Weaning at 6 months - when does lunch replace milk?!

[MildWest]

DD is fast approaching 6 months. So far, exclusively BF, 4 feeds a day (7/7.30, 11am, 2.30pm and 6.30pm).

My original plan was to BF for 6 months then stop, but now it's actually enjoyble (LOTS of problems at the beginning) i'm having a re-think.

We'll probably be starting weaning in a few weeks, when she hits 26 weeks.

Any idea who long it will take, roughly, until the 11am milk will be replaced by lunch?

Don't want to introduce formula at roughly the same time as weaning (and going on holiday!) but do need to start dropping feeds, and figured the 11am was the one more likely to be replaced by food soon-ish.

Yay for your 6 months And I definitely recommend keeping going if you are enjoying it. Your baby is about to get a lot less portable so the convenience of BFing will make things easier.

OK, I'm certainly not an expert on weaning or BFing, but I'll tell you what I did.

First of all, DD had way more than four feeds a day. Well it was sort of like yours as in: wake-up feed, elevenses feeds, post nap feeds, bedtime feed, night feeds when teething or sick.

I guess she started having more of a "lunch" and less of a little snack after 2 or 3 months. It was quite gradual. Because she had multiple morning feeds I suppose she just gradually had fewer as her lunch because more of a meal. Then at some point I realised she wasn't really having a feed between waking up from the night and waking up from her nap.

Why do you need to start dropping feeds? I work full time and when DD was around 6 mos I really didn't feel I could keep expressing twice a day, so cut that to one. I'd say we ran out of frozen EBM in about a month and then she would have one feed per day of formula at the CMs.

When she was at home with me, she would just feed as normal.

HTH. Weaning was slow for us and at around 9 mos seemed to go in reverse for a while. I was very glad I was still BFing then.

I ff so maybe a bit different, but I think like everything else, each baby is different and has different needs. When the time comes, you will know what your baby wants and needs.
My ds1 took so well to solids that he was on 3 meals a day within the first week and by the time he was 9 months old, was only having 1 bottle of milk a day.

Thanks Dee, I really didn't think we'd make it this far!

As for dropping feeds, well after we stopped doing a 1030ish dreamfeed, I think it took a good few weeks for my supply to adjust so am planning to drop a feed a month, to give DD a gentle transition too. I'd definitely like to stop altogether about September time, so working backwards that means dropping 1 a month through June, July and August. Might possibly keep doing the bedtime one for a little longer, not sure yet.

Oh, bit of a dilemma! Perhaps we'll play it by ear and see if we can get away without formula altogher. Just realised this is now in completely the wrong board