Hellobee Boards

3 meals a day seems like a lot for a 10 month old. Are you nursing before giving meals? Until a year I would stick with that plan. (You are now feeing on supply vs demand - to increase supply you need to increase demand). As for the weekend, pumping output is not a good measurement of what your baby is getting. They are better at getting milk than a pump is. The best indicator is number of wet diapers. I would think 4-6 wet diapers would be the best indication on the weekends at that age. Food before 1 is just for fun so to meeting little one's nutritional needs I would keep nursing before a meal. (...and don't stress)

I am going to say something really controversial: I think the whole concept of food before one just being for fun is BS. It *can* be just for fun, but it can also be a good, well-balanced source of nutrition if your baby is a good eater and gets a wide variety of foods (including protein).

Even on less solid food than is recommended, my baby stopped drinking nearly as much BM at about 8.5 months. According to KellyMom, a EBF baby will consume 20-30 ounces of BM/day, with the average being 25 ounces. By 9-11 months, KellyMom says that a normal BM intake for a baby drinking BM and eating solids is drinking an average of 19 ounces/day. All this is to say - if you are feeding your baby well, it is totally expected that they would stop drinking as much BM. When my pumping output decreased from 12-16 ounces per day to 7-9 ounces, my pediatrician told me not to stress - she reminded me that the weaning process starts when you introduce solids. She encouraged me to leave my baby what I pumped.

So, now instead 12-14 ounces of breastmilk and no solids while I am at work, my 10 mo baby gets 9-10 ounces of breastmilk and two meals of solids. She sleeps better, seems happier, and is taking to food really well. On weekends she still nurses regularly and seems quite fine with what she is getting, so I am not worried that she is hungry.

That was all a bit of a rant - I'm sorry. But... I think food intake is one of those topics where you really need to go with your gut. No one knows your baby and her cues like you do.