Could DD be weaning?

Hi guys.

As the title suggests. DD has never been a big feeder has only ever had 2 or 3 weeks where I could get her to have more than 6 BFs in a 24hr period. She started solids at 6mths (doing BLS) and stopped showing interest in all feeds and was taking 5 feeds a day.
So heres the problem, on Friday she was not interested when offered and took only 4 feeds, yesterday again not interested and had 4 feeds but one was a minute long snack and now today has showed absolutely no interest at all and has had 3 (so far) very quick snacks, maybe 2 minutes but stuffing about.
She is having 3 'meals' a day and afternoon tea, she is very excited about her food atm. I guess Im a little concerned she needs more 'nutrients' than the food as she is crawling flat out, standing up on everything and starting to cruise the furniture.
Does this sound like she is weaning or that it is a problem? Oh and if it means anything I have never gone more than 2 days with out becoming engorged despite her draining me at all feeds...is that normal? Its not like we are still in the early days iykwim. The engorgement is so bad atm I noticed a stretch mark come up yesterday.

Thanks heaps

That sounds very painful hun :hug: Have you been expressing at all? At the moment you sound like you are at risk of mastitis so it might be an idea to express enough milk off for comfort and keep an eye out for any lumps.

7 months is too early for a baby to self-wean. Solids do replace milk - the amount of milk a baby drinks reduces with each amount of solids that they have. As you know, the milk is more important nutritionally at this age, so it might be that giving her less solids for now could help. It is quite common for babies to take to solids a bit too quickly and for mum to have to slow it down a bit. Otherwise, other things that might be causing this are teething, your period returning (or ovulation), pain of some sort or some illness that has put her temporarily off her milk, or is there any chance you could be pg? Also at this age babies are always distracted, so feeding when they are sleepy, or in a quiet dark room or the bath can help. Some mums find a teething necklace helpful too, this keeps your DD's attention on you as she feeds. If all else fails, feeding during the light sleep cycle can sometimes be the best way to get a baby to drink well.

How are her nappies? Is she still having at least 5 heavily wet disposables (or 6 - 8 pale wet cloth nappies) in 24 hours?

This is a dreadful age for babies to feed - far more interesting things to do and explore than lying in mum's lap having a feed! Plus there's teeth to worry about.

I agree that at seven months, this is unlikely to be self weaning. Before she turns one, milk still needs to be her major source of calories, so I agree with MantaRay that it might help to cut down the solid food for a little while.

When Tom went through a similar phase of cutting back his milk feeds a bit for the same reasons, I pumped a bit to keep my supply up, and he was soon back to being a booby baby.

Thankyou both so much for taking the time to reply to my post....you dont know how much it means to me atm.

Manta, it is extremely painful. I often express using a hand pump just for comfort but I feel like I am constantly attached to it and was sick of the site of it!! I have since gone back to just taking a few pumps out to ease the pain but I am so full again within the hour :rolleyes:. I think she may have started taking way to much food...she eats to no end lol! TEETHING....duh :doh: how stupid of me not to think of that!!!! Feel like a dill, she has been teething on and off for moths but they have been giving her grief the last week. Periods been back for a while and no chance of pregnancy. Will give all your tips a try and hopefully get this chicky drinking again. Definately 5 heavy wet nappies a day too including through the night.

Toomanytoomany thanks heap to you also, I am definately going to take her food a step backwards. I am really pleased to hear that with Tom it was a faze and knowing that I feel more confident that it is just that for DD too.

Again girls....a HUGE thanks to both of you :hug:

My DD2 is a similar age and is very easily distracted during the day. She mostly snack feeds then makes up for it with lots of long night feeds :rolleyes:

For that reason we have gone very slowly with BLS and made sure it is truly baby led - no spooning, no offering - just popping it on her tray or letting her swipe from our plates. And we are only offering once a day unless she tells us otherwise!

Also my DD1 would have a feeding strike whenever she was teething - especially her top teeth. It was awful when she would refuse to feed - heartbreaking.

Will she dream feed or feed off to sleep? My girls will always have a big sleepy feed if it's offered. Or in the bath?

Huge hugs. I hope your booby baby is back soon.

Hey Lily, the other two ladies have given you some great pointers but one thing that struck me as I read your first post was to make sure you offer her breast FIRST, then solids.

So structure her eating around your planned BFs - when she wakes, BF first, then wait half an hour or an hour and offer breakfast, then try another BF around 4hrs after the first BF, before lunch food. Again, wait before offering the solids, so she doesn't start to associate BF with food immediately afterwards and want to skip the BF to go straight to food.

If she gets grumpy when she wakes because she is expecting food straight away, distract distract distract - at that age they are pretty easy to distract! Ooh look what's on the TV - what's that outside - what's Daddy doing - where's the red ball - what's the cat doing - etc etc etc!

Likewise - offer a fourth BF around 2 or 3pm, 3 or 4hrs after the mid-morning BF, and then make sure to offer another one or two before bed. Like maybe even one before bath, then bath, dinner, then maybe a book and offer another right before sleep. Or whatever your routine is at bedtime!

If you can offer more feeds, do it! I think my DD was on about 4-6 feeds around 7mths.

If you are still getting the engorgement - I'd be ringing the ABA! (1800 MUM 2 MUM).

Good luck!

Thanks for the help Jasper76 :D, we are doing the exact same thing with BLS except she is offered everytime I eat, but it doesnt seem to slow the cheeky thing up ;). The 1 great feed DD has is at 4:30am, its a 12 minute on the dot feed and the rest are lame! Although today we did have a good 7-10 minute feed which is great for her lately! Perhaps DD has 4 coming through at once, she has had teeth coming up and cutting then going completely back up in her gums, so there are many just sitting there waiting to pop through.
Have never been able to get her to dream feed and very rarely feeds off to sleep, since she was itty bitty. Did have a bit of success in the bath though....until she realised the water sloshes but still got a good few minutes.

Thanks to you too OceanPrincess, yep boobie first except breakfast as she has had a good big feed a couple of hours before. She doesnt really eat a lot of brekky and has a play then a BF. I guess looking at the structure you showed me she is being offered a BF every 4 hrs before food. She sleeps 12hrs a night with a feed after 8-9 hrs. I see what you mean about her needing to know that food doesnt immediately follow a BF. Generally she is having 5 Bfeeds per day but it just started on Thursday that she just was not interested :rolleyes:. Think I will gove the ABA a ring because I just dont think engorgement at this stage is a given...surely not!

Thanks girls, means heaps x