10 months

Hi guys

Been busy, but been lurking.

Just have a question, if my son stopped breastfeeding at 10 months, and
won't take a bottle (of milk, but will drink water) - would that be ok?
I mean, I know milk is supposed to be the main source of nutrition for
the first 12 months, but he's really not BF much at all... Perhaps 4 or
5 times, and often it's only one during the day.

My supply is starting to suffer, as he has no patience to wait for
letdown most of the time. It's like my body won't let down until it
knows he's staying there for the feed. If he's at all jittery, it will
hold back. I guess I could try stimulating a letdown first...

Don't get me wrong, I definitely don't want him to wean now, but if he
did want to, should I be forcing him to feed until 12 months if he
doesn't want to? And would I have to try to force him to drink milk
(hopefully EBM) until then? What about 12 months and 1 day? What if he
never drinks milk after that? Should I try him on cow's milk?

Ok, so it wasn't just 'a' question.

Hope you can help!

Thanks,
Jo

--
Woman, Wife, Mother, Midwife

"Notchalk" wrote in message

but he's really not BF much at all... Perhaps 4 or
5 times, and often it's only one during the day.

I think that seems like a reasonable amount of milk to me. He's probably
getting more then you think. It doesn't matter what time of day he gets it.

--
Nikki, mama to
Hunter 4/99
Luke 4/01
Thing One and Thing Two due 4/06

"Notchalk" wrote in message
...
Hi guys

Been busy, but been lurking.

Just have a question, if my son stopped breastfeeding at 10 months, and
won't take a bottle (of milk, but will drink water) - would that be ok? I
mean, I know milk is supposed to be the main source of nutrition for the
first 12 months, but he's really not BF much at all... Perhaps 4 or 5
times, and often it's only one during the day.

My supply is starting to suffer, as he has no patience to wait for letdown
most of the time. It's like my body won't let down until it knows he's
staying there for the feed. If he's at all jittery, it will hold back. I
guess I could try stimulating a letdown first...


Firstly, I guess everyone is different ...

How do you know your supply is suffering ?

I'm breastfeeding my third child. She's now 4 months, and already I no
longer always feel a let down. My body is adjusting to the whole supply
demand thing and is becoming an efficient milk producer. I know she's
getting milk because I hear her gulping it down, but I don't feel the tingle
of a let down or the tingle of the boobs filling with milk (sometimes I
still do, but it's fading now). Probably in another month, I'll have *very*
few symptoms that I'm breastfeeding a baby (no filling, no tingling, no
leaking, no firmness, nada....), but of course, I still will be !

By around 10 months, I'd probably be expecting to feed breastfeed around 4-6
times a day (obviously that depends on the baby).

At a guess, he's probably getting more milk than you think he is.

I read that if a child stopped bfing (for whatever reason) before 12
months, he should be on formula for the remainder of the time.

Have you considered renting a hospital-grade pump and feed him
expressed milk? It would be better than cow's milk/formula.

Ideally, he would be getting most of his nutrition from bm for at least
2 years.

How long has he been doing this? Perhaps he is just learning something
exciting and is too busy to nurse, but will resume as normal soon? A
good breast pump could work for a while and help build your supply back
up until he resumes.

On Sat, 25 Mar 2006 21:34:02 +0800, Notchalk wrote:

Hi guys

Been busy, but been lurking.

Just have a question, if my son stopped breastfeeding at 10 months, and
won't take a bottle (of milk, but will drink water) - would that be ok?
I mean, I know milk is supposed to be the main source of nutrition for
the first 12 months, but he's really not BF much at all... Perhaps 4 or
5 times, and often it's only one during the day.

At 10 months, I went back to work. YoungBloke got a morning feed, a
lunchtime feed if he wasn't asleep when I got to nursery, an evening
feed, a bedtime feed and a feed during the night. So he was only
getting one milk feed during the day. At nursery he had a cup of EBM
some of which he drank, otherwise it was water. I hardly ever had
let-downs by then. He ate pretty well at nursery and took milk when he
wanted at home.

He's nearly 2.5 now and we're down to 2-3 feeds a day now - first
thing in the morning, bed-time and in the night if he wakes (which is
becoming rare). So the tailing off doesn't have to be the end of
things.
--
Linz
YB: 2 years, 11.5kg, 83cm, still breastfed.

Just have a question, if my son stopped breastfeeding at 10 months, and
won't take a bottle (of milk, but will drink water) - would that be ok? I
mean, I know milk is supposed to be the main source of nutrition for the
first 12 months, but he's really not BF much at all... Perhaps 4 or 5
times, and often it's only one during the day.

on what basis is this not enough, at 10mths a pint of milk is plenty, if you
say 4 feeds, thats 5oz per feed, which is probably a minimum of what he is
getting in a feed, so he's getting plenty from you

My supply is starting to suffer, as he has no patience to wait for letdown
most of the time. It's like my body won't let down until it knows he's
staying there for the feed. If he's at all jittery, it will hold back. I
guess I could try stimulating a letdown first...

what evidence do you have for your supply being down? you may not even feel
let downs at this stage

Don't get me wrong, I definitely don't want him to wean now, but if he did
want to, should I be forcing him to feed until 12 months if he doesn't
want to? And would I have to try to force him to drink milk (hopefully
EBM) until then? What about 12 months and 1 day? What if he never drinks
milk after that? Should I try him on cow's milk?

but if he is feeding 4 times a day, then he does want to, feeding just 2 or
3 times a day along with 3 solid meals would be a very normal pattern for 10
months. Giving him other milk is the exact way to make him wean. I don't
think you should be forcing him to feed, but I don't think you are going to
have to, is every feed forced? What triggers make you give him a feed? Ada
is about 2 weeks younger, she fed 3 times yesterday and 4 times today (all
day time, none over night - don't hate me she's only been doing this for a
week), she's also eaten 3 smallish meals, she's definitely not being
overfilled with solids, today she had porridge for breakfast, about 100ml I
guess, for lunch, tit bits of our roast dinner, chicken, potato etc. and for
tea, half a jar of banoffee pudding (we use jars when we find what we are
eating isn't easily adapted, but it's not turning out to be expensive, she
eats half of one of the stage 2 or stage 3 jars).

Ultimately I'm not sure what your problem is, offer solids at meal times,
offer water with them, the rest of the time, breastfeed on demand. He may be
having a nursing strike, it's the typical age, but I'm afraid I don't know
much about them, try www.kellymom.com. It's when you start giving him an
alternative milk, or your own milk via a different method that you'll push
him to weaning, if you don't do that, he'll have no choice.

Anne

the usefull page on kellymom is

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/weaning/babyselfwean.html

cheers

Anne

On 2006-03-25 22:36:22 +0800, "Nikki" said:


"Notchalk" wrote in message

but he's really not BF much at all... Perhaps 4 or
5 times, and often it's only one during the day.

I think that seems like a reasonable amount of milk to me. He's
probably getting more then you think. It doesn't matter what time of
day he gets it.

True, it's just I don't feel he's swallowing as much as he used to,
certainly not gulping as early in the feed as he used to - he's getting
bored of waiting for the letdown!

I took Anne's advice last time I had a question about breast refusal,
and she suggested to not offer as often, which really did work well.

Thanks

Jo
--
Woman, Wife, Mother, Midwife

On 2006-03-26 00:14:13 +0800, "Happy Hunter" said:


Firstly, I guess everyone is different ...

How do you know your supply is suffering ?

Length of 'gulping' time is less - he isn't swallowing as much as he
used to. Feeds are heaps shorter. I guess he could be getting super
efficient and taking bigger mouthfulls, but I suppose I'm going on a
hunch. I'm not going to use the "I'm not as full as I used to be" as a
reason, but I'm definitely not as full as I was, say, 2 weeks ago.


I'm breastfeeding my third child. She's now 4 months, and already I no
longer always feel a let down. My body is adjusting to the whole supply
demand thing and is becoming an efficient milk producer. I know she's
getting milk because I hear her gulping it down, but I don't feel the
tingle of a let down or the tingle of the boobs filling with milk
(sometimes I still do, but it's fading now). Probably in another month,
I'll have *very* few symptoms that I'm breastfeeding a baby (no
filling, no tingling, no leaking, no firmness, nada....), but of
course, I still will be !

Oh I definitely still feel letdown. It's just happening much longer
after he's started. He's getting rough with me trying to make it
happen sooner!


By around 10 months, I'd probably be expecting to feed breastfeed
around 4-6 times a day (obviously that depends on the baby).

Yup, I guess that's what he's doing. I think because the sessions are
so short with less swallowing that I was thinking they are not really
'good' enough? He always only takes one breast at a time, too.


At a guess, he's probably getting more milk than you think he is.

I hope so!!

Thanks

Jo

--
Woman, Wife, Mother, Midwife

On 2006-03-26 02:11:39 +0800, "Brookben" said:

I read that if a child stopped bfing (for whatever reason) before 12
months, he should be on formula for the remainder of the time.

Blerk. That won't be happening - I'll give EBM if that happens,
eventhough he won't drink my EBM in any way, shape or form!


Have you considered renting a hospital-grade pump and feed him
expressed milk? It would be better than cow's milk/formula.

Yup, I would do that if he stopped BF altogether.


Ideally, he would be getting most of his nutrition from bm for at least
2 years.

That is my ideal, too!


How long has he been doing this? Perhaps he is just learning something
exciting and is too busy to nurse, but will resume as normal soon? A
good breast pump could work for a while and help build your supply back
up until he resumes.

Yes, I'm hoping it's just a phase. Anne gave me a good reference on
the Kellymom website that helped to explain that well. I have also had
a 'durr' moment, when I realised he's probably not feeding often
because he's quite snotty at the moment. I'm drinking more water and
taking fenugreek again.

Thanks

Jo

--
Woman, Wife, Mother, Midwife