how often should I BF 7 month old

[Jmommy0f3+1angel]

Hi mommies! I am pretty new here but have been a little worried that I may not be nursing my dd (7 months) enough...I am a SHM but we are always on the go...I nurse her once in the am when she wakes, sometimes before lunch, she eats a stage 2 babyfood, then I nurse her in the afternoon, then she eats 2 stage twos, and then I nurse her one last time before bed. Doesn't seem like enough but she doesn't seem hungry??? Please give me some advice :-( Thanks!! I think my supply is going down too...What supplement works best?

Thanks in advanced,
worried mommy

[PatioGardener]

Before a year the recommendation is to nurse baby before any solids, and whenever else they ask. Are you nursing at night at all? Until they reach a year babies are designed to get most of their nutrition (over 75%) from Mama's milk, so you are definitely on the right track to be thinking about nursing frequescy

Nursing before any solid food is a good way to start - other MDC Mamas will give you some more tips. And welcome to MDC!

[Jmommy0f3+1angel]

Originally Posted by PatioGardener

Before a year the recommendation is to nurse baby before any solids, and whenever else they ask. Are you nursing at night at all? Until they reach a year babies are designed to get most of their nutrition (over 75%) from Mama's milk, so you are definitely on the right track to be thinking about nursing frequescy

Nursing before any solid food is a good way to start - other MDC Mamas will give you some more tips. And welcome to MDC!

Thanks for your quick response :-) She does not wake up at night anymore (lucky me) LOL I am going to make it more of point to offer it to her even if she doesn't "ask" for it...Any takes on Fenugreek?? Thanks again!

[Amandala]

In my experience you can use every supplement on the planet, but nothing beats pumping regularly to keep up supply. And if your 7-month old is sleeping through the night (has she teethed yet?) then just wait til some (more?) teething sets in! My little guy was waking only once squarely in the middle of every night, until last week. Hoo boy. Now that some teeny little teeth have popped up it's once every. single. hour.

Anyway about feeding baby I really have no idea (I'm making it up as I go along myself) but my suggestion if your supply seems to be flagging is to pump, pump, pump. I ate oatmeal and drank mother's milk tea, but nothing worked like making sure that if baby went more than two hours without a boob, I pumped. That rule alone has increased my supply - and cup size - back to what they were right after his birth, before any obstacles happened.

[ewe+lamb]

As mentioned before, nurse before offering solids, solids should really only be tastes of things in the first year and breastmilk the main source of nutrition, oats, mother's milk tea and fenugrec (only if you're not wanting to conceive another child - that's just for the fenugrec) are good for increasing milk supply the best breastpump is your baby for stimulating milk but to augment your supply you can use a pump but I'm not sure you want to do that - do you? Your baby can also eat what you are eating you don't have to buy separate meals for your baby, as long as you're eating well just let her join in at the table with you and let her go on a food adventure, let her get messy and discover the textures and tastes and don't worry too much in 'how' much baby is actually eating - I absolutely love the book Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair great recipes with different stages within the one recipe for stopping and giving some to your baby - didn't explain that too well but if you manage to get it from your library or LLL library it has some great stuff in it! Another book is My Child Wont Eat by Gonzales which explains very well the ups and downs of a child/baby's nutrition.

[sunflowergirll]

Something that helped me was nursing before offering solids, like OP suggested. But also, I just bought fresh fruits/veggies and steamed/baked them until soft and piled them on the tray. My DD fed herself and had a lot of fun doing so! But also, I wasn't putting food in her mouth, which I think really helped limit her solid food intake to what she really wanted to eat.