Should he sleep more?

[meow]

Thanks for the birthday wishes!

Thanks so much for your ideas Jennifer. I think you are quite right and I have been contemplating a sippy cup for a while. I think I'm about ready to introduce it. I'm sure he could well be thirsty so I'd love if he could learn to help himself to some water instead of bothering me

I generally breastfeed him at approx:
9am, 2pm, 7pm, 9pm, 12pm, 3am & 6am
I cut back the day time feeds to before his naps to help him eat more as he doesn't eat much solids and I thought that if he filled up more on food then he may sleep better... but then he's getting a lot of milk overnight so maybe I should BF him more during the day? Surely he's old enough to not have that much milk though?

[Jennifer13]

It's completely normal for a child to be bf until 2 years and beyond. It is important that he eats, but it is fine for him to be bfing as well. If he is waking you up during the night I'd suggest he is still wanting more bfs. At his age, my DD was having:

bf at 5-6am, sleep a bit more (if we were luck!) then breakfast at 7-8am. This bf would sometimes be earlier too (3-4am), I think it was hard for her to go too long without anything.
bf before nap at 10am. Lunch after waking at 12-1pm.
bf before nap at 2pm.
bf after dinner (5pm) before bed at 6:30-7pm.
One bf during the night if she woke.

So that's about 5 a day. A bit less than your DS, but every child is different. He will get a lot of nutrients from bm. He is only just 12 mths, up until then bm is their main source of nutrition. He doesn't realise that now he's passed the magic one year he 'should' be eating more solids!

Don't worry about him, he will eat more over time. Just keep offering him plenty of snacks throughout the day. I also introduced a sippy cup of water with meals at this age too, just to give my DD an alternative drink.

[meow]

Thanks. I'm not expecting not to BF him at all and I fully intend to BF him past two years old. I found when I was BFing him more than I do during the day he seemed really hungry because he was too full of milk to eat much food- that's why I don't BF him when he wakes but feed him food instead. 4 or maybe 5 feeds a day is certainly less than 7- it's funny what a difference 2 to 3 feeds is!