Self Weaning

TeamK07

In the past month my LO has dropped 2-3 nursing sessions.  For 3 wks he was doing 4 times a day, and now the past few days he has been only nursing 3 times a day.  He eats 3 solid meals, two snacks, and I offer water in a sippy cup at meals (he doesn't get too much of the water).  Is it normal for him to drop feedings like this at his age (almost 10 months)?  I am worried my milk is going to dry up and was hoping to make it to a year!

I am planning on calling the Pedi tomorrow, but if this has happened to anyone - did you supplement with formula or I've heard some even start cow's milk a little early.

LittleD8081

Just my two cents...  But, if it were me...and this is the first thing that came to my mind...I would probably drop a snack session or two.  Seems like he's getting quite a bit of food during the day between solids and nursing and snacks and water.  I would think that you wouldn't have him doing all that if you wanted him to nurse a little bit more.  I've known people who lost their supply because of the same type of feeding schedule.  Everyone's different though.  You might be fine.  That being said...I was worried about this and wanted to make sure we'd make it to a year with BFing so I've done solids verrrrrrrrry slowwwwwwwww.  Even now, DS nurses 8-10 x per day (he's a snacker), and we do 2 solid meals.  We just introduced a finger food meal and a snack in addition to what he was already doing.  And I'm going to offer water now more than I did before.  At 10 1/2 months, I feel confident we'll make it to a year with BFing even with the increased solid feeding schedule.

GL with whatever you do.  Remember, you have to do what works for you regardless of what everyone else (me) says.

kds24

I'm of the school of thought that BM/formula should be the primary source of nutrition for the first year, so I would make sure that he was doing milk before meals and not filling up on snacks or solids yet.  Solids can be filling, but are not as nutritionally dense as breastmilk or formula.  If you're already doing that then I wouldn't worry too much.  I also took solids very slowly and used them as more of a learning period before DS turned 1.

Angela814

I agree with the others. My min bfing goal was 2 years, so we went very slowly on solids. DD got her 2nd meal at 9 months with maybe 1 small snack at that point just to get some practice self feeding. I would back off on the solids. Also, make sure you nurse before offering solids if you want him to be drinking more bm. We usually did solids 30-60 minutes after nursing.

Also, 10 months is a common distractible period. DD would nursed for maybe 5-7 min total each time at that age. There was just too much other stuff going on.

I was actually planning to let her self wean, but her latch got too bad after I night weaned her. I started weaning a couple months before she turned 3, and she was weaned completely at 3y2m.