Breastfeeding worries at 8.5 months

[crystal7]

Morning wise family roomers! Baby boy has always been a big eater. Pre weaning he'd feed around 9/10 times in 24 hours. He Adores food, eats pretty much everything I give him, happy to be spoon fed or self feed (daughter has always been fussy so I'm aware this may not last but enjoying it while it does!). I'm a bit concerned with how much milk he seems to be drinking now. He currently has a feed first thing, mid afternoon, last thing and 1 sneaky night feed (I know, I know). I'm going back to work in September so plan to phase out the day time feed by then as he's never taken a bottle/had formula and there's no way I could express at work. Suppose I'm worried he isn't drinking very much at each breastfeed. The HV said he needs 30oz per day, obviously I don't know how much he's having but I'd be very surprised if it was 8oz per feed or whatever. He often doesn't take much before bed (too tired or full from tea??). I get a bit worried when I hear people saying "food is fun until they're 1" (though was very reassuring with my non eating daughter). Last night he didn't want a feed when he woke either. Will my supply suffer? I'm keen to carry on feeding him past a year, probably until he self weans...

Another issue is his recent refusal to feed from my right boob. He won't latch on and just bites me when I persist (thanks son). Right boob is feeling quite empty. O know it's fine to feed from 1 side but would rather do both, anyone got any experience of getting baby onto rejected boob. Right boob is also feeling lumpy (sorry tmi) though no symptoms of mastitis...suppose I should dig out pump.

Anyway well done if you've got this far! I'm trying to ask if my baby is getting enough milk? Will my supply suffer with no night feed? How to get baby onto poor right boob??

Many thanks!

[Pickle]

I'm not sure about the right side refusal, but I don't think you should worry too much about quantities of milk if he's having 3 or 4 feeds a day. M was a bottle refuser and went down to 2 feeds in 24 hours by 1... and chances are he's taking quite a lot at each feed (he certainly doesn't look like he's fading away!).

The 30oz includes other sources, so if you're worried try adding extra milk to solid meals, cheese sauce, milk based soups, breakfast cereals etc? I used to make a cream of chicken soup which had loads of milk in it.

I think at this point your supply should be ok, but if you have time/energy try expressing, especially rom the right side.

Px

[hellosailor]

Hi there Crystal,

30oz sounds a huge amount for you to be supposedly aiming for, no wonder she worried you when she said that, that's a lot of pressure! I've only ever heard that babies between 6 and 12 months were supposed to have around 20oz, (dropping to 12-14oz at 12 months) that's what my HV said when mini sailor was that age and the other babies the same age were all having about the same amount so bit confused as to why you were told he should be having that much, like you say, that would be about 80z a feed, which I have never seen my daughter drink once, and she is 16 months..

When my daughter refused one boob for a long time, a couple of people gave me the same comically simple advice, which did sort of bamboozle her, but she was younger at the time, about 6 months - they said not to turn her so her head was pointing in opposite directions on either boob, but have her head pointing in the same direction on both boobs, and always start with the boob that she didn't want, and it did help, seemed to take her a while to cotton on.

Can you massage the lumps in a hot shower using hot flannels, and express the back log of milk out yourself? When I got lumpy (not proper mastitis just when she was in a refusy stage) I always found this worked loads better than pumping, for some reason.

The last couple of months I breastfed, my baby only fed on the refused side for a minute or two max, before taking the rest of the feed from the preferred boob, and my body did adjust so that the disliked boob didn't become engorged or get mastitis or anything. My boobs are visibly different sizes now tho it has to be said, but hey ho!

[canadianlisa]

The right side preference happened to be me as well. At 8 months I was feeding 3-4 times a day / night and just kept trying to alternate. By the time my daughter was one she was mainly having 1-2 feeds a day only from the one preferred side. My boobs are now different sizes as well now and now I am breastfeeding my new baby I find the preferred boob still works better (gets way fuller) than the other. Breastfeeding is strange! I think the flannel method or just massage in a really hot bath works the best as well.

[Yak]

Hi Crystal7

Your boy sounds similar to mine - v quick to establish onto foods, ate with gusto and cut right back on milk. At 8.5 months (when I went back to work) he was literally having about 20 sec feed in the morning, 5 mins at night and then a bottle of EBM mid afternoon - around 4/5oz I think. I worried a bit about it but reckoned he was getting what he needed to get and if he needed more he would take more. I did bump up the yog and cheese sauces though. Like you I found the food under 1 is just for fun thing a bit baffling because for the yaklet eating is a Very Important Business (as anyone who has seen him eat will testify!!).

We also had the biting thing. I'm sure there will be lots of good suggestions on how to deal with it and I think if you catch it early it is probably easier to deal with. Sadly for us the biting just got worse and peaked at around 10 months when we called it a day. I think because he was used to the faster feed from a bottle he was just getting too frustrated with a slower let down. Sounds like you won't have that problem though!

[Saffron]

The "30oz of milk" is just the guideline for the upper limit of milk-based intake. Depending on what source you read, it's sometimes quoted as 20-40oz per day. I agree with Pickle that the "30oz" would be including other dairy sources as well, like milk on cereal, or cheese on pasta, yogurt etc.

Compared to other types of milk, the calcium in breastmilk is very highly bioavailable. So even if Baby is only having a few short feeds, he could still be getting a significant amount of calcium.

Once Baby is eating lots of solids, you can start to think about other sources of calcium and nutrients. If Baby at 9 months is already eating a lot of different solids, then milk intake wouldn't be such an issue.

Incidentally, I haven't found HVs really knowledgeable about diet and nutritional issues, so do take their advice as just a guideline. It's not set in stone. Afterall, they're not trained to be dietitians.

Little Saff never outright refused my left breast, but I did notice that I lost the letdown reflex on this breast much sooner. The ducts are still active, the milk just comes out in a trickle instead of a full letdown. This was always the less dominant breast although curiously it hasn't affected the overall size now that I don't get engorged anymore. If your letdown reflex is slower on one breast, is that the breast that Baby is refusing?

[crystal7]

Thanks everyone! I knew the family room would deliver! I should have mentioned that I am absolutely not worried about baby boy wasting away, as several of the previous posters can confirm he is gloriously chubby! I suppose my concern was mainly how rapidly he'd dropped feeds given that everyone seems to ay it's all about the milk until they're 1. He does eat plenty of yoghurt and has milk on cereal though. It's good to hear that other babies are similarly obsessed with food and less bothered by milk.

The boob preference is weird. Saffron you're probably right when you say it's a let down issue. Even pre weaning my right boob seemed to get less full. I'll keep trying both sides but not much I can really do if he only wants the left.

Thanks again!