I don’t know if it’s good, bad or ugly, but that’s what my son did at five months. He started biting the crap out of my nipple with his hard little gums, instead of nursing, and then would arch his neck back and grin up at me (the little shit lol.) One night I realized I hadn’t nursed him that day, and couldn’t remember what time I’d nursed him last the day before. It was over and I hadn’t even known it.
I didn’t offer either of mine real meals much before 6 months, as I did baby-led weaning and neither of them lost the tongue-thrust reflex until 6-7 months. But from the time I did start offering food I generally nursed about an hour before meals which could be a good rule of thumb for you, takes the pressure off worrying about amounts etc. You might want to Google feeding schedules, which will make it very clear it’s a personal thing!
But as an example, for my 9 month old, I feed on waking (7am), then offer breakfast about 8 - pretty much what her sister was having - either cheerios, toast or porridge, or some of my fruit, yoghurt and muesli if she showed interest in that.
Nap from 9ish (she’s roughly on a 2-3-4 schedule, but I never force this), and an offer of a feed when she wakes, 11ish. Very recently she’s shown less interest in this, but I still offer.
Lunch around 12 - finger foods or whatever I’m eating. Down for 2nd nap around 1, with a feed again on waking close to 3. Sometimes afternoon tea if her sister is around, and dinner from 6 with a final feed before bath at 7. She sleeps through the night so normally I don’t feed then, but if she does wake hungry (rarely) I will offer her a feed if that’s what she needs.
It’s all pretty organic feeling once you get into a routine that fits you. I don’t do purees or special meals so she gets a real mix of all foods (excluding honey) so nothing wrong with letting her eat as much of what you’re eating as she wants (checking for choking hazards etc obviously). Don’t overthink it - she’s learning to eat just like you, so sharing a meal is a good way to do this. the BLW mantra is ‘food is fun until they are 1’, so you are right to try to keep the milk her primary form of nutrition, but deal with it via timing, rather than restricting solids. Some kids take to food with gusto (my 2nd), while others live on nothing but air (my 1st). I can tell you the kids who love to eat are a whole lot more fun to dine with!
I should do this. Since my supply leveled out a couple months ago I gave up pumping and freezing since I no longer woke with milk under pressure. It really does seem the perfect way to introduce a sippy cup; I’ll start pumping a bit today.
Yep, same here. Somehow, in all my reading, research and earnest preparation for this late life surprise, I overlooked the information that my nipples would be baby’s first toy. There were a couple moments of “what the heck is going on down there” and a few out of nowhere chomps that left my eyes watering. I’m so finding a nursing necklace today, even if I have to reassemble two or three teething bracelets into one. Kid won’t listen to reason, so I’ll bribe her.
This is more comforting than you know. This child is so easy going, affectionate, and fun. She rarely cries, only a couple weeks of colicky behavior in the early days, smiles at strangers…I have to think I’m doing something right. From the strangers and family members offering opinions on her interest in solid foods, I hear nothing but horror stories about difficult babies, colic, latching issues and such. Maybe they mean well; maybe they are projecting a bit. But I’m on a roll with her and want to keep her happy and healthy.
Thanks for sharing your routine and experience, Girl From Mars. Her doc indicated that introducing food could be trying so go ahead and give small amounts of cereals and fruits a try because she’ll likely decline. Wrong. Since before she could sit up well she’s watched every bite of food go from plate to my mouth. She opens her mouth as I do and chews air, then stares at the plate until my next bite. She’s like a little baby bird. Leans forward and reaches for the plate and my hands, and drools over savory dishes.
Besides bonding, my favorite part of loving this child has been her strides towards independence. Being able to indicate an interest in toys, food, and attention (as well as looking away and arching her back to indicate her interest has waned) really opens up her world, and I have enjoyed respecting and responding to her cues. She’s a fascinating little creature and such a blessing. From observing my stressed out friends with kids, I’d have never guessed this could be so much fun. Course I ought to be sleeping right now, I do miss that, but everything else about parenthood has just been peaches. I’m truly lucky.
My daughter rejected the breast at six months and moved to the bottle. Without me nursing, I dried up (pumping lasted a whole week, I am so not bred for dairy) so it was formula and “real food.” She’s fine (and thirteen).
She really wanted to interact more with the world than nursing afforded. And because she was in daycare and getting breastmilk from a bottle, she understood that there was a more flexible delivery mechanism that would let her look around while she ate.
Some babies are incredibly self-led and independent from birth. Or even sooner! (My micropreemie decided to yank out her own ventilator tubing - twice - because the doctors, in her estimable medical wisdom, were leaving it in too long. She’s 7 now and just as stubborn and still knows everything.)
However, that doesn’t really mean we should always follow their lead. My 7 year old would very much love to drive the car, if only I would buy her some stilts so she could reach the accelerator. Yeah…I’m not following her lead there, because she’s 7, and I know just a little bit more about the risks and benefits of this course of action than she does.
I cannot disagree with VOW more - breastmilk after birth is not a “bonus”. It’s what’s normal, and any deviation from that norm is cause for concern. No, formula is not rat poison, but it’s suboptimal in every way, and statistically (please don’t bother to post about your formerly formula fed 6’2" teenaged football player who’s never been sick a day in his life) outcomes with formula fed babies are worse than normally fed babies.
So…if you have to switch to a cup, please try to put breastmilk into that cup. If you can’t get the baby to nurse and a good hospital grade pump won’t work to extract your milk, then that sucks, and yes, you’ll have to use formula until 12 months and hope for the best, and things will probably work out okay.
I say this not trying to induce guilt at all, but to correct a misinformation campaign and warping of medical research terms that’s been going on for nearly 100 years now. “Breast is best” is a marketing phrase meant to sell formula by making mothers think that nursing is extraordinary, when really it’s just normal.
I agree, WhyNot, and my body is working great for breastfeeding. I’ve only had one hiccup with my supply when I had walking pneumonia, but that was remedied by co-sleeping. Little one is a light sleeper, so everytime I turned over, she woke to nurse. A couple days of supply on demand feeding brought the volume back up.
I’m lucky to be home with her and consequently poor as dirt, so the breast is best for both of us. We seem to have bonded better than some families, too. The benefits are obvious to me.
Aside: husband’s family is the 1950’s model who believe that breasts are for the bedroom and formula is scientifically superior. Despite constant criticism, bad advice, questions about baby’s health and other meddlesome interference including giving her formula the single time I left her alone with them for two hours…baby and I are doing great. I’m certain that nearly all my healthy, strong peers were formula fed, but nursing has been great for us both. I lost the 30 pounds I gained in 45 days with very little exercise. Baby lived with my bout with walking pneumonia, 2 colds and another mystery upper respiratory bug in the same house and didn’t catch any of it. I’m pretty confident my flu shot boosted her, too.
And wow, you phrased that well, WhyNot. (…“to make breastfeeding seem extraordinary”) I knew there was something insidious and self serving about the breast is best catchphrase, but I couldn’t articulate what rings insincere about it. I wish your take on the spin was widely available. Publish if you have time, even if only a letter to the editor.
Oh, phew! I really, really hesitated before posting it, because I truly, honestly don’t want to hurt anyone, and I know how inflammatory and guilt-inducing any conversation on breastfeeding can become. I’m so, so glad you read it in the manner in which it was intended.
I got the ideas only after reading this phenomenal essay: Watch Your Language! By Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC
I had to use formula with both my kids - the first because I had undiagnosed post partum depression and after about 5 months, my family, well meaning as they were, gave the baby formula in an effort to let me “rest and take care of myself”, and I lost my milk. The second was the micropreemie, couldn’t latch and despite every herb, drug and meditation out there, I only got about half her needs out with a hospital grade pump. Still pumped for 14 months, though, and every bottle was half-and-half.
You are doing great. You’re amazing - not for breastfeeding, 'cause that’s only normal 
- but for educating yourself and persevering in the face of family ignorance and resistance. **That **is something to be celebrated and commended.
Don’t underestimate your boobs - mine kept producing enough milk for a lengthy night feed until my daughter was 2.5 years old, when she finally self-weaned. She’d been on nothing but one feed before bed for over a year. This after it had taken me many months of pumping hourly between feeds after severe supply issues.
I seem to recall from all my kelly mom reading back in the day that a tablespoon of breast milk’s all an infant truly needs to get the primary benefits from it. I don’t have a cite or the time to go find it, sorry.
Nothing guilt inducing about reminding parents that formula makers which co opt the phrase are more interested in the bottom line than your baby’s health. It’s a brilliant marketing scheme because it’s sneaky and appeals to working moms. This shouldn’t be a polarizing topic. If you have a baby, try to nurse for as long as possible. If you are squeamish: well, shame on you. This is what tits are for. But if you must work, baby doesn’t seem to thrive, the supply inexplicably dries up…so what? Formula is the obvious alternative and no one’s business.
I would encourage every woman to try. But shame and guilt add nothing to a parent’s relationship with her child.
That’s the best news for me, so glad to hear both solids and breast are achievable. Thank you!
In the Fifties, formula makers did a huge push to make all the mommies of the Boomer babies feel more “modern” by giving a bottle instead of breastfeeding.
The Boomers grew up, and the pendulum swung the other way.
And there were some factions who became downright MILITANT about breastfeeding.
Many mothers today WORK, either by necessity or choice. And they are expected to strap on the Supermom cape every morning. One of their superhuman tasks is to produce that breastmilk, or they are inferior creatures of the fairer sex.
Women are hiding out in the workplace in the most dismal, disgusting places, trying to “relax” (HAH!) enough to pump out enough milk to feed their (obviously) neglected child. Pumping in a nasty bathroom stall, sneaking into closets, or ducking out to the parking lot to sit in a freezing cold or incredibly hot car, disrobing just enough to hook up a double breast pump.
These women should not be made to feel guilty or substandard or neglectful if they choose to switch to formula! And ANY breastmilk they DO provide to that baby is indeed a bonus. Period.
Then you add the thousand-plus reasons as to why a baby might self-wean at any age (and you provided two sterling examples) and again, the breast milk those children DO receive is a blessing.
My own son self-weaned around four months because of constant, chronic ear infections. Breast feeding is HARD WORK for Baby, and the sucking caused him too much pain.
Yet there are legions of women who are evangelic in their roles as Champions of Breast Feeding, and they insist to be a proper mother and true woman, The Breast Must Prevail.
When my daughter had her first child, she had all the normal apprehensions that a new mommy often encounters. She also had the misfortune of a baby with reflux. Her hospital provided her with a Nursing Coordinator, who decided on her own that the baby had “failure to thrive” because mommy wasn’t making enough milk. This provoked a full-blown meltdown in my daughter, which OF COURSE affected her ability to become comfortable with breastfeeding.
That kind of Nazi terrorism is beyond counterproductive.
My advice to her was to “just relax, and keep nursing, it WILL come.”
There are too many RULES. Just relax, and let it happen. IF the baby is healthy, gaining weight, growing normally, has the right number of wet and soiled diapers, then everything REALLY IS okay!
~VOW
That’s cool. Mine didn’t come in for two weeks. I pumped for two hours a day to feed her when I returned to work, and breastfed her when we were together. And within a week of her stopping nursing, my hospital grade pump could no longer suck out a drop.
And WhyNot. It was incredibly hurtful. I deleted my prior post where I told you how hurtful. You don’t “mean” to induce guilt, but you have no clue about how difficult it is when you can’t to hear that you haven’t tried hard enough. Which is functionally, what is being said here.
You know, I rarely do this but I’m going to answer this post without reading the other responses first, because this is such a heated topic and with 30+ replies, I suspect there has already been a bit of back-and-forth. So I will just answer the question:
To me, this does not sound like your baby is weaning. She’s just changing her eating pattern somewhat now that you’ve introduced solid foods. The night nursing alone will probably do wonders to keep your supply up.
IMO at this relatively early age, I’d offer breast first before solid foods (i.e., at each meal time, offer breast first, and then when the nursing session is done, offer solid foods) and that way she’s not filling up on solids. At 5 months, her primary nutrition should still be breastmilk. Solids are just a fun supplemental. So if you keep doing what you’re doing, with the possible change of having a nursing session prior to giving solid food, I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t be able to keep breastfeeding until 1 year or beyond if you want.
Ugh. Not reading the thread was the smart decision. Troppus, you’re brave for even starting a thread on breastfeeding, because the probability that any such thread will not turn into a flame war approaches zero.
The only additional comment I’ll make is that IMO switching from breast to formula is not “weaning.” It’s just switching from breast to formula. I don’t really understand the advice from some in this thread to try this, considering that the person asking for advice is a mother who is happy with breastfeeding and having no real problems with it other than that the baby is showing less interest. (Normal at this age, in my experience.)
It doesn’t sound to me like your daughter is weaning but that she is just being picky about when she’s going to sit still for a feeding. That’s exactly what my son was like at that age but he happily breastfed until a little after 12 months.
At this age solids aren’t technically necessary but a little extra iron will be necessary starting at 6 months so it sounds like she’s on a great track by enjoying meat. In Canada they recently changed the recommendation for weaning foods from fruit and vegatables to meat given that iron is one of the few nutrients which breastmilk does not provide enough of.
I think that if you want your daughter to take in more breastmilk you should try to line up her hungry times with times when she is ameniable to breastfeeding probably either just after she wakes up from a sleep or just before she goes to sleep. So try to feed solids as far as possible from those times.
I know it’s hard to do, I certainly have trouble with this, but trust your instincts. If your daughter is happy and healthy you’re doing it right, relax and enjoy begin a parent.
The Boomers grew up, and the pendulum swung the other way.
And there were some factions who became downright MILITANT about breastfeeding.
Yet there are legions of women who are evangelic in their roles as Champions of Breast Feeding, and they insist to be a proper mother and true woman, The Breast Must Prevail.
When my daughter had her first child, she had all the normal apprehensions that a new mommy often encounters. She also had the misfortune of a baby with reflux. Her hospital provided her with a Nursing Coordinator, who decided on her own that the baby had “failure to thrive” because mommy wasn’t making enough milk. This provoked a full-blown meltdown in my daughter, which OF COURSE affected her ability to become comfortable with breastfeeding.
That kind of Nazi terrorism is beyond counterproductive.
My advice to her was to “just relax, and keep nursing, it WILL come.”
There are too many RULES. Just relax, and let it happen. IF the baby is healthy, gaining weight, growing normally, has the right number of wet and soiled diapers, then everything REALLY IS okay!
I don’t have a dog in this fight since I don’t have any kids, but recently the state of Maryland began a major push to encourage breast feeding and discourage bottle feeding. Formula and bottles are no longer handed out to new mothers and babies are kept in the mother’s rooms after childbirth to encourage breast feeding.