Expert: ruth kraft - 5/19/2009

Question
Dear Ruth, my son is nearly 11monts. He has been breastfed exclusively for the six first months, and we have started introducing solids, progressively from the 7th month and still breastfeeding. I have started work since april, so I only breastfeed him in the morning & at night. He also gets about 160ml of breastmilk around 11am & I have been using my milk for the preparation of his afternoon cereal cream (dinkel/muesli etc). I have the following 2 issues:
a. He is really difficult when it comes to eating and there are days where he will just refuse anything (without even tasting the food) - except the milk. What can I do?
b. He has been waking up about 4-5times at night (we co-sleep). Could it be that my milk is not enough? How can I tell if so? Also, he seems to have dropped from the 90th percentile to the 75th, over the past month. Is this common with b/f babies?
Thank you for your time.
Marilena

Answer
hello :) congrats on nursing so long . in reguards to him refusing food and what you can do? nothing. you dont want to force him or he will start to view food as a bad thing. he is developmentally perfect, he is at the age where food takes a back seat to his learning to crawl and then walk. Trust that he will eat when he is hungry and follow his lead.

as far as the drop in the percentile, yes , very common in breastfed babies as they bulk up and pudge out for the first 6-8 months. then, they learn to crawl and move around, they are so interested in this that they dont like to eat. but its ok, because they have the fat stores from the first months, so they start to focus on motor skills while they thin out and lose the baby fat. this is how its suppose to be :)  so it sounds as though hes on track. most toddlers are picky eaters and thin out about now. as long as he stays developmentally on task, there is no need to worry. if he refuses all food and all nursing for a whole day, then you should become concerned and talk to your doctor. but as long as he gets some then follow his lead.

As far as sleeping through the night , he is likely making up for the food he didnt get during the day while he focused on learning to walk and be mobile. after he masters that, he will likely sleep longer again.  it isnt that your milk isnt enough, its that he wants more , likely to make up for what he didnt want during the day, OR  a growth spurt which comes around a year old.

it all sounds very normal to me :)

good luck!