Normal schedule for 8 month old?

Silver Member Joined: Sep 03 2007 Posts: 631

this is my 3rd child B"H, but my first that I have been able to nurse this long. how many times a day is normal for an 8 month old to nurse? I have been starting this new schedule for ds, trying to get him to sleep better at night and I have been giving him official breakfast, lunch and dinner, but btw this schedule of eating and his naps, that leaves very little time for nursings. I nurse in the am when he wakes up, before his am nap sometimes before lunch, before his pm nap, sometimes before dinner and before bed. is that too many? too little? I have supply issues (which is why I wasn't successful nursing my other kids) so I'm afraid that with this new schedule that my supply will decrease too much and ds won't want to nurse since there's not enough. am I doing the right thing? I thought nursing/formula should be the mainstay of their diets until at least 1 year of age

My dd only breastfed till almost 8 months old, at which point she started going to maon.
She wouldn't take the bottle (started with my milk in a bottle at birth but weaned herself from bottles by age 6 months!!!)
From 8-1o months, she therefore ate "regular" only while at maon ( daissa, fruits, veg and chicken , bread and biscuits), but at home she still exclusively breastfed. This would be her waking up meal, when coming back form maon at 4, for supper ...and at night.
I started giving her "real food" supper at age 10 months or so sometimes, and by the time she was a year old we were down to morning, 4 PM and during the night (she only gave up on this when I weaned her).
I stopped the morning feed by 14 or 15 months.

I never felt if I was "full" or "empty" - not even when she was EBF, but she gained weight nicely (even though she was born low weight), so I gather this was fine for me.
However , I do know of enough mums whose supply really dropped as soon as they introduced food.

Good luck

Diamond Member Joined: Mar 17 2008 Posts: 3555

Silver Member Joined: Jul 06 2006 Posts: 745

At that age I did every 4 hours. On an ideal day 7 @ wake up, 11 - after morning nap, 3 after afternoon nap and 7ish @ bed time. Meals would be 1-1.5 hours after nursing.