Still feeding on demand at 9 months. Am I still meant to be?!

[T-Bex]

As the title says, I'm still pretty much demand feeding (boob and snacks), but I keep bring told to watch her weight, and that I should be stopping doing it, and that she should be down to three feeds a day. Bethan has always just grazed, as opposed to eating a lot in one go, though.

Should I just ignore, and carry on as we're doing, or start to have some sort of vague milk feed schedule?

 

[Tesa]

hi...i dont really know to be honest but my instinct says if you and baby are ok with this arrangement why shouldnt you carry on? She wont be breastfeeding forever and will get to the 'three meal a day' thing in due course.

 

[Szaffi]

I don't think there is a should here - anyway that works for you is fine!

Since my daughter started solids, I have replaced slowly some of the feeds (we had typically 6-7 feeds per day) with solid food. At first she didn't eat much, but progressively she could eat more in one sitting. She's 9,5 months now, and has been in daycare for a month, as I am back at work.

We managed to work out that she nurses now only in the morning and the evening, and my milksupply adjusted wonderfully - so no leaky boobs, luckily. This is just my experience, that if you need it for practical reasons, you can work out a mixed feeding schedule in a fairly short time (4-6 weeks).

 

[sun]

We're the same! I don't know what's "normal" but I plan to bf on demand until Bun decides he doesn't want it.
He eats tons now (BLW) so only really bf 3x/day - plus sometimes a quick snack! xx

 

[MelanieAnn]

Breastmilk is the best possible thing - cut back on solids if you need to; they're nowhere near as good for your babe as breast!

Kellymom has some intriguing info on breastfeeding and obesity in latter life. Essentially breastfeeding is a major preventor of lifelong obesity, and introing solids early is a bad plan (but then, we knew that).

 

[cleckner04]

I still demand feed my nearly 13 month old. I can't see doing it any other way. Emma is a snacker and eats at LEAST 10x a day still on me. She eats a ton of solids as well but she just loves her boobie.

 

[bekkie]

We're still on demand feeding - my MIL says it's why he doesn't sleep well, because he's a "snacker" (her word)

 

[pinkclaire]

I have had real probles with James waking up all night for feeding, so I changed from feeding on demand to 4 hourly feeds. Its called calorie maximisation, as it encourages them to stop snacking and have a better feed, and also as they know when their feed is coming they dont grapple with you so much (another problem I was having, I couldnt pick him up without him showing my nipple to the world!

Well girls, it worked over night, After one day of doing it, he slept 6 hours straight, absolutely unheard of with this little monkey! And after 3 weeks he now sleeps 7-7 absolutely amazing.

One thing I did have to do was distract him for the first couple of days, i.e when it was getting close to 4 hours, go for a walk etc, he always seems to go longer when we're out rather than at home as hes distracted.

I'm not saying its for everyone and you do need to make sure you offer them water so they have a drink if thirsty, but it really has made a massive difference to me bcause of the sleeping and not constantly winging at me xx