2 questions now we're on solids - DF and routines

[rosie and joe's mummy]

now rosie is onto solids and three meals a day, i'm getting all muddled about our routine.  at the moment it's this:

7am - breastfeed then play for a bit
8 am breakfast - cereal with breastmilk and fruit
9am nap - 45 mins
10am playtime
11am breastfeed then play for a bit
11.45 nap for 45 mins
12.30 lunch - something like chicken and pasta followed by fruit and water to drink
1pm play time
2.30 - 3.30 (sometimes until 4 pm) naptime
3.30 pm breastfeed
4pm playtime
5.30pm tea (similar to lunch)
6pm bath/massage
6.30 breastfeed
7pm bedtime
10.30pm dreamfeed

Since the solids started rosie has been taking less milk so i'm putting expressed milk in her meals to help top it up and she's also eating baby fromage frais/yogurts.

what i really want to know is does anyone think this lloks likee an ok routine for her at 6 months.

when and which breastfeeds will she need to drop?

when can i drop the dreamfeed?  she used to wake up if i was late, but she doesn't seem to any more (i was late and it was 11.30 the last 2 nights, on purpose because i'm out late tomorrow night and won't be home unti lmidnight and still want to feed her myself, since she's never ever had a bottle). And she doesn't seem to take a lot then most nights.

just some comments on my routine and any advice please?  thank you! 

[tylersmommy]

You can try to drop the dreamfeed whenever you think she's ready. Give it a try, she'll let you know if she misses it!

Beyond that, I would definitely not drop any more feedings for at least a couple of months. Babies her age should nurse 4-5 times per day to ensure breastmilk is her main source of nutrition, so you can probably go down to 4 feedings with no problem. Her overall intake may decrease when you cut the df or she may take more during the day to make up for it...either way, you might try cutting back on solids to see if you can help her nursing appetite. Also, you might think about moving her tea a bit earlier, especially if you want to cut the df. It looks like it's really close to her bedtime nursing and she may not be hungry enough to get a good nursing in before bed.

[Mrs. Gravy]

If she's taking less milk, I would reduce the amount of solids she's getting.

Ounce for ounce, bm is much more nutritious than any solid.  It's so much more important for her to be consuming breast milk than solids at this age. 

Also, the tannins in tea have been shown to interfere with the absorption of iron, so tea is not recommended for babies.  You could try replacing the tea with a bf session.

[Duckie]

Also, the tannins in tea have been shown to interfere with the absorption of iron, so tea is not recommended for babies.  You could try replacing the tea with a bf session.

The OP is from the UK, and IIRC "tea" is often used as another word for dinner.  Correct me if I'm wrong?

Yes?  No?

[JennŠ]

Yup, that seems to be the case.  Also, "pudding" means any sort of dessert thing.     

[rosie and joe's mummy]

yes i'm not so silly as to feed her a cup of tea!! eek! 

tea as in dinner - i was brought up in a home with breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner. my husband and I eat dinner at about 8pm, rosie eats tea at 5/5.30 ish.  yes pudding means a sweet course after a savoury course! I have to admit to being from a privately educated queens english type of home with apparently a very "correct" way of speaking! I'm actually breaking with family tradition to be doing all the bringin up of this child without any outside help. My parents and their parents all had nannies to help them. I'd rather do this myself.

well i'll try and make sure it's closer to 5. she actually nurses really well at bedtime, and first thing in the morning. it's the others where i don't feel she's really taking as much as she used to.

at each meal, she has 3 ice-cubes of solids as a savoury course, follwed by probably 1 of fruit, or a baby yogurt (which is 40g) so i don't think i can reduce the solids.

I don't want to drop any breastfeeds yet i just wondered when to expect to?

[deenz]

Both my dd's dropped the DF just before 7mo when they were having three solid meals per day.  With dd1 I only fed off one breast for a couple of nights, and then stopped it altogether (was doing double-sided nursings).  With dd2 I realised that she was taking less and less herself, and one night could hardly even get her to take one side, so just stopped.

[hayleysmum]

Hi Rosie's Mum,

Our schedules (other than nap times) are quite similar and I've been wondering when to drop the df.  She's the same age as your LO.  The difference is that due to my LO having MSPI she's formula fed now so I know exactly how much milk she's drinking.  Her biggest milk feed of the day is right before bedtime. 

I've always woken her for the DF around 11pm - she rarely ever woke up of her own accord.  She still taking a full feed at that time and doesn't seem keen to cut back.  In the past week she's also started waking occasionally between 5:30 and 6am and seems (to the best of my cue-reading ability) to be genuinely hungry.  I give her a bottle and she goes back to sleep til 7:30 at which point she has nearly another full bottle before having breakfast at 8am.

Many of my friends seemed to have already dropped the DF at this point so I don't know if I should give it a go one night and see how she gets on?  Or do I continue until she starts showing signs of not wanting a full feed?

Thanks in advance!

[rosie and joe's mummy]

rosie doesn't wake at all for the DF. she is fast asleep and feeds in her sleep most nights. occasionally i waker her up when i pick her up to feed her, and occasionally she wakes on her own.

in the last week rosie's been waking at 5.30am and being genuinely hungry. i've tried leaving her to see if she falls back asleep but we get real hunger cries. she's then awake until 8am and will then need to sleep, so our routine is no longer quite like the above it's gone all upside down.

she's now waking at 5.30, sleeping for 45 minutes at8 and then having her breakfast and back to the old routine bit.  but i'm still having huge problems getting her to nap.