Starting weaning. Is this right?

[iiTTCii]

It's still a while off weaning (February) but I wanted to make sure I've got this right in my head.
I'm doing BLW so I know for the first few weeks, she might not eat anything and just experiment with her food.
So I will need her milk as normal, at normal times, normal amount and then after her milk, offer her some food? How long do I do this for?

 

[MindUtopia]

Basically you keep that up until she isn't hungry for milk at those times anymore. She'll let you know. For us, my daughter took the same amount of milk as before weaning until about 9 months, which is pretty typical for BLW. Now she has about 1 bottle less a day, but the amounts per bottle have slowly decreased. She doesn't have an 11am bottle anymore, which she used to have before about 9 ish months. And the amounts have decreased. She used to drink maybe 180-210 ml per feed. Now it's more like 120-140 ml, sometimes can be only 80 ml. Just keep doing what you've always done and add solid food around that. Eventually you'll notice the balance between milk and solids shifts a bit. Realistically though, you will end up wasting milk if you're bottle feeding because you can't always anticipate how much they might want once that happens, but it's always better to offer and see what happens. You can adjust down the road as things change.

 

[HKateH]

It really depends on your baby. Mine took to BLW quickly and by 6.5 months had dropped a bottle. Now at 7 months his feeds have really regulated to 7-8am, 11-12 noon, 2-3pm and 6pm bedtime. This was all his doing. Some babies take longer to actually eat with BLW and that is ok too. Your LO might not drop bottles for months!

I still only feed two meals a day at 7.5 months. LO has breakfast and lunch or dinner (depending on how our day is). Some days he might have a small snack (fruit loaf or fruit if we have a snack too) but more often than not he eats twice a day.

 

[sillysapling]

We feed on demand, so we don't keep track of how many bottles per day very closely. Periodically we record how many ounces kiddo takes in over the course of a day just for my peace of mind/to be able to tell the pediatrician/etc, but most days we don't. Kiddo still seems mostly as hungry for milk as ever because they aren't super keen on solids, although that seems to be changing now.

Basically, yeah, listen to your baby- if your baby is continuing to finish the same amount of milk and isn't showing signs of overeating (throwing up, unhealthy weight gain trends), your baby needs the same amount of milk.

Keep in mind that one day or even a few days of not eating much milk isn't necessarily proof your baby needs less- it could be due to teething or illness or anything else. My baby had one day where they ate about 1/3 less milk than usual- then was right back up the next day.

 

[HKateH]

Keep in mind that one day or even a few days of not eating much milk isn't necessarily proof your baby needs less- it could be due to teething or illness or anything else. My baby had one day where they ate about 1/3 less milk than usual- then was right back up the next day.

Yeah, my LO will have days when he finishes all his bottles and days when he leaves loads. If he leaves more than 2oz, I offer it again in half an hour or so. I still make up 7-8oz bottles even on those days and if he doesn't drink it, it's fine. I have found that since my LO has been really eating, even if he doesn't finish a bottle, he isn't hungrier for the next feed any earlier.