Seeking Other Breast Feeding Moms

Hi there,
You can always get free expert advice either through LA LECHE LEAGUE or Health Department - Breastfeeding consultants..
They helped me a lot!
Good luck

First, congrats on a successful breastfeeding relationship and a real big kudos for waiting on starting solids. You are right, her main source of nutrition will continue to be breastmilk for the next few months. Right now, solids are more for play and practice. The closer you get to the 1 year mark, the less breastmilk and more solids she'll have. Even after the one year mark, there's no rush to stop breastfeeding. Here are some links from kellymom (the PREMIER breastfeeding site!) to get you started.

First Foods
http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/first-foods.html

Breastfeeding and other foods
http://www.kellymom.com/newman/10bf_and_other_foods.html

Starting Solid Foods
http://www.kellymom.com/newman/16starting_solid_foods.html

How do we get started with solid foods?
http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/solids-how.html

Solid Foods and the Breastfed baby
http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/index.html

Pumping & Bottle Feeding
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/index.html
this link has even more links (a lot of reading!) but great stuff like how much breastmilk she'll need in her bottle while you're at work and pumping tips.

My daughter is almost 9 months, and we started solids around 6 months. She is still breastfeeding, though much of it comes from bottles these days (she won't sit still long enough to nurse except in the early morning or late at night). Basically, I just kept feeding her as I always have and let her tell me when she is full. When starting solids, it is mostly for practice. She'll let you know how much she needs. I have read anywhere from 16-32 ounces is normal to drink with solids. My daughter is not a big eater either. She drinks anywhere from about 22 to 28 ounces a day plus three solids meals, usually about 2 to 3 jars of food total. Her schedule looks something like this:

6 a.m. nurse (I estimate about 5 to 6 ounces)
7 a.m. breakfast of fruit or fruit and oatmeal
8:30 a.m. small bottle before nap (usually about 3 or 4 ounces)
11 or 11:30 a.m. 4 ounce bottle then solids
1:30 small bottle before nap (2-4 ounces)
3 or 3:30 4-6 ounce bottle
5 or 5:30 solids
6:30 large bottle before bed (6-7 ounces)
7 p.m. down for the night

She CAN sleep through the night, though she will sometimes wake up when teething, and sometimes she gets truly hungry. I nurse her if she wakes at night. She sleeps through 11 hours about 65 percent of the time, I would say.

She's on the small side (about 17 pounds at almost 9 months), but has been steadily gaining weight her entire life. I am a small person myself (5 ft. tall ~110 pounds), so I don't worry about it.

Well, for your comparison's sake: I pump while at work each day for my 9 month old. It ends up between 10-15 oz. He weighs about 20 lbs. I make sure the sitter has some frozen milk in the freezer on hand in case the previous day's pump doesn't meet his needs. Sometimes she ends up using it and sometimes she tells me I need to freeze some of the pumped bottles! He has started taking closer to 15oz everyday lately, so I think I'll start sending another cube of food for his lunch!

Hi M.,
I don't use bottles, so I'm never sure in ounces how much my 6 month old eats. This is my third breastfed boy, though, and I feel pretty confident that he's getting the right amount! Once I start solids, I keep him on the same breastfeeding schedule (every 3 hours for us). Until he's a year old, his primary nutrition should come from breastmilk. The solids are more or less for the experience (and fun!) of learning how to eat solids! So I would keep taking the same amount of milk to your caregiver. Feel free to email me for any more info!!
C.

My son is 7 mos. too, and I got a chart from the pediatrician as a feeding guide and between 6-8 mos, he should be getting 24-32 oz. of formula or breastmilk. We should be offering water between meals. As well as 1-4 tbs. of cereals. The cereals should not be premixed with formula, fruit, or honey and should not be mixed, have wheat or be high-protein. He can have up to 4 oz. of 100% juice per day. Strained or mashed fruits and veggies. No proteins at this time.

I give my son bottles on demand and it usually works out that his demand is between the guidelines. I have been giving him rice or oatmeal cereals. I have just started giving him pureed zucchini this week. He loves it. I am making my own baby food. I really like it. I know what he is getting.

HTH!
A.

you are right that it depends! My 7 month old is also own solids but breastfeeding primarily. I dont honestly pay attention to 'how much' because she is gaining weight and healthy, you know? I make sure to send a jar of baby food and a full bottle (6-8 oz) of milk to day care when she goes. Sometimes she eats the whole bottle and sometimes hardly touches it.
Good luck!

My daughter is two now, but when she was your daughter's age I was still working and pumping at work too. I always sent two bottles with her. One for late morning and one for afternoon. She didn't always drink each bottle, each was around six ounces, give or take an ounce or two. As long as it was offered to her I didn't feel too bad if she didn't end up taking it all.

My son is 6 months and he is also breastfed and starting on solids. His intake of milk hasn't really decreased any, but he is a big eater. He is just on veggies so far, and eats 1 size 2 container a day (still going through the testing for allergies stage). He still usually wants milk after that, but if I feed him the baby food too close to bed time he won't drink as much and wakes up in the middle of the night hungry. I only pump bottles for him when we are going out, so he doesn't get them that often, but when he does he has been drinking a full 6-7 oz bottle and then is ready again in 2 or 3 hours.

My daughter would eat 6-8 ounces at a feeding when she was that age. She was primarily breastfed and took a bottle a few times a week. She had 6 feedings per day, plus a little bit of solid food. (She's now almost 9 months and hasn't been babysat in a while so I'm not sure how much she'd eat now).
Hope that helps.

I used to look at a clock on the weekends when the baby would nurse. I kept a little journal of when the baby nursed. I would try to pump during the weekdays at the same time that the baby had nursed on the weekends. That way I would have milk at the same time the next weekend. As the baby got older and ate more baby cereal and baby veggies and fruits, the feeding times gradually changed. I found that as long as I was drinking plenty of fluids whatever I pumped during the day was usually just enough for the baby the next day. I also pumped an extra bottle every evening about 15 minutes after I nursed the baby to sleep. If the baby did not fall asleep and was hungry I had milk. If the baby went right to sleep the sitter would have an extra bottle the next day. I always felt more secure about the baby if I knew they had enough milk. I also gave the daycare a can of powdered formula and said that if they ever ran out of breast milk to make a bottle with the powdered formula to the baby. They never even had to open the can. I threw out extra breast milk once in awhile that they did not need. But, I was more concerned about the baby having enough milk than wasting the breast milk. Relax. As long as your baby is growing and content she is getting enough milk.

As an LLL Leader I just wanted to throw in their website for great info. too - www.llli.org.

A great book to have on hand is the "Womanly Art of Breastfeeding". Dr. Sears has a great one about nutrition. And as you are moving into this new stage "Mothering Your Nursing Toddler" is incredible.

All the other advice sounds great too!

Keep sending enough milk as if he is not eating solids. Better to much than not enough. Nursing should be #1 right now. So continue nursing him his usual schedule then between nursing give him baby food.

Every baby takes different amounts depending on their age and time of growth spurts. I have a 6 month old baby and breastfeed 100% of the time. However, there are times when I'll express milk and bring a bottle in case I'm not comfortable nursing in public. I often wondered the same question you're asking and read info from a Breastfeed Guide book that we found helpful. The amount of milk I put in a bottle is base on a simple equation (looks complicated but makes sense)

Baby's weight x 2.5 oz / # of feedings per day
= amount to feed each time

For example= 10 lbs. x 2.5 oz = 25 / 5 = 5 oz. each feeding

It's tough to guestimate how much your baby is eating when you're nursing so it can be a challenge to figure out how much milk to express in a bottle. I've used this formula often and depending on the time of the day the sitter feeds your baby, the amount your baby feeds may vary. I usually leave more milk just in case.

Also, this will depend on how much solids your baby is eating. Our baby isn't a huge eater either because I notice she can't have the solids and have a full feeding in 1 sitting. I usually nurse her first (since it's more nutrious at this point) then feed the solids (wait about 30 minutes, 2T of rice cereal, 1 jar of veggies mixed in 1 oz. of BM). At this point, the solids feeding is more for oral gratification than nutrition. I offer solids for an early dinner since milk production is lowest in the late afternoon/evening).

Hope this all makes sense and is helpful for you!