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Offline karinli

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TOO MANY FEEDS A DAY???
« on: April 08, 2008, 21:55:58 pm »
My DS is almost 9 mo now, & he is eating 3 good meals a day, but has decreased his milk feeds. For awhile now he has been taking 5 min on each side, but lately he is refusing a side sometimes twice a day, & decreasing 2 minutes here & there.  I do not think that this is a supply issue & I am noticing that a lot of los this age are down to only 4 feeds a day & I am still doing a DF at night which makes 5.

Could this be the issue???

TIA

MM
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Offline liacarmen

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Re: TOO MANY FEEDS A DAY???
« Reply #1 on: April 09, 2008, 04:07:40 am »
My son is 8 months and we're still on 5 feeds too - no dream feed but every three hours about during the day. I'm not worried about it, I think 5 feeds is just fine, and you also know lo is getting enough milk and not too much solids.
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Offline Samuel's mum

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Re: TOO MANY FEEDS A DAY???
« Reply #2 on: April 09, 2008, 05:37:05 am »
Sounds like he's naturally decreasing his feeds on his own. It's called self-weaning and plenty of people choose it that way. When he consistently shows little interest for a particular feed that might be one to 'drop'. It all depends on how long you see yourself bfing for.
We were at least 5 feeds at that age.
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Offline karinli

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Re: TOO MANY FEEDS A DAY???
« Reply #3 on: April 09, 2008, 15:33:44 pm »
Well, of course I want breast milk to be his primary source 'til minimum a year.....why would he be doing this, he only eats fruits/veggies a bit of protein (tofu) & a bit of starch (pasta/potato), it seems he's less interested in the 11am feed after 3 tbs of cereal at breakfast w/ fruit.
What do I do, can I get him back on track, the Solids Forum said to limit his solids & see if that changes anything, is that the only recommendation???

MM
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Offline EllenS

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Re: TOO MANY FEEDS A DAY???
« Reply #4 on: April 09, 2008, 16:06:02 pm »
I don't know that there is a problem, he is probably taking plenty overall, just spread out to 5 feeds.  The fact that he only feeds 5 minutes doesn't mean anything - at his age a baby can easily drain a breast in 5 minutes or sometimes less.  He should be having somewhere in the range of 18-20 oz of milk per day.  If you divide that by 5 feeds, that's 4 oz or less per feed, he could get that from 1 breast unless you have low supply.

 If you want to drop the df and encourage him to get it all in 4 bigger feeds, then you can certainly try that.

However, if he's got enough wet and poopy diapers, seems satisfied, and is gaining weight appropriately, you can probably leave things be.
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Offline karinli

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Re: TOO MANY FEEDS A DAY???
« Reply #5 on: April 09, 2008, 16:32:19 pm »
Well, he's always from day one been efficient, & feeds were always 5 min from both sides or 10 from one, so that's how I know there's been a change. 
He's gone from the top of the growth curve to the middle since 6 mo, not a huge issue, but again, this shows a change/decrease.
He has also become somewhat grumpy, I know this as he was always an "Angel Baby" AND, he has started NW in the past 3-4 weeks (never to have happened ever before), sometimes every 2 hours, he wakes seemingly agitated but then goes right back to sleep. He's gone from poopy diaps everyday to every second or so.

I don't think it's a supply issue, as sometimes he out & out refuses, pushing away, & yet other times (when he's hungrier, he laps it up), I can always express milk instantly....

The dr said to supplement w/ formula if I was worried, but then, serving formula after/during solids, I wonder how this will make him take the breast more.....

I always feed solids pretty much right after BF, should I maybe have a bigger gap in between or is that irrelevant?

Or as you said, it's possible that he IS getting all he needs & it's just less than before?!?

 :-\
« Last Edit: April 09, 2008, 16:34:35 pm by karinli »
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Offline clh

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Re: TOO MANY FEEDS A DAY???
« Reply #6 on: April 09, 2008, 17:10:44 pm »
If you want to increase his milk intake, the only recommendation I can think of is to decrease his other calories, which is exactly the advice you've already been given:  cut back solids.

My Isaac is just a little older than your ds, and he's been exhibiting these behaviors for a few weeks now, increasingly not interested in the middle-of-the-day feed.  I finally got tired of fighting with him over it, and this past week we've dropped to 4 feeds.  (Well, 2 feeds & 2 bottles...  he's in daycare.)  I guess I'm looking at it as a switch from a routine for babies: milk for b'fast, lunch, & dinner, with solids for snacks to one more like toddlers: solids for b'fast, lunch, and dinner and milk for snacks.  I don't think his overall milk consumption is down too much (especially when he was refusing that one feed so much anyway  ::)).

Self-weaning doesn't mean that he'll stop completely next week.  :)  It just means he's ready for a different schedule.  My ds1, James, went to 4 feeds at about 8.5 months, but I was able to continue nursing him until 14 months.  4 feeds for a long time (maybe 12.5 months?), then gradually reducing to none.

{{hugs}} hun.  I know it's hard when they change up on you.  I hope you find the right solution for your family.
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Offline Samuel's mum

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Re: TOO MANY FEEDS A DAY???
« Reply #7 on: April 09, 2008, 17:11:52 pm »
Do you know what kind of charts you are using? On the 'old style' lots of ebf babies start slipping percentiles.
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Offline EllenS

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Re: TOO MANY FEEDS A DAY???
« Reply #8 on: April 09, 2008, 23:00:39 pm »
If that's your doctors exact words - use formula IF you are concerned, it sounds like he is NOT concerned himself, which is a good sign.

Lots of babies start NW at this age, due to developmental/mobility issues.  Does he go right back to sleep AFTER a feed or WITHOUT a feed?  If he will go back to sleep peacefully without a feed then he is probably fine on calories.

If you are giving solids after bf, then increasing the amount of time between will just make him take more solids.  If you were giving solids first, then you'd wait longer to get him to take more milk - make sense?

How are you on pumping - what about pumping and giving ebm in a sippy cup with meals?  That might sneak more into his day. 

All in all, it does sound like what Candace said - he is probably just ready to have his routine changed a bit, maybe drop that df and adjust meal/nap times.

Emma made a good point about the growth charts - are you familiar with this?  The "old style" charts - which are still predominantly used here in the US - are based on mostly formula fed babies, who gain more quickly than ebf babies, which makes it look like the ebf babies are underweight or dropping percentiles.  Here is a link to the WHO charts based entirely on ebf babies:
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=86f777663086f5adbeda09eed0db2251&topic=63598.0
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Offline karinli

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Re: TOO MANY FEEDS A DAY???
« Reply #9 on: April 10, 2008, 01:44:57 am »
Yes he does go right back to sleep at night, & this hasn't occured (I guess) for a few days or so now, & I can understand how it may be developmental as they are changing so rapidly @ this age, but it looks like he needs an all around new routine......

I cannot pump b/c I believe I have lipase the enzyme as he will not take my milk from anything, bottle, cup, w/ cereal (this happened @ 5 mo) so w/ him refusing I doubt anything has changed w/ that!

Thanks for the growth charts, I checked it out & these are the charts my DR uses & DS is smack dab on the middle line, whereas from birth to six mo he was on the top line......we are going for a follow up in 3 weeks.......

Ok, so drop the DF 1st??? (Yikes this is scary) How does that work, should I gradually cut it back 15 minutes everyday 'til it disappears??

MM 
« Last Edit: April 12, 2008, 22:41:57 pm by karinli »
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