6 month old on ONLY breastfeed

mushi

mushi

Registered User
hi, i am planning to give only breastmilk to my son till he completes 6 months since a lot of doctors recommend that...is this a good idea? anyone with any experiences pls. do share....how would i know if my baby is still hungry after a feed?
 
i breastfed my daughter exclusively until 6 months. many, many, many women do it.

at 6 months i started gradually introducing solids.

my son, i started introducing solids around 4.5 months.
 
You'll know

I started introducing solids to my baby at around 21 weeks as i thought she seemed hungry and her sleep pattern got a bit more unsettled i.e she started waking more in the night for feeds. She wasn't all that interested though and it's only lately i would say she's really enjoying her food (she's 8 months). so don't rush into food, try her with a little baby rice if you think she's more hungry, and see how it goes.
 
I did this as well (although near the end I did give him the occassional bottle so that I could stay away from him for longer periods sometimes!).
If he seems satisfied after the feed and isn't pecking at you looking for more then I'd assume he has had enough. I think that generally you will be able to tell if he is hungry if he is unsettled or upset when the feed has ended. In this case you can just put him back on the breast as the sucking will signal to your body to produce more milk (obviously if he sucking for hige lengths of time and causing you pain you should speak to a baby nurse).
As my boy got bigger at about 4 months (he was 90th percentile weight for age!) I found that he wanted one more feed a day than when he was younger and, as long as I ate well and got lots of rest, my body produced the milk he needed.
Goodluck!
 
I've been toying around with the idea of introducing solids too. My baby boy is currently only 4-1/2 months old, and also at the top of his weight class (97 percentile). So far, he seems to be full after each feed (bfing for around 10 mins). But he has been waking up in the middle of the night (around 4 am) bet the dream feed (1 am) and the first morning feed (6 am). We don't feed him when he wakes at 4 am though - we just usually re-swaddle him and occasionally rock him a bit to lull him back to sleep.

I'm told with bigger babies, they may need to have solids sooner - if only to keep up their energy levels during the day. I'm holding off for the moment (I'm hoping to keep him on exclusive breastmilk until at least 5 months) but I did buy a box of baby cereal - just in case his patterns shift and he starts to need more calories.
 
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Health wise it is a great idea. I did with both of mine, started solids around 6.5 months with each but both didn't really eat much solid food until they picked it up themselves and ate it (around 7 months) so tended to eat finger foods rather than the usual purees. They continued to BF until 20 months and the other 25 months old, they gradually BF feed less and less as they get older. Don't worry, your baby will tell you when he is hungry.
 
dear ladies,
thanks very much for yr suggestions...i plan to travel to malaysia in end-august which is when he turns 5 months old...i guess i will try to introduce solids to him only after that. thanks again.
 
since yesterday my baby has started drooling excessively and wants to bite onto i=his hands or onto anything u put in his hands....are these signs of hunger or of teething? he also gets cranky from time to time and is satisfied after a feed which is over and above his regular one....pls. help!!
 
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