Why solid intake reduce?

C

chubbysan

Registered User
hi mummies,

I started introduce solid to my bb when she turned 6 mos old. When we first started, I was so happy cos my bb is taking solid v well and she seem to love it so much that she doesnt need to breastfeed after meal.

But just within 3 wks into giving her solid, she slowly showing disinterest in her meal and reduce in the amount of solid she take as well. And now she still need to be breastfeed after her meal.

why is she behaving this way? i thought that i could reduce the nos of breastfeed, but don seem so now. Is this usually the case? I try to give her diff food, but still, she doesnt take much

What can i do to make her eat more so that i could reduce the nos of breastfeed now? she is now 7mos old.

tks,
 
It is usually recommended that you breastfeed before the solids while your baby is still under 12 months. This is because the breast milk is a much better food for your baby than any solids you can offer.

It sounds like you may have reduced the breastfeeding too much and your baby isn?t getting her sucking needs answered. She is really clever because she?s already worked out that if she refuses the solids she?ll get more breast milk and therefore more sucking.

Often babies of this age will wake up a lot more at night when they are given too much solids in the day. Again their cleverness has worked out that you are more likely to breastfeed them and so get their sucking need satisfied at night than during the day.

SARAH
 
Yes, I agree, it sounds like you have a very smart baby, she know how to get what she needs.The breastmilk is much more important than the solids. When starting solids, it is more about learning a new way of eating, learning to move food with the toungue, how to swallow increasing texture, the amount is less important, as she gets oldder she will show more interest again. I have found both of my children did not show much interest until they were old enough to pick up the food themselves, around 8 months.They never did eat the really purreed food, because by 8 months you can use mashed food.
 
hi sarah,

u r right, now she seem to wake up more often than she used to when she was younger. During the early months, she can sleep thru till 5am then she wake up for her milk feed. but now, she is up more frequents for milk. Some day, i can feed her 3 times in the middle of the night.

:(
 
hello chubbysan,
dont worry,
i have exactly the same problem! my baby started solids almost 6 weeks ago, she is almost eight months now and is suddenly not interested in solids at all anymore!

i gave her the breast milk right after she ate so she wouldnt feel like i was taking it away!!!!... but still i got the same solution, and she always wakes up at night! aren't solids dupposed to make them fuller???

from what i understand it gets better with time... right?????
 
Aren't solids supposed to make them fuller???

Solids are likely to take your baby longer to digest than breast milk because breast milk is one of the easiest things for a baby to digest. But taking longer to digest doesn’t necessarily mean that the baby will sleep longer – he may wake up more because he finds the digestion harder!

Most solids that we first introduce to babies (veg., fruit, rice cereal) don’t have very many calories in them. The breast milk is likely to have more calories than the solids.

Generally until the baby reaches a year old we usually recommend that you breastfeed first and then supplement with the solids. This way you know that the baby is getting as much of the best food as possible.
 
hi sarah,

i tot we shd slowly drop the nos of breastfeed once baby started solid?? I read Gina Ford book that once baby is taking enough solid, we can drop the lunch n dinner feed?
 
When we start solids the idea is to introduce a different type of eating to the baby ? not to replace the breastfeeds. Ideally the baby will start taking some solids along with the existing breastfeeds. Slowly the amount of solids the baby takes will increase and the amount of milk will decrease but the number of feeds usually stays the same. Of course eventually the baby will be taking all solids and no milk but often will continue to have a similar number of meals. It is recommended that a two year old baby still have at least six meals a day ? whether these are solid meals, milk meals or best a mixture of the two.

Miss Ford has many good suggestions in her books. She also makes many suggestions which can cause problems with successful breastfeeding.

One thing it is important to remember about different babies and different families is that they are different. Some babies will be happy to follow Miss Ford?s regime but for the next baby it will cause problems. Likewise some mothers will feel very happy on Miss Ford?s regime and the next mother will be totally unable to cope with it.

When making decisions for your baby it is important to look to your baby and see how she is managing with things. For example, if she starts to wake up more at night then it could easily because the solids were replacing breastfeeds too quickly. Whatever new step you and your baby take watching her reaction will be the best guide to whether or not it was a a timely step or one that needed taking more slowly.

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
hi sarah,
i have a few questions, sorry, but today i went to the doc with my baby and found out that she did not gain as much weight as she should have... she should weigh a kilo more!!!! i breast feed as often as she wants outside her meals...

i give her solid meals twice a day, as of tomorrow it will be 3 times a day(docs orders!) but lately (3 or 4 days) she does not even open her mouth to be fed with solids... she just keeps it locked shut!! she will eat maybe a quarter of what she should eat!

the doctor told me to keep breastfeeding her... i am confused! some people told me not to give her breastmilk untill night time so she id forced to eat solids???? what to do?

i was feeding her every 4 hours... maybe i should change to every 2 and alternate???
confused and worried!!!

sharon
 
Hi Sarah,
Could you tell me the book name and author written by Miss Ford? Any other books you would recommend? My baby is 11 months old and currently refusing to take the amount of solids suggested by books. She refuses to take cereal but bread and a little veg and meat only. Thanks!
 
hi sharon,

is yr baby weight within the growth chart? don worry too much, so long as yr baby is happy n healthy. now i try to b easy with my girl, if she doesnt want to eat, then i stop feeding her. don want to stress her n myself. worried that she might hate meal time next time.

like u, so i continue to bf her now whenever she wants.

hopefully am doing the right thing for her.
 
I would like to make it clear that I do not recommend any of Gina Ford’s books on child care. The reason for this is that by following her regime is likely to have a very adverse effect on your breastfeeding.

Miss Ford’s goal in her books is to set up a routine that suits her lifestyle. (Please remember that Miss Ford is not a mother and so doesn’t understand the overwhelming love, that is often coupled with frustration, of looking after a child 24 hours a day, seven days a week.)

I, on the other hand, am trying to help mothers have a successful breastfeeding relationship with their babies. When there is a conflict between establishing a routine or continuing breastfeeding Miss Ford’s advice will allow to you to continue establishing your routine and my advice will allow you to continue breastfeeding.

A book I am happy to recommend (no conflicts with breastfeeding) on the topic is,
MY CHILD WON’T EAT: How to Prevent and Solve the Problem
by Carlos Gonzalez
http://www.amazon.com/MY-CHILD-WON’T-EAT-International/dp/0912500999

There is a book review of this book at
http://www.lalecheleague.org/NB/NBMarApr06p76.html

LLL-HK has a copy of this book in their Happy Valley library. Please contact Maggie Holmes on 2817-7475 or [email protected] if you are interested in borrowing the book.

(We now have a policy where we ask mothers to become members if they want to borrow from our library. Too many of our books have not been returned from non-members. We are a charity working on a very small budget and can not afford to keep replacing our books.)

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
Dear Sharon,

Breast milk is quite a high calorie food. Usually the solids we offer the baby have far less calories than the breast milk does. So if you want your baby to increase in weight it may be that you will have more success with more breastfeeding.

Generally we introduce solids around the six month mark, although I know lots of babies who aren’t interested and start much later, maybe at the eight, nine or ten month mark.

The reason for starting solids is to introduce the baby to a different type of eating. Also as the baby grows breast milk may not have all the nutrients that a baby needs (there is no firm research on this as it is dependent on the mother’s nutritional level and so various from mother to mother).

People often worry about whether there is enough iron in the breast milk after six months. (It is very rare for a breastfed baby to have anemia unless the mother also has the problem – the solution is then to treat the mother and solve two problems in one!)

For this reason it is often advised to introduce meat as the second weaning food – meat also has more calories per bite than most other solids, which again will help with the weight gain.

Remember that weight gain is a very individual thing and it is very normal for there to be periods of rapid growth and periods of slow growth. Sometimes it is easy to forget this when looking at the growth curves. They have been made up of the weights of many babies averaged and this means that the plateaus of any one baby have been lost in the crowd.

Also look at the health of your child – is she happy and healthy but just small? Has she been ill in the last month? Illness causes babies to lose weight and so this could easily mean the baby doesn’t put on the expected amount of weight.

Do you have any allergies in your family? Often babies from allergic families don’t do well on solids until they are a little older. Some research shows that often the baby will refuse solids when it will have an adverse effect on them. (Most of the cases I’ve heard of when the baby refused solids until after 12 months was because of allergies – it is as if the baby know better than we do.)

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
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Hi Sarah,

May i ask: So for the 1st yr, breastmilk should still be the main food for baby? when should we slowly wean or cut down the nos of feed? Is it after they reach 1 yr old?

Right now, i m still continuing breastfeeding my 7mos old baby whenever she needs. Even after her solid meal, i will still check if she still need more milk, or after breastmilk, i will feed her solid after a short rest.

I just hope i have enough milk supply for my baby :)

cheers,
 
so long as you keep bf you will have enough milk.. it's demand that causes the supply in the case of breast feeding...
 
Dear Chubbysan,

As Cara said after you have been breastfeeding for around six weeks the way the breasts work are they replace the milk that you or your baby has removed. The more you breastfeed, and so the more milk the baby removes from your breasts, the more milk you make. If you keep breastfeeding there is no way that you won?t have enough milk.

The more breastfeeding you do the more milk you make is also the case in the first days and weeks of breastfeeding but at this time your body also needs the boost of hormones it gets when you breastfeed to maintain the milk supply. This is why we encourage direct breastfeeding for the first four to six weeks so that your body gets the maximum hormones every few hours.

After the six week mark your body is much more able to cope with things like pumping instead of direct feeding and longer spaces between feeds, for example when the baby sleeps a little longer.

By the time you?ve been breastfeeding for six months it will actually be quite difficult to lose your milk. It is estimate to take around six weeks (42 days) for you to stop having milk after the last breastfeed.

So for the 1st year, breast milk should still be the main food for baby?
Yes

When should we slowly wean or cut down the numbers of feeds? Is it after they reach one year old?
I think it would be easier for you to think of keeping the same number of feeds and slowly introducing a little solid to the meals you want to change to solids. Start first by breastfeeding and then giving a teaspoon or two of solid. Slowly over the next few months increase the amount of solids. Around about the one year mark give the solids before the breastfeed and slowly over the next six to twelve months you will notice that your baby takes more solids and less breast milk at each feed.

This idea of giving a breastfeed before the solids is not always practical, especially if you are giving hot food. And if you are giving your baby part of your own meal it might mean delaying your family meal just because the baby is breastfeeding. So you don?t have to use this advice as a rule ? more like a guideline. The aim is to introduce the solids slowly ? so slowly that the baby doesn?t realise that solids mean no more breastfeeding but rather than solids mean a new and exciting activity.

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
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