Breastfeeding and more solid food... How often should I be breastfeeding now that my 7 month old eats solids?

Question

she has a established 3 meals a day of solid food and I am unsure of how often she needs to be eating before she was breastfeeding every 3 or so hours. I don't do on demand feeding because she has always since birth been on this 3 hour or so schedule.

Any advice would be helpful. THank you!

Answer 1

Wow, it's awesome that you can keep your supply up when you don't feed on demand.  Personally, I could not.

Solids do not replace breastfeeding until your baby is a year old or older.  Right now, solids are just for fun and practice.  I would normally say that you should feed solids when the rest of the family eats them and breastfeed on demand.  I imagine it would be fine to continue to offer every three hours, and let baby decide if he wants to nurse or not.

Answer 2

She should be breastfeeding each time before you give her solids.  At age 12mos, 90% of a baby's nutrition should be from breastmilk, so, at 7mos, at LEAST that much should be breastmilk.  Let her eat all she wants after nursing, but, at this age, solids are for experimentation and learning, not nutrition.  If she has three meals, assuming they're about 6 horus apart, that would be, for example

7am - breastfeed, solids

10am - breastfeed

1pm breastfeed, solids

4pm breastfeed

7pm breastfeed, solids

10pm breastfeed

And I'm guessing she nurses at least once or twice during the night.

Obviously, this isn't spot on, what with naps and such, but, it would be something like this, I'd guess (I didn't do schedules)...

Great job with the breastfeeding!

Answer 3

http://kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/sol...

7 - 9 months   Watch baby's cues - this is particularly easy if baby nurses beforehand and most/all of the solids are offered to baby to self-feed. Increase solids gradually if baby is interested, with a maximum of 2 meals per day.

9 - 12 months Watch baby's cues - this is particularly easy if baby nurses beforehand and most/all of the solids are offered to baby to self-feed. Increase solids gradually if baby is interested. Aim for baby getting no more than 25% of her calories from solids by the age of 12 months (some babies eat less than this at 12 months and that's also normal).