[SandKmommy]

Yesterday I had a WIC appt and asked them to weigh Kieran. She weighed in at 17½lbs, at her 9mo appt on the 12th of Jan. she was 17lbs 12oz so she lost a little bit. WIC just said to pump and freeze my milk to see how much fat I have and increase my protein intake. I took her to her pedis to get her weighed on the same scale as her 9mo appt and shockingly she weighed the same (WIC usually seems to be pretty off). I saw a NP and she told me that Kieran is nursing too often (6-10x's a day and 0-2x's a night) she said that she should only be nursing 3-4x's a day and not at night at all. I think thats a load of crap, and she sleeps in our room so when she wakes since I'm a light sleeper she wakes me up and nursing is the only thing to get her back to sleep (she will be in our room for at least another year tilll we can move to a 3 bd). I know I could feed her some more food (she eats big food) but I don't buy the nursing thing. Would you reduce nursing to 3-4x's in a 24hr period and feed lo food every 2-3hrs or just bkfast, lunch, dinner and 1-2 snacks and still nurse on demand?

[LisanAndy]

Well I give Rylie a bottle 3 times a day: Once when she wakes up, one before her nap, and one before bed. The rest of the say she eats regular food and drinks from her cup if she's thirsty. If it were me in your position, I'd be doing it the way I just said except I'd be BF

We did what Lisa said as well. Milk & solids for breakfast, solids & water for lunch, milk before nap, solids & water for dinner and big drink of milk before bed. (we still do that now but she doesn't take her naptime bottle anymore).

But I guess it's up to you, and how you feel about things. I do see the POV of short nursing session is not getting as much hindmilk which is the fatty stuff. If it was me, I would try and push out her nursing times, like say she BFs every 2hrs, try to make it 2.5hrs to see if she will then BF for longer at each time and therefore take in more fatty milk. If she managed 2.5hrs I might even try increasing to 3hrs if she was happy to do so. Then again she would nurse longer.

How many solids meals is she on?

[fromGirltoMommy]

I would do what I felt was right. If you feel shes nursing good and you shouldnt cut it back then thats exactly what I would do! No one knows our beebs better than us mommies!!

[Frozendesire]

I think I would do nursing when she wants but always offering her food, 3 meals and lots of healthy snacks.

Do what you think is right though!

[Mars]

Amara is a bit older and I was told that now she's on whole milk that she should not be getting more that 24oz a day. When I was on breastmilk solely I was never told that it was an issue so I'm not sure what to say about the recommendation. I was told that on whole milk, if she's drinking too much it will affect her appetite and too much can also lead to anemia. Right now she takes 4 bottles a day (6oz at 6:30AM; 5oz around 9AM; 5oz around 2/3PM and 6oz between 7 - 7:30PM, just before bed around 8PM). I'm working on reducing it to 3 6oz bottles a day but sometimes she eats like a bird and I feel better knowing that she has something in her stomach. My pediatrician keeps telling me not to worry about the food and that children rarely starve themselves. She suggested I cut out the afternoon feed so I'm doing that gradually.

I agree with Fi about pushing back the feeding times a bit and seeing how she does with that.

[ShannonMVT]

I thought for under a year most of the nutrition still comes from milk. Matthew nurses about 5-6 times a day and 1-2 times at night (usually). Not all of them are long sessions though, some are just to settle him down to sleep. I offer solids 3 times a day and I can't see doing it more than that TBH. Maybe you could offer solids before you BF and that will have her take more solids?
I'd add more fat and protein to your diet just to be sure you are getting enough of that.
What Fi said about maybe pushing the nursing sessions out a little bit might help her get the fatty hindmilk. I guess it just depends on if she is wanting to nurse more often, kwim?
Is she eating lots of solids now? I know if Matthew had to depend on mostly solids for nutrition he'd starve. He just hasn't gotten into it THAT much with purees and there are only a couple things he can self feed.

[Resi]

I still nurse on demand. I would nurse on demand, b, l, d, and snacks.

[SandKmommy]

The thing is its not from burning it off cause she doesn't crawl yet she just scoots around on her but but she's been doing that fro about 2mo now. She eats dinner with us(canned carots, corn, green beans, peas, chicken pieces, etc) and snacks of puffs or yogart melts(generally at breakfast for the melts). I usually feed her first then nurse her so that she gets as much food as she wants (which isn't much) and she will nurse for about 10minutes each time she does which has been her norm for months now.
I nursed Seamus on demand even at night even when he was on whole millk till he slowly started cutting back on his own.
I think it may be something wrong with my milk though. Seamus had weight issues from 4-11mo he stayed in the 18lb range for that 7months he would gain a couple oz loose a couple then they started him on whole milk at 11mo and he went from 18lbs something to something like 21 in a month.

[**Jenn**]

I always love how doctors recommend nursing LESS to increase a kids weight. When Lochlann was 9-10 months old he was still nursing a ton--I would say 5-8 times a day and then 2-3 times a night. He ate breakfast (oatmeal and some fruit) and some dinner usually but that was it as far as solids went. My kids are not big because that's just the way they are, like this is just the way Kieran is. Even now at 2 1/2 years old Lochy only weighs about 23lbs and at over 4 years Liam weighs 31lbs. I think, if Kieran is thriving in her day to day life, and you're not concerned, you should keep going the way you are doing things. It wouldn't hurt to up your protein too (I put protein powder in lots of things I make for the boys since they aren't the best eaters).