Breastfeeding and Baby-Led Weaning at Nine Months

Background reading:  Introducing Solids Through Baby-Led Weaning

Originally this was going to be two separate posts; one on solids and one on breastfeeding, but then it occurred to me that these subjects are inextricably linked.  It is called baby-led weaning, after all, meaning the gradual process that a child goes through in order to transition himself from a breastmilk-based diet to a solids-based diet.  This is the story of our transition up to nine months.

Six Months:  Getting through the gagging

When I last wrote about our baby-led weaning journey, G was six months old and had only just been exposed to solid foods.  Breastfeeding was going strong (nursing anywhere from 7 to one million times per 24 hours).  Some days we offered him food, many days we didn’t.  On the occasions when we did offer it, he would gag.  Almost every time.  It freaked me out big time.  I second-guessed our method as most of the babies around me were eating exotic, flavorful homemade purees and he was taking an hour to (almost literally) choke down two bites of a banana.

I had to remind myself why BLW was important to us, and that gagging was actually a protective mechanism.  It is part of the learning process.  I had also read that a baby’s gag point moves further back in his mouth as he grows, which meant it would only get more difficult as time passed.  So we decided to pursue, but slowly…offer him less food, less often.  Let him mature a bit, let his interest grow.  Have a paramedic over for dinner to go over the Heimlich (no really, we did that).

Eating toast with Dad at 7 Months

Seven Months:  Building his confidence

G was still nursing with the same frequency, but something clicked with chewing and swallowing at seven months.  One meal at dinner, he just didn’t gag.  He was chewing–actually chewing–and swallowing his food perfectly.  At this point, his interest in food would be strong at the beginning of the meal.  Then he would eat a bite or two and it would dwindle quickly.  Though we were only feeding him once a day at most, his motor skills were improving at every meal.  By the end of the month, he was picking up peas with two fingers and could feed himself almost anything we put in front of him.

Eight Months

Eight Months:  Less nursing

This was a big turning point for both nursing and solids.  Almost overnight, G started refusing to nurse more than a few times during the day (and only if he was very tired and about to go to sleep), and once at night.  This was all a drop from his usual.  I panicked.  He wasn’t having enough solids to be dropping milk feedings so rapidly.  I was very worried about his weight and my supply.

For a month I pushed back hard with him on nursing.  Really hard.   I went back to his newborn days and began TRULY feeding on demand again (I liked to think I was feeding on demand before but admittedly I had begun trying to get him on a four-hour schedule).  Though I was used to him feeding every three to four hours, I began to offer constantly: before he went down for a nap, after he woke up from a nap, during playtime, etc.  If I offered and he rejected, I would pump.  I ended up pumping multiple times a day for the month of April, more than I had pumped in all previous months combined.

We began to offer him two solid meals a day, and found that he was receptive to it and generally fed himself well.  I started to accept that since he had always regulated his own intake (milk and solids), maybe he really was starting the weaning process.

Nine Months – Spaghetti Monster!

Nine Months:  Following his lead

After speaking with two lactation consultants and G’s pediatrician,  I feel a lot more confident that we are doing just fine.  G is gaining weight as he should, and he has even jumped up a little on his weight curve.  Technically speaking, he is weaning.  But he is weaning the same way I am (supposedly) losing weight:  slowly.  It doesn’t happen overnight.  It doesn’t happen at one meal, or in one week, or even one month.

I continue to nurse on demand (it’s driving me crazy having no schedule!), and we now offer G two meals a day and a few sips of water after each meal.  Some meals he hardly eats anything and other days he packs it away.  For the most part, he eats what we eat, but not always.  That is one aspect of BLW that I haven’t followed strictly; when we went to a baseball game, for example, I wasn’t going to feed him kettle corn and a hot dog.  So I gave him one of those organic fruit and veggie packet things and let him go to town.  It was a puree, yes, but he fed himself, so I could live with it.

Now that G’s self-feeding is well established, we’ve introduced a few “loaded spoons,” for him to navigate (I liken this to breastfeeding being well established before you introduce a bottle).  I did this because, even with his sloppy handling of the spoon, he usually gets a lot more food in his mouth than he does with just his hands, and I don’t want him to get too used to such large amounts of food going so quickly into his mouth.  This is because I have heard a common hurdle with mainstream weaning is that children can get very frustrated when they try to feed themselves if they’ve already experienced traditional spoon feeding.

Loaded spoon of homemade soup

This leads me to my interpretation of BLW.  To me, it comes down to self-feeding.  Switching between purees or finger foods is just that…switching.  Personally the texture isn’t my main concern; to me the control of intake has to stay with the baby the whole time for it to be baby-led.

Going forward

I originally became passionate about BLW because I thought it would help G develop a healthy relationship with food.  This is still my hope, but of course I have no idea if it will be the outcome.  In the meantime, I still take great comfort that by giving G responsibility of the weaning process, he will stop breastfeeding on his own timeline.  I also hope that doing things this way will ease us both through the weaning process gradually.

The dogs love BLW, too!

Nursing and formerly nursing mamas:  How was the weaning experience for you and your baby?  Did you struggle with emotional highs and lows or other difficulties?  Was it sudden or gradual?  I am interested to hear about your experiences as I anticipate how this will all turn out for us.