9 months still mainly breastfeeding - should I be worried?

[itsruddycold]

My DS is a real milk monster and does not seem interested in food - I started him on solids about 7 months due to illness at 6mo and since then he is just not interested in food. He likes yoghurt and the occasional organix fruit pot but as for anything else it is a real battle to get him to eat.

He will eventually eat homemade blended dinners but it is really hard work and takes around half an hour for him to have just a few spoons (I do this for lunch and dinner and for breakfast he has a bit of yoghurt or porridge.

He just isn't bothered but would have bm until the cows came home . He is still feeding about 6 times a day including one night feed.
So my question is, should I worry, is it ok that he eats so few solids? Should I cut the breastfeeds down?

Help!

My DD was a milk monster and did not eat solids really until she was 12 months old, then slowly she began eating more at 14 months and was happy feeding picking up her own food off the plate or using a spoon and feeding herself and drinking cows milk as she went to nursery a few days a week although I breastfed her in the morning and late afternoon and evening until she was 20 months as she loved it so much, much to the horror of my family and friends. She is now 2 and a half and eats everything and I'm really pleased I carried on the breastfeeding for as long as I did.

I'd try and cut down a feed at a time until you're on about 4 a day, then perhaps he'll be a bit more hungry for his solids? We do the following:

0600 bf
0800 weetabix or porridge
1100 bf
1300 lunch (savoury followed by fruit or fromage frais)
1530 bf
1730 tea (ditto lunch)
1900 bf

• nighttime feed

Have you tried finger foods? We did toast with mashed sardines the other day and dd loved it

I have a similar problem! I would suggest perhaps missing out a meal or just giving a snack for one. The pressure to get them on 3 meals a day is huge (and IMO, unnecessary, until they are nearer one anyway), and if it's taking 1.5 hours and is a battle it's not worth it for either of you. Personally I only give my 9mo LO a few bits at lunch while I eat my sandwich, as he doesn't seem bothered. Also he is then sometimes a little more receptive to eating a bit more later on.

similar here although she does have more solids than you. Just a bit indifferent to solids. My problem is weight gain - there is none. Is your lo still gaining and when you say night feed, do you mean in the middle of the night?

hi sorry i managed to hide this thread and couldnt figure out how to get it back so i couldnt check it! very frustrating.
DS has only gained 4 pounds since christmas, had him weighed yesterday but HV thought he was ok weight at 20.6 for his age.
She recommended cutting back on bf starting with afternoon one, so I've done that today and when he wakes from his nap in a few mins I am going to combine a puree and some finger food for dinner and hopefully he will be hungry!
Thanks for the posts guys.
Oh and shortmemory yes I mean middle of the night zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

music maiden i know what you mean about the 3 meals a day pressure - i will try just giving him a few picky bits at lunch rather than a meal i.e. soup and bread and see if that does anything. Feel like I am starving him though taking away the afternoon feed when he hasn't eaten anything really since 11am bf and a tiny bit of rice cake.....

My DS (9 months) doesn't eat much solid food, though seems to have picked up a bit more of an appetite for it in the past week. I'm doing sort-of-BLW and the whole idea with that is that they will eat more when they're ready, but it can be a bit nerve-wracking waiting. Still giving him as much milk as he wants, but I've tried to time it now so his mealtimes come when he's a bit hungry for a milk feed, and then breastfeed him after. I think finger foods are a bit less time consuming as you can get on with eating yourself or other stuff while they eat (or don't eat), though of course there's still all the cleaning up etc.

My ds is nearly 7 mos and is interested in his food but just doesn't get much down him. He gets purees and finger food. He's very keen on bm too.

He gets breakfast and supper with lots of bm whenever he wants it. He's certainly not fading away! Breast milk is full of fats. And good fats too.

I've never understand the rush i. to wean and ii. get the little ones onto three meals a day asap.

It's all new to the babies and they've got the rest of their lives to learn. No rush.

I know what you mean about worrying about them not eating much in the afternoon, itsruddycold. Yesterday I accidentally ended up going for lunch with a friend (!) and therefore didn't have any food with me to give DS except bits of bread from my plate. Then he fell asleep for 1.5 hours at 3pm. So he hardly had a thing between 11.15am milk and 5pm - I was a bit worried. Then he ate a whole pot of puree and a yoghurt - the shock! That is rare though.

Personally I wouldn't drop a feed exactly but just try to make sure he doesn't feed for a couple of hours before his dinner time (and maybe has lots of active play beforehand). But as I say, I'm having the same issues so I'm certainly no expert...

WinkyWinkola has it right, there's no real rush (mantra)

Well today I didn't give him his afternoon BF again (as per HV instruction and damn my boobs are ready to explode). Dinner was about 6 baby spoons of shepherds pie, a couple of broccoli heads which he ate himself and 3 baby spoons of yoghurt.
This is surely not enough to keep him going since he hadn't had milk since 10am and had a pitiful lunch? But he hasn't been crying with hunger, he was a bit moany late afternoon but went to sleep.

Musicmaiden when I think about it he did sleep from 4.45-5.45 after playing all afternoon. maybe I need to give him his tea about 4 and he might be hungry after his play.
But then he won't be eating with us. Oh I give up!!

Winkywinkola that is good advice - I tend to get swayed by offical types such as the HV but I should just go with the flow a bit more. Cheers.

I think they do get there in their own time. Just keep offering a range of interesting foods, with no pressure, and they will get the hang of it.

DS was a milk monster, lots of day (and night) feeds. He would taste lots of things, but didn't eat much at all until around 10 months, and was only really on the '3 meals' by a year. He's now nearly 4 yrs old and eats a good range of things.

Oh, and them sitting on your lap and stealing things off your plate is often a good way to get them to try new stuff.

itsruddycold, just give your ds breast milk whenever he wants it. It should constitute a lot of his diet until he's 12 months.

If he's not hungry, he won't feel desperate and will be in much more of a better mood to explore and play and even eat any solids you give him. Exploring and playing with his food is really important.

Believe me, he'll be chowing down solids in six months or so good and proper.

But I really don't think withholding his milk feeds is going to help. It's just going to upset both him and you. Whatever for? To try and speed up his eating of solids? He'll get there in the end without a doubt.

Babies are nosy creatures and won't be able to resist the interest in the food on your plate for one.

I was reading the WHO guidelines on infant nutrition today, and they say that between 6 and 12 months, breastmilk should form 50% of a baby's nutritional intake, and between 1 and 2 years it should form a third of a baby's nutritional intake. I would guess that the 50% nutrition from milk would start off much higher around 6 months and reduce towards 12 months. But it sounds totally normal to be getting much (most?) of his nutrition from your milk.