Benefits of BF after 6 months....

[Petunia]

would my milk still be ok if i was only doing 2 feeds a day?

Yes!  Remember that moms that nurse their children in to toddlerhood are often only nursing once or twice a day.  They don't lose that milk until the child stops asking for those feeds every day.

forgot to ask.. if at some point I wanted to say do 2 bf a day and the other 2 as formula, would this cancel out the benefits of bf, or would they still stand?

Interesting question.  If your child was younger than six months old, I would have to answer with a 'yes - mostly'.  There has been research done on the intestinal flora and makeup of the intestines.  The studies show that during the first six months of life, if anything other than breastmilk is introduced into the baby's intestinal system, the system is thrown off.  Just one bottle of formula can take weeks to recover from.  This is one of the reasons for the adamant recommendation for exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months.  Here's the research on it, quite interesting reading:

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/delay-solids.html

http://breastfeed.com/resources/articles/virgingut.htm

Also, most of the benefits described for the breastfed baby are for those who are exclusively breastfed as opposed to those who are fed artificial milk or those who are fed a combination of artificial milk and breastmilk.

However, you don't plan to introduce formula until after six months of age.  So if you thought of formula as a solid you are introducing into his system, I'd say you'd be ok.  I would continue with as much breastfeeding as you could, because it does continue to be liquid gold and should be his main source of nutrition until his first birthday.

[kim&savannah]

Frist of all, I just want to congratulate you on how much you have figured out and how well you are doing with your touchy eater!!!!  That is so great that you are so committed to this.

DD was also a MSPI baby, although I didn't really notice reactions to everything else, so it was a little easier for me to follow the diet.  But just a couple things--first, the Alimentum is REALLY expensive (part of why I was so determined to not have to switch to formula) and the bfing got so much easier as time went on (I feel like this was actually one of the huge benefits!  we both loved those times of day--it was so much more relaxing than the first 6 months or so).  Around 14 months, dd had pretty much outgrown her food issues.  We also have no food allergies in our families, so we were always pretty sure this was a temporary thing.


Also, the comment about not losing your milk if you drop to two feeds--many women don't, but some do, so if you absolutely are not ready to wean, I'd be cautious about cutting back that much.  When we dropped down to 2 feeds around 14 months, I pretty much dried up and ended up stopping at that point.  I wasn't really dissappointed because we'd made it past a year which was my main goal, but I think next time, I'll be a little more wary about cutting out all the other feeds until I'm sure we're ready for that.

~Kim

[Samuel's mum]

You've had some great advice already but I just wanted to mention I've finished a FAQ on this very issue - it's now posted in the FAQ board.

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=65363.0

I would agree with previous advice that if your LO has allergies then continuing can be particularly beneficial in the long - term.

Your LO is very lucky to have a mummy taking so much care with diet - not easy I'd imagine.