Hi ladies,
Newmommy724, I know what you mean, they can be very distracted at this age. Remember that I did say ds went off the breast a bit, doing exactly what you are describing, before kind of returning to the fold:
I believe that my lo was so taken with solids initially that he may have cut down on bf a bit, and was quite in love with the idea of something spooned into his mouth. Now that the novelty has worn off and he's developing a taste for some things over others, he seems to have upped the bf back to higher levels and so isn't so hungry for the solids.
I have also noticed that it depends on the time of day as to how interested my lo is in the breast, he usually can't be bothered around lunchtime (I've starting switching around solids/bf so that he's now getting solids first) because he's full from lunch. Also, my lo has just started childcare so I am OK with missing the middle of the day feed (yay, I won't need to express anymore!) as long as I know he's getting in calories elsewhere.
The other thing I noticed was that one breast seems to hold more milk and express at a faster rate than the other. So I figure when he's on the other breast and gets fussy, it may be because the flow is too slow for him, or whatever. So usually, if there is fussing and distractedness I will change sides. Usually this does the trick (maybe the letdown is stimulated from his initial sucks on the other side, who knows) and he will nurse for 5 minutes quite happily.
Generally, if he's still fussing, I will take him off the breast and just wait until the next meal. Of course, if he's madly fussing an hour later I would say go ahead and nurse him.
I've read in other threads, and it has been my experience, that this age is a tough one because they are making significant transitions in their nutrition - intake, type, volume, etc. So I think no-one would shoot you down for just feeding when he seems to need it. And I think you should actually offer the breast at the 6pm feed, as your body will adjust to meeting the demand at this time of day, even with the earlier feeds. If you offer the bottle instead, you will make happen what you fear. I am currently still nursing 5x per day, but its 2x in the morning, at 5pm, before bed at 7pm and a df at 10pm. Sometimes (work permitting) I will also nurse at lunchtime if I go and visit him at the childcare centre. I am pretty sure I still have good supply (but it IS early days yet) and I think its true that your body will adjust so you have milk at the right time.
Bear in mind also that its OK to drop feeds (I think my ds will want to drop the noon-ish feed soon on his own anyway) once they start to get good balanced nutrition elsewhere. And just to show that I'm a little paranoid too, I went to the chemist and bought some infant vitamin drops just in case. The pharmacist said they would do no harm if he WAS getting all the necessary vitamins and minerals, but since he was looking like dropping a feed I wanted to make sure he was getting everything he needed.
Hope that answers your question.
Magicbelly,
I haven't started phasing out the df yet, but I know that Tracy says to do it gradually. You need to ensure that you up the calories in the feeds for the rest of the day to compensate. This may be why your lo woke at 11pm the night you didn't do the df. So, lets say she normally nurses for 10 minutes in the df at roughly 11pm. On the first night, you would provide additional calories throughout the day, then at maybe 10.30pm you would let her nurse for 8 minutes. Do that for 2-3 days. Then on day 4, provide a little more calories through the day, then at 10.00pm let her nurse for 6 minutes. So you gradually reduce the time and the duration of the feeds so that eventually the df is actually the bedtime nurse anyway. Just make sure you are compensating for the lost calories elsewhere in your lo's day.
Good luck!
