Confused: cutting the dream feed

[Belleinfidele]

Hello.
I'm nearing the end of the 21-day process of cutting the 10 pm/ 11 pm dreamfeed and now l have a new question l haven't found an answer to in the book: what happens to the ounces l've added in the daytime? Do l keep giving them to him until l stop bf, or do l convert them to solid food somehow? Or should he be already eating the added amount naturally in the daytime, because l've trained him to in the 21 days? To be exact, l've been giving the added ounces in formula, just to make sure he will get them, but l'm not actually looking forward to keeping it up for the next 3-4-5 months or so. He is 9 months.

[Martini~]

So you are BF but you are topping every feed with formula Honey?

[Belleinfidele]

Hi, yes l do, why?

[creations]

Hi there, welcome to BW forums

I've never come across this before.  If you don't want to give your LO formula it would be ok to just stop offering it and to continue to BF. Your body will produce the amount of milk he needs without you needing to measure how many ounces he takes.
You might initially feel like you're back tracking a bit as he may need to nurse a bit more to stimulate your milk to increase, but I'd expect this to be a short time.  He might also just take those additional calories in solids when you drop the formula, at 9 months I wouldn't consider this a problem so long as he is having 4 good BF per day (I'd expect any LO this age to have 4 proper milk feeds plus 2-3 solids meals per day).
Of course, in other circumstances someone might have made the decision to mix feed with some BF and some formula, which is also ok, it's a personal choice how to feed your baby. It looks like you prefer not to use the formula though so I'd just drop it.

[Belleinfidele]

My problem is that when it comes to breastfeeding he is not a good eater often - gets distracted, fussy etc, so i just wanted to make sure he is properly fed when cutting the dream feed and nighttime feeds too. I've been following Tracy's 21-day plan to the point, but nowhere in the book does she mention what happens to the extra ounces. Or maybe the answer is as simple as that - he is now eating more because i've trained him and no need to worry about extra ounces.

I don't usually mix bf and formula, but i don't see anything wrong with it either. It's not like mixing money with fake money

[creations]

Just letting you know that I've put a shout out for anyone familiar with the 21 day plan and BF so hopefully we'll have some more support for you soon.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I don't have my books anymore so I can't reference this but current bf advice is a lot different to some of the things in the books. At his age I would just stop offering the formula and see what happens if you don't want to bother with it. As creations said at his age if he is getting in 4 good bf's plus solids then it should be fine. You may find he wants to feed a bit more frequently for a few days if you do stop. At the distracted age I often went and lifted DD3 from her nap before she woke and did her feeds while she was still sleepy in the dark and had a lot of success that way.

[Belleinfidele]

But what exactly is a 'good feed'? I've always had (too) much milk and he's a fast eater so in the past months i'm lucky if he eats 10 min. Perhaps l wasn't that clear about my ambition: l cut both nighttime eating and now the dreamfeed, and l love the new sleeping-through-the-night nights so l want to make sure he doesn't wake from hunger (of course sometimes therels the growth spurt and teeth etc). That's why l am intent on keeping him fed properly in the daytime.
In general he eats:

7 - bf
9 solids

11:15 bf
13 solids

16:15 bf
17:45 solids

7 bf and off to bed

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

10 min is a decent feed at this age, babies are very efficient feeders. At his age and with those feeds/solids meals I would not expect nw's to really be for hunger anymore, but more due to teeth/development/separation anxiety etc. Maybe cut back the formula top ups gradually? How much is he getting in the top ups?

[Belleinfidele]

He is getting 2 ounces extra 3 times a day. I was also thinking l should start gradually decreasing teh daytime amount. What a science it all is! Just when l'm terrible with numbers and logic.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Instead of decreasing every top up (as 2 oz isn't a whole lot anyways) why not pick one feed and not do the top up for a couple of days and then move on to the next one. Would save you faffing around with the bottle for one feed at least!

[Belleinfidele]

Sounds much more efficient, thanks!