One element that seems to worry mums is milk intake when weaning. It's certainly an element that has worried me when I was weaning both my daughter and son. At 9 months Henry is loving his food and his milk intake has definitely lessened. I have found that Henry has very naturally and gradually dropped his milk intake as his interest in food has risen.
Henry's typical food and milk intake at 9 months, is now as follows.
6am - Morning Breastfeed 7:30am - Breakfast 10am - Water and snack 12:30pm - Lunch & Water 2pm - Breastfeed (or expressed milk if I'm working) 5pm - Dinner & Water 6:30om - Bedtime Breastfeed
We have followed a recommended guide that our fantastic nutritionist, Julia, on the Babymoov #StressLessWeaning project wrote. I have put together the key ideas in the image below... (click image to view full screen).
This is pretty much how we've weaned Henry, though because he is breastfed he will sometimes "snack" on the boob, but this is pretty much how it's gone so far. Looking back to Darcie I think she was very similar too, though she was bottle fed and when she started to leave lots of milk after a feed I would take that as an indication she was ready to drop that feed.
I think sometimes, it's just trial and error and letting your baby lead the way. For us, even though our nutritionist, Julia, has recommended that night feeds should be stopped, I still feed him if he wakes in the night (usually at 4am). I'm happy doing this and think he will soon drop the feed like he has with his daytime ones. It's just what works for you and your family, there doesn't seem to be a "one size fits all" when it comes to this parenting malarky.
Do you have any tips for mums who are weaning?
Mummy B xoxox
*I'm a part of the fabulous Babymoov #StressLessWeaning movement. No payment has been made for this post. All opinions are my own.