How many BF for 7 1/2 month old

[Joanne]

Hi
I was just wondering how many feeds my 7 1/2 month old should be having. We don't have a set schedule as she wakes up all different times in the morning and when she goes down for her naps she might sleep for 40 mins or 2.5 hours!
At the moment I feed about every 3.5 to 4 hours and offer solids (breakfast, lunch and dinner) about an hour after I feed her . She is averageing about 5 feeds a day.
My lo is eating solids but only yogurt and rice cereal (she spits out anything else - don't worry I still offer other things all the time, she just won't eat them yet )
Any way, yesterday, I think because she is teething she wouldn't feed at all when she first woke and then still didn't want much a couple of hours later. When I offered her yogurt about another hour later again she ate a whole serve (which is amazing for her!)
So my question is am I offering her too much milk and could this be why she doesn't seem very into solids??

Thanks Jo

[RachelC]

Jo,
Are you still doing a night or dream feed?  We've been doing 4 feeds ever since we dropped the dreamfeed.  Have you tried offering the solids 1.5 hours later?  That's when my lo takes hers.  When we did 1 hour she didn't take as much.  At this point, your milk should be the most important intake for your lo, so if she's happy on the milk, let her be. 

HTH

[Joanne]

Hi Rachel
Yes, I normally get her up about 9.30pm just before we go to bed and feed her. So the 5 feeds includes the df. I will try giving her her solids a little later like you said. I fed her at 6am this morning but it is now 10am and she is letting me know now that she is hungry for her milk again. I gave her her breakfast at about 8.30am (after her 6am feed she went back to sleep until 8am) and she ate it pretty good (2 dry desertspoons  of rice cereal mixed with milk). We'll see how today goes! I think maybe i might need to drop down to 4 feeds rather than 5???

Jo 

[RachelC]

You may want to begin weaning the dreamfeed.  I will look around for my post on how I did that.

[RachelC]

Here it is:
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=61217.msg447453#msg447453

[Joanne]

Thanks Rachel
I must admit I am very reluctant to drop the df as my dd has only just (I am talking the last week or two) started sleeping through! I would be worried if she didn't have that 9.30pm feed she will wake in the night or very early morning! So far today I have only fed her at 6am. When I said before she seemed hungry I put her to bed and she went straight to sleep so maybe I am just miss reading her tired signs for hunger. I thought today I might try feeding her 6am, 11am, 4pm and then df at 9.30pm. What do you think?

Jo 

[RachelC]

Jo,
You can certainly give it a try.  You'll know real quick if she's not getting enough milk if she wakes tonight    Again, milk should be first and foremost in her diet, solids are secondary.  If she is in fact teething, it is very normal for her appetite to slow down.

[Joanne]

Thanks so much for your quick replies! You have been a great help. It is so nice to have somewhere to ask questions and get some feedback. I will see how she goes!

kind Regards
Jo