Solid food and breastfeeding

[Jen E]

I wanted to start by saying how much I love pregtastic and mommies milk and more podcasts!! I listen to them all the time at work while I'm pumping (I go to the health center twice a day to pump).

My son is 7 months old and about 22lbs, and I'm still breastfeeding him. In his 5th month I started introducing solid foods, so now he's eating more and more solids. I'm not sure if the solid food replaces breastmilk somewhat or what a good ratio of milk to solid food would be. A friend of mine said that the solid food is in addition to the same quantities of milk as the baby grows. That does not seem to be the case for me as I have also noticed that we've had extra bottles lately and I've been freezing milk again. For a while I found that I had just enough for him and definitely not any to freeze. Now, I think I freeze one out of four bottles a day during the week.

[scribblerpnp]

Most babies around 7 mos will start decreasing the breast milk or formula. A "good" amount of formula/breastmilk is about 32 ounces a day. This will decrease to around 24-32 ounces once the child is a year.

[scribblerpnp]

Oh, I almost forgot! It is also acceptable to give 4-6 ounces (but NO MORE) juice per day at this point in a sippy cup. Also 4-6 ounces of water is fine as well. This is mainly to acclimate the child to using the sippy cup so the bottle can be stopped by one year of age.

[Anita_2boys]

When my first son started solids I slowly started dropping breast feeds. Basically he would wake up and nurse, then a bit later have "meals" (breakfast, lunch and dinner) which would be solids ... in between he would have "snacks" which would be breast feeds, and a breast feed before bed. It took a while to work up to this and as he got older I would also offer him drinks of water or really watered down juice as well during the day. So, ya, it's ok that he's not drinking as much as long as he's getting enough calories from his solid food to make up for it and still getting plenty to drink.... By age 1 my son was nursing mostly just in the morning and at night, however I was also back to work at 11 months so he'd have a cup or bottle of my milk at day care plus food and juice.... if he wanted to nurse more when we were home together he did, sometimes at nap time, but not very often... Now to get my 8 month old wanting to eat like my 2 year old did when he was small!! :)

Just remember.... Judge by what your baby is like... is he happy? Growing? Learning? ... Yes!, then he's probably fine!

[scribblerpnp]

Also, I believe that the AAP's (American Academy of Pediatrics) recommendations is that the main (#1) source of nutrition for baby's first year of life should be breastmilk or formula.

"Food for fun until the age of one."

[MelissaD]

According to the World Health Organization, breastfeeding should be done exclusively up through 6 months of age. After that, you can start introducing solids safely whenever it works for you and baby. They can be exclusively breastfeed up until age 2 or beyond. Babies will self-wean at varying ages.

[jen0608]

According to the World Health Organization, breastfeeding should be done exclusively up through 6 months of age. After that, you can start introducing solids safely whenever it works for you and baby. They can be exclusively breastfeed up until age 2 or beyond. Babies will self-wean at varying ages.


Well as long as you have milk on your breast it is really good to breast feed your baby. But sometimes the milk on mothers breast stops at 3 months.

[scribblerpnp]

Well as long as you have milk on your breast it is really good to breast feed your baby. But sometimes the milk on mothers breast stops at 3 months.

Even if mom's milk stops at three months, the baby should be givenformula until 12 mos of age and solids can be started at 6 mos of age. This is according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and WHO (as a previous poster mentioned)

[mamacat]

Now to get my 8 month old wanting to eat like my 2 year old did when he was small!! :)

I was interested in the podcast about feeding your children solids and I know you have a limited time but your guest Ximena Avalos didn't talk about when babies don't want solids and I agree with Anita_2 boys about how to get number 2 child to eat like number 1 child.

My first born ate pretty much from the get go. AN avid breastfeeder he did some damage in his eagerness to attach. Breastfeeding and solids were a great combination from 5 1/2 months on. At about 11 months he started having cows milk during the day and just breast feeds morning and night in preparation for me to go back to work when he was 12 months. He continued this right up until he weaned himself at 18 months, a month before my daughter was born.

Now she has been the complete opposite. She loves her breastfeeds but had trouble attaching in the beginning, took a while to get properly established but having one successful child I was determined for number 2. Then solids - we started a week before she turned 6 months and she was completely uninterested - rice cereal with breast milk warm, cold, rice cereal with boiled water warm then cold. Then pumpkin. All rejected.

So we let it go for a week and tried again. Still nothing. She would turn her head away, push the spoon away, clamp her mouth closed, that spoon wasn't going in. If the spoon was empty she was happy to put it in her mouth and chew on it but nothing else was going in.

We'd try for a couple of days and then stop for a couple.

Finally at 8 months we took her to the pediatrician as she was already on the small side and we didn't want her losing out on getting iron or enough calories.

The pediatrician was very supportive of my wanting to continue breastfeeding and solids. He noted she was healthy, strong and active and meeting her milestones. Her head circumference was a good size BUT her weight was starting to plateau which she couldn't very well afford being at the lower end of the scale.

He said we had to be more tough with her. Breast feeding would be a reward once she ate. If she didn't eat, we wait half an hour and try again.
Or very well and said but my daughter is very stubborn and would still refuse when she hadn't eaten for 5 to 6 hours which is distressing for a mother who has a child screaming because you have put food in her mouth and she doesn't want to eat it.

What saved us?

Vanilla yoghurt! All natural, no extra sugar or artificial flavours. She loved it and ate it and so I started mixing in farax (rice cereal) so she could get the iron. Then I mixed in other foods such as pumpkin (butternut), sweet potato, avocado, banana (not my choices but the only way I could get her to eat the food).

She is now 9 months and just the last two days she has started eating food that is not yoghurt - which feels like a huge milestone.

My son by now was eating porridge (oatmeal) for breakfast and baked beans for dinner but I cannot see my daughter eating chunkier solids by then. If anything is too thick or not to her liking it is still a battle getting her to eat and then I worry she is not getting enough breast milk.

So if you get Ximena Avalos can you get her to talk about when babies don't eat solids.... any and all advice is appreciated. I realised when we left the drs I didn't ask how long was I supposed to hold her out, how many tablespoons of food should she be eating now, how many breastfeeds a day should she be getting?

Thanks for letting me get this off my chest. Now to go steam some cauliflower and pumpkin and other foods.