Poppy is now 8 and a half months but still takes nearly an hour with her last feed.

I thought she would have sped up by now, or wanted less, but it still takes ages before she is full. At the moment she has three full meals a day, but only really has boob milk first thing, then about ten minutes worth before her morning nap, then the hour long feed before bed (which used to be an hour and a half). She eats LOADS at dinner time, having full dinner and dessert, plus lots of water to drink. I'm not so keen on feeding her outside any more as she has got so big, so i tend to only breast feed at home (especially as i only feed her lying down, as she is heavy and takes her time). B

Should i introduce a day time bottle of formula to try to shorten her night time feed? Or do you think she's getting enough milk? Obviously being breast fed i don;t know how much she's getting, but she's growing well and seemingly happy with her 3 feeds a day. Also as she approaches the 12 months mark any idea how i start to wean her off the boob?

I was hoping to avoid bottles as i'm basically lazy (?!) and do love my booby feeding. Plus i feed her to sleep so it's always been really handy to keeping her content...I just thought her last feed might have got shorter, given she's eating so much before bed!

Lucky Poppy to have had mummy milk and so much comfort from you! Feeding can be so lovely, that last feed at night when baby and mummy get sleepy together is so relaxing... It's good to hear that solids are being enthusiastically welcomed by Poppy.

Introducing formula will decrease the amount of milk you produce, so it probably signals a gradual change over from breast feeding to bottle feeding. Three feeds a day isn't a lot for a eight month old, as milk (preferably breast) should form the bulk of her dietary intake for the first year, and of course the WHO recommend breastfeeding for at least the first two years of a child's life. It's common for bottles to be given for a lot longer than two years and some mums carry on breastfeeding for longer than that, too.

If Poppy is taking so long over her feed, is she actively suckling all that time? Some mums manage to speed feeds up by using breast compression to keep the baby interested, and some use switch nursing to encourage baby to keep on the boob; but neither are very sleep inducing when feeding in bed. Another strategy to encourage more intake is to undress/change nappy etc midway through the feed or to tickle her, to wake her up, so she takes more milk.

Do you dream feed at night? That's very comforting for babys to sleep on the breast!

Melanie