What happens at 6 months??

[@llli*mommal]

Breastfeeding really does get better, and less all-consuming, as time goes on. I agree with bfwmomof3 that it actually becomes a time-saver! Especially at night. Baby wakes up, you latch her on, and then you drift off to sleep while she nurses. If you formula-feed, you have to drag yourself down to the kitchen, mix and warm a bottle, and then feed the baby while propping your eyelids open to stay fully awake because it's not safe to bottle-prop...

One thing I learned from nursing my first baby is that you don't want to set hard and fast limits in your mind when it comes to breastfeeding. Your goal might be to nurse until 2 years, and instead your baby goes on a nursing strike and weans at 10 months! Or you might have a goal of 1 year, only to reach it and realize that breastfeeding is way too useful, and too much fun to give up on!

[@llli*maddieb]

Support helps. It is amazing how helpful it can be to just hang out once in a while with other breastfeeding moms, especially moms who see nursing as a normal, basic part of mothering a baby.

I had a very rough start in breastfeeding with my oldest, but I figured that all out on my own and with an IBCLC. But I went to my first LLL meeting when he was about 7 months old, because my few friends who had started out nursing had stopped. I had struggled too hard and too long to give it up when nursing had become not only easy and fun, but I was relying on nursing as an important mothering tool. I was so happy to find out that not only was it "OK to keep nursing, it was normal and healthy.

[@llli*sassypants]

I think it is terrible that you went to a breastfeeding workshop and came out so confused. Shame on your instructors!

I can't help but shake my head when I hear moms say they want to BF for 6 months then stop. Why would you go through the hard part then stop when it gets easy? That is like punishing yourself! Keep it up and by 6 months BFing will be like breathing, won't even have to stop and think about it.

[@llli*mammi]

One view is weaning means ending nursing (apruptly) and replacing it with baby foods and the other that you continue weaning and slowly, slowly introduce baby to solid food.
If I may, I think mammi meant to say, 'continue nursing and slowly, slowly introduce baby to solid food.'

yes indeed I did nursing and slowly introduce solids, so sorry for the typo!

I also thought at 3 to 4 months i wont be able to do this past 6 months. But it got so much easier at 6 months that it was no hardship to continue. On the contrary like a PP said why go through all the hardship to stop when it finally works.

[@llli*djs.mom]

Well I know there was a time when 6 months WAS the minimum recommendation. But I am very surprised to hear that anyone still saying that since even the AAP is moving their recommendation of at least a year to two. But when I 1st came to the board I had it in my mind that I was going to breastfeed for 6 months. Because I had planned financially to be home with him for that long and I was going to wean to go back to work because I didn't want to have to pump. I ended up staying home with him for 14 months and when I came here, it was initially because I thought I needed to start giving him a bottle of formula or breastmilk with cereal at night because the women in MY baby group had all mostly started doing that because they took the increased waking and nursing between 4 & 6 months to mean that they weren't able to keep up with demand. Turns out he was teething. And he needed my breastmilk more than ever right then! I quickly went from thinking I would wean at 6 months to "at least a year" (Which truly is the MINIMUM recommendation anywhere in the world) to "I will let him self wean." And that happened as LLLMeg said just by being around OTHER mothers here who were ahead of me on the journey. So stick around. Do some reading. I don't know where you live but look up what your country's minimum recommendation for breastmilk is. 6 months is really outdated info though. I also found that as I was introducing solids, knowing that breastmilk was perfect nutrition and there was no way for me to screw it up, took the pressure completely off in terms of introduction and exploring them between 6 months and a year. And made that process really much more enjoyable for both of us.

[@llli*cosmicbabe]

I'm in the UK. Thanks guys! I feel more confident after hearing your stories of it getting easier x

[@llli*cosmicbabe]

So what happens to your milk supply if there getting solids for some meals and not breast milk?

[@llli*still.here]

You don't want to replace nursing with solids meals until they are over one, so you nurse first before offering solids. That way they are still getting the majority of their nutrition from breast milk. And most babies don't eat much the first several months of solids. It's just for fun and experience until they are over one.

[@llli*mommal]

Any time you decrease stimulation to and milk removal from the breast by feeding the baby something other than breastmilk from the breast, your supply is going to respond by adjusting downwards. So if you feed baby solids instead of nursing, and the baby nurses that much less, your milk supply will decrease. This is why you offer the breast first and solids second when baby is under a year. The baby fills up on breastmilk, and solids are reserved for play. After a year, when baby is less reliant on your milk and growing slower, you can switch it around and do whatever pleases you and baby more- you can offer solids first, or you can offer the breast first.

I like to think of it this way: you know how a marathoner will eat a special diet before running a race, in order to optimize her performance? A baby who is less than a year old is like an athlete who is preparing for the race of her life. What she eats during that first 1-2 years of extraordinarily rapid development is what will build the body, brain, immune system that will carry her through the next 70, 80, 90, maybe even 100 years of life. It's worth investing your time and energy to give her that optimal diet.

[@llli*maddieb]

But I am very surprised to hear that anyone still saying that since even the AAP is moving their recommendation of at least a year to two.

do you know, has this 'officially' happened yet?