Cloth Diapering

BFing, food, logistics…help

M is working on ten months this month….ten months old! Yikes, how did we get here? I always had in my head that I would definitely BF until a year and then wean when M wanted to (that was my heart's perfect plan so long as we had a good BFing relationship).  Because of his aversion to the bottle and me running back and forth like a crazy person to and from work to nurse him throughout the day, I was so relieved to be getting so close to a year so I would feel less obligated to come home to nurse him (which I still do.  I make my work schedule and will work in 2-3 hour chunks, come home to nurse him and leave again)

The thing is, this article has me not wanting to stop nursing M during the day if he doesn't want to (please, this isn't a BFing debate, just my thoughts and logistics about it).  That pretty much just means that work will be no less crazy.  Which I'm willing to do because I love nursing him and he still loves it too. 

Once he hits a year, do I try to cut out any feedings and substitute real food?  How do I make sure he's getting enough eating practice and not getting too much BM? Is that even possible…too much BM?

We see the pediatrician on 2/14 and plan to ask these questions too.

I'll nurse M until he says "yo Ma, where's my backpack? time for junior high" :-D But how do I divide it between nursing and real food? 
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Re: BFing, food, logistics…help

  • A's diet didn't consist of mostly solid food until she was closer to 18 months or so. Will he take a cup?
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  • he will use a straw cup, yup.  and a bottle sometimes
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  • If I remember we dropped bottles during the day first. And after one year we started mixing milk in the bottles.

    Maybe start introducing cups of breast milk?

    I continued breastfeeding mornings and nights until a month after her birthday. I would have kept going if we didn't want to have a second child. AF never showed up, even when I was only nursing twice a day.
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  • I went back to work when DS1 was a year old.  He didn't like bottles, but I could send him to daycare with a sippy cup for pumped milk and he would use that at snack/lunch.  I nursed him when I dropped him off at the daycare, then again when I picked him up before I left daycare since it was a 40 minute drive from daycare to home (daycare was 3min from my work).  
    I pumped at work 2-3 times per day and not at home in order to keep up with his demand.

    At home and on weekend I nursed him on demand.  I nursed him until he was 24 months old.  At that age he stopped asking and I didn't offer.  He PT'd at the same time so I think he was concentrated on that and not the nursing. 

    I don't have any regrets and will try to follow a similar path with DS2. 
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  • so still nurse as much as he wants…but what about solid foods? is it extra? sometimes?
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  • M will let you know what he needs. Seriously. At his age offer 3 meals and one or two snacks. If he eats them great. If he doesnt that's fine too. Until one of you decides you don't like the current routine don't force anything. Other than just encouraging him to drink from a cup rather than a bottle.

    I still nurse G on demand on the weekends even though he gets just what's left of my freezer stash mixed with almond or coconut milk during the day on weekdays. It's totally fine.

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  • Are you currently offering him any solid food? DS's solid food intake went up dramatically from months 12-15.

    I wouldn't worry so much about solid food displacing BM in your child's diet. I would look more at what role you plan to have for dairy. In our case, I wanted to encourage DS to wean after 1 year, so I started to offer him goats milk, goats milk cheese and yogurt. Gradually switched over to cows milk and cows milk cheeses once I felt confident that he didn't have a sensitivity to it.

    I would imagine if you aren't displacing your BM with milk/milk products from other animals, your LO will still want to BF for nutritional reasons.

    At 20 months we are now down to 2-3 feeds a day, mostly early morning and then twice in the evening. I don't think my body is producing much milk anymore, so DS is nursing mostly for comfort.
  • Llli has a great book called "feed yourself feed your family". It's a cook book but it also has good info on how much they should be eating when. Really, though, just follow his lead. After a year you can offer solids first instead of milk first, or even try to switch them to solids when they ask to nurse,but my daughter still mostly nursed until close to 18 months. She's 2.5 now and still nurses a lot, frankly.
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  • There are nutrients that bm can't provide enough of after a certain age, so I would keep that in mind when considering how important solids are. If your LO is super into milk and doesn't want solids, you may need to offer solids first (or engage some other technique) to make sure he's getting enough solids. GL!
  • he eats a few bites of solids I'd say…every other day.  He's still young right now and I didn't care about a schedule with introducing food before a year old.  He's just playing and experimenting. 

    and @freezorburn, I've thought about the plan for dairy and milk…and I don't know.  cow's milk is disgusting to me, but I'm not informed enough, yet, about the nutritional values of the other milks-goat, almond, rice, etc.  
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  • Mandmeesh said:
    he eats a few bites of solids I'd say…every other day.  He's still young right now and I didn't care about a schedule with introducing food before a year old.  He's just playing and experimenting. 

    and @freezorburn, I've thought about the plan for dairy and milk…and I don't know.  cow's milk is disgusting to me, but I'm not informed enough, yet, about the nutritional values of the other milks-goat, almond, rice, etc.  
    That sounds about similar to where we were at the same stage. "Food before 1 is just for fun ..." Chances are there's no reason to push solids -- your LO will probably indicate they want more -- either quantity or variety -- when he is ready.

    I've read that goat's milk is supposed to be more similar to human milk, as opposed to cow's milk, and some people find it less allergenic than cow's milk. I would think that you would need to look carefully at how plant-based milks are fortified. I'm not sure how easy it is to find good information on this with regard to weaning and nutritional value.
  • Goats milk is not a good idea for babies under one. It has too much of some stuff and not enough of others and can cause renal damage. Forgive me for not remembering all the details, but Kelly mom has a run down on it.
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  • huntjulhuntjul member
    edited January 2014
    Goats milk is not a good idea for babies under one. It has too much of some stuff and not enough of others and can cause renal damage. Forgive me for not remembering all the details, but Kelly mom has a run down on it.
    Also make sure if you use it that it is pasteurized.  Listeria is a big concern if unpasteurized.
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