How to drop milk feeds when BF'ing?

[Mollymom]

Just read a thread lower down about dropping a feed but it only talks about bottle feeding.

How do I go about dropping a feed when breast feeding? Or should I just wait for DD to drop feeds herself?

She is 7 months old and on 3 meals a day (one meal does tend to be pretty small though). Thought maybe she'd eat more food if she had less milk? No idea really...

too early to think about dropping feeds, in a few months she will lose interest in some of them without you prompting her

Thanks-just read a thread further down where lots of people seemed to be doing the same as me which has boosted my confidence! The answers are all on MN somewhere-its just finding them!

Ooh - where is that thread Mollymom - am thinking about the same thing too!

Have just tried today for the first time to drop the normal 4pm feed as my DTs were having BF at 4ish, tea at 5ish and then another BF at 6:30ish - and I was finding that they weren't taking in much at the 6:30 one so am hoping that dropping the 4 in favour of an earlier tea might help. Will see whether it means an additional night waking tonight - hope not!!

I was wondering about this too. I have just been offering him the breast like normal and sometimes he takes it and sometimes he's not interested. To be honest I feel a bit sad when he's not! I think it will happen naturally over time.

hmmm very interesting. My DW is dropping breastfeeds at night. The midnight and 4am ones. DS is 11mths old next week. DW had gone back to work at 12 weeks (I know) and had kept up expressing etc. She no longer expresses. Making do with thawed breast milk during the daytime. DW breastfeeds twice a day now. After breakfast and after supper - when DS is on a full stomach.

He was a bit moany during a few nights but has found comfort in his teddy bear. He co- sleeps with us which also comforts him. It has to be a gradual reduction cos at first she got lumps in her breast which had to be massaged and hand expressed out etc. That lasted a few weeks before her body readjusted. Also with expressing she also had to gradually reduce her output and then stop.

Hope that helps.