Worried about leaving breastfed 15 month old

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Hi guys, I have a 15 month old little girl who's exclusively breastfed. She comes and goes for milk whenever she pleases! So no set times or every couple of hours. I'm looking at a job just 9.5 hours a week as really needing the extra money right now, the times are 10am til 2.45pm Monday and Fridays and so id be leaving her for 5.5 hours. The longest we've gone has been 4 hours which she has been fine (with her dad). The thing that worries me is she barely eats. Like Im talking maybe half a pouch of yogurt and a bite of banana! So I'm really worrying about leaving her for this long. I know nursery will offer her food though and I can provide cows milk but she's just so use to her milk. Has anyone experienced anything similar? How was their baby being left for so long? I just worry she's going to starve! 😭 P.s i can barely pump milk so can't even send her with a cup of milk. Thank yoy

She needs the nutrition from food now, BF isn't enough anymore. This is a positive thing.

Fwiw I BF until 18 months and worked FT from 8 months.

I bf until 20 months so not getting weird and judgy about this but she'll be fine, she doesn't need milk that often now. Feed her before you leave, leave snacks and drinks for her, and feed when you see her again. She's not going to die of hunger or thirst in 5.5 hours. Or even 8 or 10, although I wouldn't jump to that length of absence in one go, obviously. Might be a good opportunity to stretch out the time between bfs and get her eating more solids, too, if you stick to that gap at that time every day. If that's what you want, obviously. My son, btw, didn't eat solids really at all until around that age and is now a strapping, healthy 12 year old. Hard to say whether I bf him so much because he wouldn't eat solids, or he wouldn't eat solids because I bf him so much. Maybe a bit of both. But it will pass. Babies are generally more flexible than you think. She'll adjust fast.

She’ll be fine. I went back to work full time when mine was 11 months and she was barely eating food. She was doing ful nursery days and sh managed fine, and has helped her eat more. I still feed on demand when I’m not working, shes 13 months now. You don’t need to pump or send breast milk, she can have cows milk and food; and t Breastfeeds when she’s with you.

It’s been a very long time so this may not be longer be the latest train of thought but isn’t part of going onto solids and chewing supposed to aid the speech process? If that is still the case development can be delayed as a result of not progressing through weaning and onto a full solids.

I BF my first until 26 months and am currently BF an 18 month old and I think it's fine NOT to BF at every demand at 15 months and to encourage eating more solids. BF is a two way relationship and boundary setting around BF is just as valid as around any other behaviour. Aside from nutritional aspects it's important at this age to develop chewing skills and the oral development that will feed into speech development.

Of course one year olds need milk, don’t be so silly!

It seems the two are getting conflated. Absolutely, OP’s little one needs to become more comfortable with eating solids. But that’s not at the expense of stopping breast milk(!) or introducing a strict breastfeeding schedule, as some in this thread have advocated. A healthy three meals a day plus breastfeeding on demand can and do co-exist very nicely.

Thank you for this. I think I've accepted she'll be absolutely fine and it will most likely help her start eating more! For everyone saying about how it's wrong and she should be on solids - yes i agree to a certain extent but she's my third baby, her brother was exactly the same and is now a thriving 7yo so I'm not overly worried. She's a healthy weight and a happy content baby! Every child is different and it's also a comfort for breastfed babies, not just food, especially when there's no other comfort like a dummy, teddy etc. Thanks everyone.

I fed to 26 months despite DD being in nursery for 4 long days per week. She started nursery at 13 months and was absolutely fine.

On non nursery days she demand fed. All was well. This is a non issue.

This is interesting, I've never heard this before but my son was late in talking and barely ate solids. I'll definitely try to encourage more solids

Not every couple of hours. Maybe a cup a day and in cereal.

She needs more than breast milk in her diet now and so frankly I’d see reducing her breast milk as a good thing. Less milk will mean she ends up eating more . You particularly need to make sure she has lots of iron sources which it doesn’t sound like she does right now. The advice is 3 meals and 2 snacks at this age - I EBF’d early on and then moved to formula and then normal milk and now my 13 month old only has two bottles of milk a day so she will be motivated to eat a broad array of other food.

What’s her routine with meals - breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks?

I would be so concerned about the no solids! At that age they should be eating 3 meals a day, have you been introducing the allergens such as peanuts etc? I'm all for extended breastfeeding but not at the detriment to them learning how to eat and swallow solid food, and as other have said it helps their speech as well

Yes, I've introduced eggs, peanuts etc and she's fine. She's tried most things, she just doesn't eat enough of them all. If I was to offer her banana she would take one bite and be done. She will eat smallest florette of brocoli, half a pouch of yogurt. Smallest finger piece of toast.. 2 or 3 quavers.. She tends to be in s habit of spitting everything out as well at the moment. But i understand what everyone is saying and agree she does need to eat more and I will definitely try and reduce the amount of milk.

You want the child to be dependant on you, at 14”5 months they should be getting most of their nutrition from food! Book yourself some parenting classes so you get the balance right and find information on child nutrition.