Why solid intake reduce?

[rani]

Laichi,

The book by Gina Ford is called the Contented Baby Book. Have a read through this review written by Yvonne Heavyside http://www.geobaby.com/articles/baby/baby-routines/

 

[chubbysan]

hi sharon,

is yr baby weight within the growth chart? don worry too much, so long as yr baby is happy n healthy. now i try to b easy with my girl, if she doesnt want to eat, then i stop feeding her. don want to stress her n myself. worried that she might hate meal time next time.

like u, so i continue to bf her now whenever she wants.

hopefully am doing the right thing for her.

 

[LLL_Sarah]

I would like to make it clear that I do not recommend any of Gina Ford’s books on child care. The reason for this is that by following her regime is likely to have a very adverse effect on your breastfeeding.

Miss Ford’s goal in her books is to set up a routine that suits her lifestyle. (Please remember that Miss Ford is not a mother and so doesn’t understand the overwhelming love, that is often coupled with frustration, of looking after a child 24 hours a day, seven days a week.)

I, on the other hand, am trying to help mothers have a successful breastfeeding relationship with their babies. When there is a conflict between establishing a routine or continuing breastfeeding Miss Ford’s advice will allow to you to continue establishing your routine and my advice will allow you to continue breastfeeding.

A book I am happy to recommend (no conflicts with breastfeeding) on the topic is,
MY CHILD WON’T EAT: How to Prevent and Solve the Problem
by Carlos Gonzalez
http://www.amazon.com/MY-CHILD-WON’T-EAT-International/dp/0912500999

There is a book review of this book at
http://www.lalecheleague.org/NB/NBMarApr06p76.html

LLL-HK has a copy of this book in their Happy Valley library. Please contact Maggie Holmes on 2817-7475 or [email protected] if you are interested in borrowing the book.

(We now have a policy where we ask mothers to become members if they want to borrow from our library. Too many of our books have not been returned from non-members. We are a charity working on a very small budget and can not afford to keep replacing our books.)

Best wishes,
SARAH

 

[LLL_Sarah]

Dear Sharon,

Breast milk is quite a high calorie food. Usually the solids we offer the baby have far less calories than the breast milk does. So if you want your baby to increase in weight it may be that you will have more success with more breastfeeding.

Generally we introduce solids around the six month mark, although I know lots of babies who aren’t interested and start much later, maybe at the eight, nine or ten month mark.

The reason for starting solids is to introduce the baby to a different type of eating. Also as the baby grows breast milk may not have all the nutrients that a baby needs (there is no firm research on this as it is dependent on the mother’s nutritional level and so various from mother to mother).

People often worry about whether there is enough iron in the breast milk after six months. (It is very rare for a breastfed baby to have anemia unless the mother also has the problem – the solution is then to treat the mother and solve two problems in one!)

For this reason it is often advised to introduce meat as the second weaning food – meat also has more calories per bite than most other solids, which again will help with the weight gain.

Remember that weight gain is a very individual thing and it is very normal for there to be periods of rapid growth and periods of slow growth. Sometimes it is easy to forget this when looking at the growth curves. They have been made up of the weights of many babies averaged and this means that the plateaus of any one baby have been lost in the crowd.

Also look at the health of your child – is she happy and healthy but just small? Has she been ill in the last month? Illness causes babies to lose weight and so this could easily mean the baby doesn’t put on the expected amount of weight.

Do you have any allergies in your family? Often babies from allergic families don’t do well on solids until they are a little older. Some research shows that often the baby will refuse solids when it will have an adverse effect on them. (Most of the cases I’ve heard of when the baby refused solids until after 12 months was because of allergies – it is as if the baby know better than we do.)

Best wishes,
SARAH

 

[chubbysan]

Hi Sarah,

May i ask: So for the 1st yr, breastmilk should still be the main food for baby? when should we slowly wean or cut down the nos of feed? Is it after they reach 1 yr old?

Right now, i m still continuing breastfeeding my 7mos old baby whenever she needs. Even after her solid meal, i will still check if she still need more milk, or after breastmilk, i will feed her solid after a short rest.

I just hope i have enough milk supply for my baby

cheers,

 

[carang]

so long as you keep bf you will have enough milk.. it's demand that causes the supply in the case of breast feeding...

 

[LLL_Sarah]

Dear Chubbysan,

As Cara said after you have been breastfeeding for around six weeks the way the breasts work are they replace the milk that you or your baby has removed. The more you breastfeed, and so the more milk the baby removes from your breasts, the more milk you make. If you keep breastfeeding there is no way that you won?t have enough milk.

The more breastfeeding you do the more milk you make is also the case in the first days and weeks of breastfeeding but at this time your body also needs the boost of hormones it gets when you breastfeed to maintain the milk supply. This is why we encourage direct breastfeeding for the first four to six weeks so that your body gets the maximum hormones every few hours.

After the six week mark your body is much more able to cope with things like pumping instead of direct feeding and longer spaces between feeds, for example when the baby sleeps a little longer.

By the time you?ve been breastfeeding for six months it will actually be quite difficult to lose your milk. It is estimate to take around six weeks (42 days) for you to stop having milk after the last breastfeed.

So for the 1st year, breast milk should still be the main food for baby?
Yes

When should we slowly wean or cut down the numbers of feeds? Is it after they reach one year old?
I think it would be easier for you to think of keeping the same number of feeds and slowly introducing a little solid to the meals you want to change to solids. Start first by breastfeeding and then giving a teaspoon or two of solid. Slowly over the next few months increase the amount of solids. Around about the one year mark give the solids before the breastfeed and slowly over the next six to twelve months you will notice that your baby takes more solids and less breast milk at each feed.

This idea of giving a breastfeed before the solids is not always practical, especially if you are giving hot food. And if you are giving your baby part of your own meal it might mean delaying your family meal just because the baby is breastfeeding. So you don?t have to use this advice as a rule ? more like a guideline. The aim is to introduce the solids slowly ? so slowly that the baby doesn?t realise that solids mean no more breastfeeding but rather than solids mean a new and exciting activity.

Best wishes,
SARAH