8 month old dropping a feeding

[@llli*sprocket]

Sorry, this might be long...

My just-turned-8 month old seems to be dropping one of her regular feedings and I'm not sure if it's OK/normal or not. We had settled into this kind of a routine:

6:30 am nurse upon waking

8:30 am nurse at daycare dropoff

mid-morning (around 11 am) bottle at daycare

1:30-ish I go over to nurse (they call me when she's ready)

afternoon bottle around 3:30 or 4

5:30 nurse when we get home

7:30 nurse to sleep

She sleeps in bed with us and nurses variable numbers of times through the night, usually once or twice.

She gets solid food 2x per day in there somewhere at daycare. I ask them to generally offer her solids after her bottle and not before/instead of.

Another thing is that her bottles at daycare are generally either 4 or 5 oz. They hit 5 oz a couple of months ago, and I pushed back on this at first, brought in info from Kellymom showing them how much she needs, etc. and asked them to keep her at 4 oz bottles, max. And they did what I asked but then her teacher mentioned to me that sometimes she'll drink 4 oz and get mad when it is empty and really seem like she wants more, and right around the same time she had a string of colds and seemed like she could use the extra fluids and I told them, OK, just give her whatever she wants. Also, I mysteriously started pumping more at that time (I was up to 4 or 5 oz per session rather than 3 or 4). So I think maybe her demand just went up to that level. I don't think they are trying to soothe her with bottles otherwise. But maybe this is too much, I don't know.

Lately she has been refusing to nurse at drop-off. Which means that the rest of her feedings have been a little earlier, but not enough that we fit in another feeding later in the day, if that makes sense. So she might have a bottle at 9:30, I nurse at noon, bottle at 2:30, nurse at 5:30. Her teacher told me that seems normal, at this age she's getting so interested in everything, she'd rather play when we arrive than take the time to eat.

I am just worried that her solids intake is starting to interfere with nursing. For solids, I bring her two things to eat for her two solids meals, usually something like applesauce or mashed pears or pureed prunes for the morning and some finely chopped meat and soft cooked veggies for the afternoon. At daycare they sometimes offer her cheerios to munch on her highchair and they have baby oatmeal that I keep there to give her too. Usually they will give her what I bring and then offer her some oatmeal if she's still hungry and I think sometimes she eats quite a lot of oatmeal that way.

Does this seem right or would you try to change it up somehow?

Thanks for reading and any thoughts!

[@llli*songbirdma]

Congratulations! It seems that you have a perfectly normal, healthy baby!

[@llli*bfwmomof3]

Hi sprocket, the nursing pattern sounds fine - it looks like she is still mostly getting at least 8 feeds/24 hours. And I agree with her teacher that 8.5 mo is a HIGHLY distractible age! Is she having BM before solids at daycare? If not, you could try to encourage that if you are worried about solids interfering with her milk intake. In terms of the 4 oz vs 5 oz - well, as you know 5 oz is more than she needs at a typical feeding, and maybe those extra couple ounces she's getting through the bottle is translating into the dropped nursing session. So you might want to readdress with them. I know they've been good about working with you. On the other hand, if it's that she just wants to start playing as soon as she gets there, and therefore is skipping the drop-off nursing session, maybe that explains why she wants the bigger bottle later. Is there a place to nurse her before she gets into the room? Maybe she'd be more willing to nurse if she doesn't see all the action? Even in the car perhaps? Interestingly my now 10.5 month old was sometimes taking up to 5 oz but lately is stopping at 2.5 - 3 oz - apparently she'll throw the bottle across the room after that.

[@llli*sprocket]

Thanks for your replies. This morning I offered to nurse here before we left the house at 8 and she was happy to have a little "top up" before heading out the door. So I think we'll just do that instead of the nursing at daycare. It helps because then I don't have to pump as soon as I walk in the door at work!

[@llli*bfwmomof3]

Sounds good!