Should she be having snacks now?

[RebekahDSC]

So, my DD is 11 months now.  She gets four BF a day and 3 solid meals.  Mostly we still give her baby food, but we are experimenting some with finger food now.  She eats a lot, but sometimes it seems as though she wants even more throughout the day, like when she sees us eating and it is not her mealtime.  Is she at a point now where she could be eating snacks between meals?  I am so nervous to mess with her good meals and cause her to snack all day and never eat well.  At what point is snacking between meals not a problem?

[Buntybear]

Hi,

At 10 months we dropped a BF and replaced it with a snack. Are you looking at doing that? If you are happy to stay at 4 BFs then maybe introduce a snack alongside a BF? NOt sure how others have done it though!

Definaltey go with the finger foods - at 11 months you want to be introducing independence and variety!

[RebekahDSC]

Thanks so much, Buntybear!  How did you decide which BF to drop? I've been wondering for awhile when we should drop the one right after her second nap, because that BF, dinner (solids), and her BT routine BF are all really close together.  I don't know if I should replace it with a snack or just drop it completely, though. Any thoughts?

I think you are the perfect person for me to talk to because I notice you have a lot of experience with food allergies.  The reason I have been slow to introduce finger foods and new foods in general is because my family has a lot of food allergies and I am very nervous that my DD could have inherited some of those. My brother has Celiac Disease, my mom has a wheat intolerance, and I had a milk allergy when I was little that I, thankfully, grew out of as I got older.  My dad is lactose intolerant as well.  Sometimes when we have given her wheat it seems like she tends to get gassy/fussy. Do you have any suggestions on handling the possibility of food allergies when introducing new foods?

I am also wondering about starting BF weaning but I am very nervous about giving her cow's milk because of what I explained above.  Also, the pediatrician once ordered some tests on her BM (that's another story!) and the results said she could have a little bit of lactose intolerance.  Can you give a baby a different kind of milk instead of cow's milk?

Thank you so much for your help!

[Fiver]

We dropped down from 4 BFs to 3BFs when DD dropped to one nap.  If you feel the post-2nd nap one is getting too close to dinner, that might be the one to try to drop first.  I'd try to be led by her as to whether she seemed like she was hungry before offering a snack there, especially as you're saying it's fairly close to dinner.

[Buntybear]

lol, have just found my thread about when I dropped the first BF. It turned out to tbe the pm one! http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=183720.msg2095786#msg2095786

I think it is very wisde to be careful when introducing new foods if you have a history of food allergies and intolerances. Have you found that your DD has any reactions so far? How much wheat have you given her? As far as I understand it ios is fairly hard to diagnose coeliacs in very young LOs.

I woudl definaltey stick with the 3 day rule when introducing anything new. Go for it with the finger foods though!

You can give other milks to dairy. Has she had any dairy before though?

[becj86]

What happened to Buntybear happened to us too - the first time I dropped a day feed and replaced with a snack at around 10 months, we ended up with a NF I preferred the day feed, so reinstated. We naturally went down to three feeds most days when we have one nap and are slowly dropping out the last day feed to get down to 2 BF's/day but we have some bad teething at the moment and are going backwards.

WHO actually recommends 4BF/day til 1yo, so its not a terrible thing to keep BFing

[Buntybear]

We had NWs until 14 months due to his food allergies so actually it could have been some if that too with hindsight!

[RebekahDSC]

Thanks for your insights, Ladies!

We dropped down from 4 BFs to 3BFs when DD dropped to one nap.  If you feel the post-2nd nap one is getting too close to dinner, that might be the one to try to drop first.  I'd try to be led by her as to whether she seemed like she was hungry before offering a snack there, especially as you're saying it's fairly close to dinner.

Hmm... maybe we should just keep things the way they are then.  She seems perfectly fine with it. I am always amazed that she can take two BFs and a smaller solid meal in 2 hours time (sometimes less time if her second nap ends late) but this little girl just keeps eating and eating and eating! 

I think it is very wisde to be careful when introducing new foods if you have a history of food allergies and intolerances. Have you found that your DD has any reactions so far? How much wheat have you given her? As far as I understand it ios is fairly hard to diagnose coeliacs in very young LOs.

We used to give her baby oatmeal but I started to suspect it might be causing her to be very gassy and fussy so we switched to rice cereal.  Of course, now we have constipation troubles but that's another story!!!  It's hard to know for sure as we've struggled with nws for ages so a lot of the time I don't know what they are due to.

You can give other milks to dairy. Has she had any dairy before though?

Only by "accident." The other day, for instance, DH gave her some shredded wheat cereal soaked in milk that he was eating. (He is way more lax than me and didn't admit to it until later  ) and she was EXTREMELY gassy the rest of the day. Of course, that could have been a reaction to the wheat OR the milk so it is hard to tell.  I guess she has had the occasional formula with dairy (mostly I BF) but for a long time when we do use formula we have used one for gassy babies.  To be honest, she has had so many digestive issues and such throughout her life (dealt with my Over-Active Letdown for months, extremely gassy as a newborn and still is pretty gassy, tentative reflux diagnosis, etc.) that it is hard to pin-point what causes what!

WHO actually recommends 4BF/day til 1yo, so its not a terrible thing to keep BFing

Oh, cool!  That's good to know!

We had NWs until 14 months due to his food allergies so actually it could have been some if that too with hindsight!

Ew, that's so hard.  I definitely can relate on the NWs.  How did they stop? Is that when you figured out the food allergies?

[Buntybear]

Yes, really is it was when I stopped BFing and he was fully off all his allergenic foods - even though BM. He was still having them so I posted here and it was suggested that he was intolerant to fructose too - we took that out and the NWs stopped!

[RebekahDSC]

I'm giving her some peas now at the end of lunch that she can put in herself!  Yesterday she accidentally got ahold of some peaches and started eating them and didn't have a problem so today I gave her some of those as well.  She is enjoying herself!

[Buntybear]

Yay! That is great!