Self weaning?

My 7 month old DD seems to have dropped her mid morning feed. She is usually 3 hourly

6am BF
9am BF/EBM bottle
12pm EBM bottle
3pm EBM bottle
6pm EBM bottle
Bedtime BF

We bottle feed as I am back at work fulltime.

In the last week she has really ramped up the solids she is taking and particularly loves breakfast. As a result she has refused her BF at 9am for the last 3 days and refused her wakeup BF for the last 2 days. HOWEVER, she has been waking at 1 - 2am for milk and she was previously sleeping through. I am wondering if this is because she isn't getting enough milk during the day. Regardless, she is going from the milk during the night until midday the next day without milk!

I am just wondering if this is normal or if I should be trying to increase her afternoon bottles to compensate (she takes about 200mls/feed.) I had no idea she would do this, she has previously refused to BF but that was during AF.....

I didn't expect her to start weaning this early - my MCHN said that she needs a minimum of 4 feeds per day at this age and she is still getting that, I just find the timing of the feeds a bit strange.

Any advice would be really appreciated.

Thanks so much.

Weaning before the age of 1 is rare, and she is still having quite a few feeds. You've allowing her to regulate her solids with BLS, so she is having what she wants there. I'd say she is just trying to adjust her milk feeds to suit her increase in her diet. Because milk is still the most important part of her diet she is probably happily still getting what she needs just at different times now, as you said she is waking up now to make up for missing the morning. Maybe try a dream feed about 10-11pm to see if it will stop the 12-1, then hopefully she will want to bf in the morning, and don't offer breakfast at all until after she has decided she will have a bf and offer more of a morning tea/lunch. Its hard when having to work because she may end up dropping the feeds first that you are bf'ing.

THanks studymum, that's great advice. She slept through last night and refused a BF this morning but did take her mid morning bottle so at least that's a bit of a win. If she continues waking, I think we will consider trying the dream feed like you suggested. Thanks again.

I don't have much advice regarding the possibly weaning, but I will say from around 7 months my DD (who I was so fortunate to have sleeping through by then) decided to wake up several times a night, and always at 2am, for extra feeds, and has only just stopped doing so recently now, almost 2 months later. We're doing BLS, nothing had changed with her day BF's, I think she was just going through a growth spurt/wonder month/whatever you want to call it, and needed more milk. I gave up trying to 'fix' it and just went with the broken nights sleep again, and it has passed, for now anyways!

Keep us on our toes, don't they?!

Babies really don't self-wean at that age - it would be very unusual. However it is common for babies to take to solids a little too quickly and reduce their milk intake by too much too early. One of my DS's did this too and then started waking often in the night as he really needed the milk he wasn't drinking during the day. When this happens mums usually find that dropping the solids back for a while works to increase the bfs again, and then just slowly increase the amount of solid food again.

Thanks for the advice everyone, she slept through the last few nights but we've been able to give her a 100mls of milk at morning tea time, but she won't take more than that. We'll keep trying.