Dropping breast feedings as solids progress (at daycare)

[@llli*isabelofmtl]

So my 8.5 month old is now eating good amounts of food (we've done BLW). At home I haven't really noticed a drop in nursing sessions but that's probably because I haven't changed our routine and I haven't gotten any pushback from DD.

Now, at daycare, which she's only been attending for a few weeks, they've only been giving her 2 bottles a day when I have been sending 3 (and pumping for 3). She's been going about 5.5 hours without milk, which is much longer than would happen at home. They say she's perfectly happy with that there.

My husband and I recently insisted that they offer her the 3rd bottle before lunch. Now I'm curious: is 5.5 hours without a bottle average for a baby her age, do you think? How do you know when to start dropping nursings as solids increase? Do you stop offering and wait until LO demands it?

[@llli*debbers]

Babies are so different developmentally it might not make sense to try and compare or assess as normal. My 8.5 month old has no interest in solids (we're doing BLS and I do offer once a week) and she could never go 5.5 hours without the boob from me or a bottle from our nanny or DH. There's a separate category in the forum dedicated to solids. You might find some of the posts and responses there helpful.

[@llli*mommal]

What she said.

I think you're right to insist that baby get the bottle before the solids. 5.5 hours in between nursing sessions would be really rare for an 8.5 month-old baby who was home with mom, feeding on demand.

[@llli*kevins-mom]

I got that same feeling from my son around that age at daycare and started thinking about dropping that third bottle. My son also loved solids, and was "too busy" for a bottle. I always stressed how important it was to my daycare that they keep offering the bottles, and anything that was left, just send it home.

My daycare kept working to find a way to get him to drink more milk. This was really left up to our care provider, because he never has bottles when he's home with me. For my son, reclining on the couch in front of the TV did the trick. He'll just sit, and watch and drink his bottle.

Around 11 months though, his third bottle was being sent home in it's entirety, every day. After a few weeks of that, I decided to cut out the third bottle, and just send two.

I would agree that 8/9 months is too young and I think you are right to keep pushing his milk!

[@llli*bluesea]

Isabel -- I'm in the same boat and just posted similar question on another thread. LO (almost 9-mos) sometimes does only 2 bottles, sometimes 3. I've told hubby and mom to keep offering the third bottle and to even mix some BM in her sweet potato. Regardless that 3rd bottle is barely touched most times. Another mom told me that if LO is having solids w/ water (and its replacing a bottle), that is ok at this age. When I'm home, LO nurses all the time and does plenty of night feeds... our LOs seem pretty similar so I think this must be normal....

[@llli*isabelofmtl]

I'm glad I only send her to daycare twice a week. After I posted this, we got the educator on board with offering DD the extra bottle before lunch. It took a lot of repetition to make her understand that, for us, milk is more important than solids. The daycare workers seem much more focused on telling me how much solids she ate, how well she ate, etc. I'm starting to think they're just not used to breastfed babies whose moms aren't trying to wean them anytime soon. These past few days my DD's educator has been out sick and, again, I find the third bottle is falling by the wayside! Looks like we need to re-train our educators