My dd is almost 9 months. She eats 3 big meals a day, was blw'ed but was keen on food from the off. Now I breast feed morning and bedtime, which I intend to keep for a while, and through the night (another topic, not for here!!!) and mid morning and mid afternoon.
I wondered when people think is the right time to drop the mid morning and mid afternoon feed. I don't go back to work until she will be 12 1/2 months so no rush. Also, do I introduce a cup if milk when I drop the feeds or a snack??? Can I wait until a year and drop them quickly before I go to work and give cows milk or will his be a bit sudden?
Thanks
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Weaning
When do you drop feeds?
4 replies
Nicknamefail · 18/06/2013 20:35
OP posts:
zimmyzammyzoom ·
18/06/2013 20:55
My DS dropped the mid morning and mid afternoon breast feeds himself around 10/11 months. I now have twins of 8 months who have 3 meals a day, a mid morning and afternoon breast feed, a bottle of formula before bed. One eats like a horse so doesn't take much of the breast feeds, the other much prefers his milk to his food so has decent feeds including some through the night too! 
I think they are meant to have 20oz of either formula or BM a day (HV advice) so for bottle feeders that would be 3 bottles on top of the meals.
I've not introduced snacks yet as I want my greedy boy to take as much BM as I can get him to have.
If there's no work pressure I'd keep on with the mid morning and aft feeds as long as the baby wants to.
FadBook ·
18/06/2013 21:18
Nicknamefail - if you are breastfeeding I suppose now is a good time to work out what 'plans' you have post 12 months? Do you want to continue bf beyond 12 months, or stop?
If you plan to let baby self wean and/or feed until a certain timeframe beyond 12 months, I wouldn't worry about implementing additional food or snacks to replace a feed. Baby will eventually drop on their own accord.
You'd be surprised how much they develop their feeding habits from 8-9 months to 12 months. She will increase her solid intake and may or may not reduce milk intake. I have friends who quite happily dropped bf in place of lots of food and others who loved booby milk lots 
Milk is their main source of nourishment until 12 months but that doesn't mean it stops being beneficial after 12 months.
You can get to a stage whereby you offer food first and milk second (normally milk first and food second when doing BLW) so just read your dd's signs.
My experience: I started to notice dd wasn't as satisfied after a milk feed around 11 months so would give a snack then. I probably fed several snack type meals throughout the day anyway, more so than set meal times like friends of mine (I'm not a routine-type person and we'd be out and about so she'd eat when I ate, literally). She's still fed on demand now (22 months) but loves her solid food so we feed each morning and very occasionally during the day (sometimes not at all).
As a side not to your night time feeds: google Dr Jay Gordon sleep pattern if you want to night wean after 12 months. A really gentle method I used at 13 months. A good read now too if you want to have a look 
If you want to actively reduce breastfeeds by 12 months, then yes, giving snacks around the time you'd feed is the way to go (crackers with cheese spread, fruit sticks, banana, raisins etc) and then still let her have bf if she's still hungry.
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