Hi moms. I would like to ask others who have breastfed their babies, how frequently they would breastfeed their babies once solids have been introduced. My baby, who is now 6 months old, is eating solids 3 times a day now (and he's very demanding pounding on the high chair). He's been eating solids for two months now. In the morning he only feeds on the boob a few minutes and isn't very interested. Then I try again after his morning nap (which ends up being almost noon) and he usually eats pretty good. Because he only stays awake for about three hours and then has his afternoon nap, I don't end up feeding him again until around 5pm. Sometimes I will feed him again before he goes to be but other times I will wake him up before I go to bed to feed him (at around 10pm). He doesn't usually wake up during the night - so total he eats only four times a day on the boob, and three times a day solids. Is that enough? I know that he's supposed to be getting most of his daily nutrition from breastmilk and not food but he gets really upset if I don't feed him solid food, and I'm not sure if this is taking away from the amount of breastfeeding he does. He is obviously getting enough food total, because he's quite "meaty" himself. And he's quite healthy... he's NEVER been sick - not even an earache or anything. Any advice? THANKS!
Hi again moms. We had our six month doctor's visit yesterday. The little meatball is 19-1/2 pounds now - roughly the 75th percentile. Doc says everything is fine because he's growing well and we have plenty of wet diapers (AND poopy diapers too). Soooo... four times a day it is unless things change. Thanks for all your responses.
D.:
sounds like you all are doing fine.. relax and enjoy.
P. RLC, IBCLC
Pres. Lactation Support Group, Inc
www.lactationsupportgroup.com
Sounds fine, but I would always encourage you to try to nurse before offering any food. Don't make it a separate "event". Nursing/mealtime should be all one thing and nursing should always precede solids and solids always after nursing. This way he will get the most milk when he is most hungry and not "hold out" for the solids.
Hi D.,
I agree. Offer the boob first.
My little (big) guy is almost 1 and I had the same issue a few months ago. How much boob??? He got to a point where if we gave him more food, he'd nurse less, but he always seemed like he wanted FOOD!
Currently, this is his schedule:
up around 7 or 8: nurse and then some fruit (a banana or 1/2 a nectarine or something)
9 - nurse again and nap
12 nurse and lunch - yogurt and some "sandwich" - bread/meat finger food (not really a sandwich)
3ish nurse (If we can) and then I try to nurse again before dinner and then at bedtime.
Like you, sometimes he gets up before I go to sleep and he then sleeps all the way through the night and we start over.
Sounds like you are doing great. You may need to play around with your schedule to see what works for you guys. We definitely took a while to figure out what worked for us.
Good Luck!
B.
I agree...sounds completely fine. At six months, my boys were each nursing breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime...four times a day. And I didn't start solids until six months, so they were down to nursing four times a day and THEN I added the solids on to dinner, breakfast, and lunch. If I tried to nurse more often, they wouldn't cooperate...THEY chose to work their way down to four times a day as they got more efficient with eating and ate more at a time apparently. To make sure breast milk is the priority over solids and getting enough from the nursing if you are concerned about that, nurse first and then feed the solids immediately after for each meal as opposed to solids first. That way the breast milk is the main course and the solids are the topper.
Sounds like you're doing just fine. That was very similar to how I nursed my son and I nursed him for a year. If he sleeps through the night I would nurse him before bed. If he's comfortable with 4 feedings then that's fine. He'll let you know what he needs.
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS offer your breast before a meal. You are correct in saying that his nutrition should primarily come from breastmilk. Not offering it frequently will lead to early weaning. If that's ok with you then it's fine, but if it's not what you want, it's better for him to nurse then eat solids.
Hi. My daughter is 11 mths old and is nursing about 6-7 times a day and eating 3 solid meals. She is walking and so I assume that she is needing more calories b/c of all of the moving around. We didn't start solids until she was 6 1/2 mths old and she didn't hardly eat baby food. She just eats everything that we eat now. She sleeps 11-12 hrs a night and 2-2 hr naps per day and still eats all those times. For nap time I only give her one side generally and sometime one of the daytime feedings doesn't happen b/c she is satisfied with the solids. I would say that if he is happy and healthy and not waking up in the middle of the night b/c of hunger, you are doing fine. Some kids like to eat solids a lot more b/c they have to work so hard breastfeeding. That happened to a friend of mine. Take care.
H.
At this age 3-5 times a day is recommended. As everyone else said, try to nurse him first. I'm sure he's doing just fine!!!
