorry it's so long, but any thoughts...?

hmm dairy can inhibit the absorption of iron. I have no idea (but would be inclined to disagree) if breastmilk has the same effect. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be able to tell us whether or not that is true

I can't see any reason to drop any of his feeds tbh. Would just add in the third meal at around 5ish maybe? you can always give him more protein at that one if you are worried about the milk

should add, until a year milk should be his primary source of nutrition. your breastmilk contains everything he needs. so don't worry about replacing a feed with a meal

Thanks for that fingerwoman. I'm still giving him milk first because I was aware that milk is the most important source of nutrition, but he does seem to be taking less at each feed even though I'm giving it to him first.

to continue... (ds woke up!) what threw me was that flicking through the annabel karmel book it appears that she suggests dropping the lunchtime feed too once on to second stage weaning. Hence my confusion. Should I stick with 5 feeds a day until he's one? Should I be keeping that up even when I go back to work, ie the cm giving him 5 bottles? Sounds an awful lot to me.

at 6 months ds had 5 bottle feeds (1 in the night). I never gave solids and milk together so he would still have appetite for both e.g.

7am - milk
8am - breakfast
11am - milk
12pm - lunch
3pm - milk
5pm - dinner
7.15pm - milk
in the night till 8 months - milk (didnt do a dream feed)

Could you try splitting the solids/milk up and then you wouldnt need to worry about the iron issue and your lo might maintain his milk intake if you feel he is cutting down too fast.

p.s. from 8 months ds had 4 feeds (gave up the night feed), from 9 months he had 3 feeds and he went to 2 feeds from around 10 1/2 months. The feeds to go first were the mid-morning and then the mid-afternoon one and they were both dropped when ds lost interest in them.

I would just add in 3rd meal. Milk is good for them and I just followed their lead ie. if they started refusing solids cos they weren't hungry I would give them the meal first then offer milk, thus they just stopped wanting milk at mealtimes so I just kept the mid morning, mid afternoon and bedtime milk feeds. DS started dropping these very early- around 6-9mths- though now at nearly 3 he still has bedtime milk. DD dropped most daytime milk by about 9-12mths but will still have a bottle some afternoons after her nap and she is 20mths.

i would just make the lunch time one a bit earlier. so have breast at 11ish and lunch at 1. Over the next few months the day feeds will get shorter and shorter

thanks for the advice everyone, I've totally cocked things up today, ds didn't wake up until 9.30am, so he had his milk and breakfast then, and then we went swimming so he's now so tired he's fallen asleep at the boob and he's having a nap now. I'll give him his lunch when he wakes up and try and get some tea in him at 5pm. I'm amazed how much my milk has gone though... I didn't realise that I'd have to keep up feeding every three hours just to keep my milk supply going. That's what it feels like to me anyway!