Official Breast Feeding Support Thread for WDW Parks

[MommyPoppins]

Yeah I just pull the shirt down. I don't wear t-shirts. It's freakin HOT in Florida right now. So if it has sleeves I don't wear it until about November. lol. It would not be very easy to pull your shirt up without causing a stir. lol. I guess if you loosen the carrier enough you could do it though. For me it's just easier to pull my tank down and use the hood as a cover.

 

[belle&beast]

Ellie is almost 10 months and she eats stage 2 baby food(only because we get it free) and some(she only has 2 teeth) table food. She nurses when she first wakes up, about an hour after that, after her nap, after lunch, before her nap, after her nap, after dinner and before bed. Sometimes less, sometimes more. That has been the norm for all my kids. She drinks water from a sippy cup in between times.

I feel the same as you with my almost 9 month old. She nurses when getting up, before & after morning nap, before and after afternoon sleep, early evening and before bed. She is very distracted by the world around her (4 sibs) so she doesn't always fill herself up. I consider her a reverse cycler. She nurses hard still around 2 a.m. and then again around 5:30a.m. Part of her thing is her aversion to most baby food. I can usually get her to eat the boxed rice cereal early in the day then mid evening. She likes the milder fruits and only 2-3 diff vegetables. None of the baby food meals appeal to her - its all just a big joke as most of them end up in the dog's dish. I have just started to give her some solids from the table. But it has been really hard with her. My doc says all babes are diff and to let her dictate the schedule as long as she stays hydrated, continues weight gain and gets some adequate iron

WOW! You ladies are feeding way more often than I do!!!! I guess I should feel lucky that he is sleeping through the night LOL! It just feels like I don't get enough time between feedings (breast or food) to get anything done around here. I guess that's another great reason for baby wearing, huh?!

 

[rparmfamily]

My DD is 12 mo now, doesn't sleep thru the night, eats 3 jars a day plus whatever regular food with us, nurses on demand for the most part (which would be about 5-6 times a day, not counting nightime.)

 

[december]

Katie is almost 13 mos. She is up at least once during the night. Until last week, she nursed in the morning, ate breakfast, lunch and a snack (table food) at daycare, then nursed when I picked her up about 4, and pretty much non stop until bedtime! She started refusing bottles of expressed milk about mid March, but would drink whole milk in a sippy cup for meals. Now that I'm off for the summer, she is nursing on demand (like right now). She is on all table food, and ate almost as much as dd10 in WDW last week. I'd say she nurses at least 6 times a day.-probably more!

 

[MommyPoppins]

Yeah I nurse Ellie on demand too, except at night. Then I demand she goes back to sleep. ;o) I only nurse her at night if she is sick or teething.

 

[candielips]

Hi. Thanks for the invite. I'm Stephanie and I am techie challenged. After I finish this post, I'm going to try and figure out again how to update my sig line to update ages of children. ..................................
Better run. Guests coming this weekend and last weekend of soccer! 5 children in 4 age groups has made for a very interesting season, next year there will be 5 age groups.

Welcome to our growing BFing thread!!! We only have 2 children, but this year we are going with my cousin's family and they have 6 children. Some large family tips from them would be to share your meals if you are eating in the parks. They manage to need only 5 meals for all 8 of them and their oldest is 17 and youngest is 7. They try to stay together for the most part BUT since you are there for a short visit, maybe if the big kids want to do something different than the little kids, have one spouse take the big kids and you take the little kids or vice versa. It doesn't have to be for the whole day but maybe for an hour or 2.
Glad to hear everything is working out for your little one. Surgery can be so scary for our children, especially when they are that young!

I have a question about how often your babies nurse. My DS is 9 months and has been eating purees for about 3 months now. Here is our current schedule: DS nurses when he wakes, eats breakfast about an hour later, nurses around 11:00, eats lunch after his nap, nurses around 3:00, eats dinner between 5 and 6:00 and nurses at bedtime. I feel like I spend my day feeding this baby! I don't remember my older kids needing their milk separate from their solids, is this common? I nursed my older kids, but always supplemented with formula. I have not needed to supplement this time, but he just seems to need to be eating something constantly!

My DS just turned 7 months yesterday and his nursing has def decreased. He usually does not eat and BF at the same feeding. He is down to nursing maybe 5x a day. He eats cereal in the morning, thicker pureed foods all day, mashed banana, mashed avocado, and he self feeds Mum Mum crackers and those Gerber puffs. We have been starting to make his food thicker and chunkier but he has 6 teeth already. If he had things his way he would self feed all his meals. Such a stubborn little man
Oh and he also gets water at his meals.
I know sometimes it can seem like all they do is eat but it will decrease. They are still growing so much.

 

[Adi12982]

Yeah I nurse Ellie on demand too, except at night. Then I demand she goes back to sleep. ;o) I only nurse her at night if she is sick or teething.

I used to be able to do that, I'd rock her back to sleep. But for the last couple months she'll SCREAM at the top of her lungs til I feed her. Although thankfully this week she'll nurse one time for real and twice just for a minute or two.

We have been starting to make his food thicker and chunkier but he has 6 teeth already. If he had things his way he would self feed all his meals.

6 teeth - wow! My 7 month old has none, and for that I am thankful!

 

[Pookasaurus]

I'm a little jealous of all you ladies able to nurse in your carriers! I have a beco and a few ring slings and have never been able to figure out nursing in any of them (though to be fair I gave up quickly lol). I'm able to nurse easily and discreetly sitting down so it doesn't bother me too much, but being able to stand up and walk around while nursing would be nice!!!

 

[Ava]

I have a question about how often your babies nurse. My DS is 9 months and has been eating purees for about 3 months now. Here is our current schedule: DS nurses when he wakes, eats breakfast about an hour later, nurses around 11:00, eats lunch after his nap, nurses around 3:00, eats dinner between 5 and 6:00 and nurses at bedtime. I feel like I spend my day feeding this baby! I don't remember my older kids needing their milk separate from their solids, is this common? I nursed my older kids, but always supplemented with formula. I have not needed to supplement this time, but he just seems to need to be eating something constantly!

That is our 13-month-old DD's schedule almost exactly, except she's still taking 2 naps a day (usually). Sometimes she won't do one of the mid-day nursings, but her norm is 4 nursings and 3 solid meals per day. It does feel like she spends most of her day either eating or sleeping, but I guess that's normal! Her pediatrician told us that once she's nursing less than 3 times a day on a regular basis she should start drinking cow's milk, but for now she just drinks water with her solid meals and gets all her milk from nursing.

 

[candielips]

That is our 13-month-old DD's schedule almost exactly, except she's still taking 2 naps a day (usually). Sometimes she won't do one of the mid-day nursings, but her norm is 4 nursings and 3 solid meals per day. It does feel like she spends most of her day either eating or sleeping, but I guess that's normal! Her pediatrician told us that once she's nursing less than 3 times a day on a regular basis she should start drinking cow's milk, but for now she just drinks water with her solid meals and gets all her milk from nursing.

Our DD weaned herself at 13 months once she started drinking whole milk. I wish I never would have introduced it because as soon as she got a taste of the milk, she wanted nothing to do with BFing.
I guess I wasn't creamy enough for her

 

[cerilene]

There for a while I felt like all I was doing was feeding DD or trying to get her down for a nap. She would take almost an hour to eat plus nursing, then she'd sleep for 3+ hours. It felt like we never had any play time. It does get better though.

As for nursing in the Ergo (wish I had a picture) I put her in like normal and loosen the right strap and slide it off of my shoulder. I pull my shirt up, since I'm usually wearing T-shirts I can't go from the top, and it usually ends up around my neck as DD doesn't like anything close to covering her up! Then we do the same thing on the left side. DD is little so she fits just perfectly. She does like to rest her head where my cleavage should be (I'm an A cup) instead of on my arm which is annoying because she ends up taking the bo obie with her and it shows! But oh well such is life, right?

 

[harleyquinn]

What do you all feed your lo's for solid meals? Lily hates anything with the pureed texture besides yogurt. She LOVES any kind of people food, so we usually just feed her some of what we have, but I'm thinking I need to start making her her own plates of food. Right now we hand feed her, because she will just play with the food and not eat if we don't.

She has 6 teeth and is very good at chewing, although she'll shove an entire Earth's best graham cracker down her throat if we don't break it up (she LOVES them).

She nurses on demand, but it's never felt all that intuitive to me...I can't usually tell if she needs that or something else, so it's ususally the default, which leads to me to feeding her more than she actually wants...I think...lol

 

[december]

Katie is toothless......

For breakfast this morning she had scrambled eggs. She LOVES scrambled eggs. She also loves mashed potatoes, french fries (I usually just make my own-so sliced potatoes fried in canola oil), sweet potatoes (I throw them whole in a crockpot with a chicken about once a week), chicken from the crockpot (or rotisserie chicken from Walmart), salmon, rice, string beans, peas, corn (loves corn!), bread (pinch off pieces from rolls, sliced, pastries, etc.), whole bananas sliced in long thin strips (her favorite food of all!), mac and cheese (a close 2nd to bananas), spaghetti, ice cream....pretty much anything we are eating.

I pretty much just dice it up and put it on her tray. She loves to feed herself. Then we go and take a quick bath I feed her the mashed potatoes and that type stuff with a spoon, though.

She likes the Beech Nut Let's Grow Lasagna and Gerber microwave meals. I keep some of them on hand in case we don't have anything she can eat-which isn't often.

Last night, she ate a Gerber cereal bar and a jar of baby food pears that I found in the cabinet. She wouldn't eat baby food for the longest, but let me feed her the whole (tiny) jar last night, and acted like she wanted more.

 

[DsnyMama]

VERY awesome thread

 

[tzolkin]

What do you all feed your lo's for solid meals? Lily hates anything with the pureed texture besides yogurt. She LOVES any kind of people food, so we usually just feed her some of what we have, but I'm thinking I need to start making her her own plates of food. Right now we hand feed her, because she will just play with the food and not eat if we don't.

That sounds just like my youngest. He loved yogurt, but would not eat any other "baby" food. Have you tried one of those mesh feeders? He had his first Thanksgiving meals through one of those. You just put whatever foods inside of it (don't do banana), and the child holds the handle and gnaws the food through. He used that a few times until he got the hang of picking up food and feeding himself.

I was actually a bit disappointed at first because I had already made a bunch of baby food ice cubes for him (my older two ate pureed foods for months). I wound up just using them in cooking and still make them to use.

 

[Keegansmommy]

We will be visiting WDW in August and I'll be nursing my 9 month old. I was a little worried about NIP and trying to keep him covered under my nursing wrap with it being so hot. I might just get bold and say heck with it and just nurse him uncovered! I've gotten pretty good at being discrete!

 

[harleyquinn]

That sounds just like my youngest. He loved yogurt, but would not eat any other "baby" food. Have you tried one of those mesh feeders? He had his first Thanksgiving meals through one of those. You just put whatever foods inside of it (don't do banana), and the child holds the handle and gnaws the food through. He used that a few times until he got the hang of picking up food and feeding himself.

I was actually a bit disappointed at first because I had already made a bunch of baby food ice cubes for him (my older two ate pureed foods for months). I wound up just using them in cooking and still make them to use.

She didn't like the mesh feeder---liked to chew on the handle, but not the food. lol

She can pick up food, even the tiniest pieces, but she's more likely to play with it than actually eat it. I think we need to let her play so she start really eating it on her own instead of us hand feeding her.

Katie is toothless......

For breakfast this morning she had scrambled eggs. She LOVES scrambled eggs. She also loves mashed potatoes, french fries (I usually just make my own-so sliced potatoes fried in canola oil), sweet potatoes (I throw them whole in a crockpot with a chicken about once a week), chicken from the crockpot (or rotisserie chicken from Walmart), salmon, rice, string beans, peas, corn (loves corn!), bread (pinch off pieces from rolls, sliced, pastries, etc.), whole bananas sliced in long thin strips (her favorite food of all!), mac and cheese (a close 2nd to bananas), spaghetti, ice cream....pretty much anything we are eating.

I pretty much just dice it up and put it on her tray. She loves to feed herself. Then we go and take a quick bath I feed her the mashed potatoes and that type stuff with a spoon, though.

She likes the Beech Nut Let's Grow Lasagna and Gerber microwave meals. I keep some of them on hand in case we don't have anything she can eat-which isn't often.

Last night, she ate a Gerber cereal bar and a jar of baby food pears that I found in the cabinet. She wouldn't eat baby food for the longest, but let me feed her the whole (tiny) jar last night, and acted like she wanted more.

Thanks for typing all of that out! It was very helpful!

We will be visiting WDW in August and I'll be nursing my 9 month old. I was a little worried about NIP and trying to keep him covered under my nursing wrap with it being so hot. I might just get bold and say heck with it and just nurse him uncovered! I've gotten pretty good at being discrete!

I'll be there in August with my 13 month old, maybe we can nurse together! lol What are your dates?

 

[december]

Sarah,

I went by Big Lots this morning when I took my older kids to my mil's. They had tons of Beech Nut toddler meals for 50 cents each! I checked the dates, and all were good until next year. I bought some lasagne, spaghettios, and cheesy chicken and potato meals. I like to have something on hand in case we are just doing fast food, or to keep in the diaper bag in case we are eating at someone else's house and there isn't much for her.

 

[WendyLovesPeter]

wishing my dear Ella would decide that there is life outside the breast...

She refuses all bottles...gave up on that a while ago. I still leave small bags of my milk at the sitter when I work. I know she won't drink it, but I cannot leave her somewhere without...just can't. She strikes when I am gone and then makes up for it at night. She will take a drip out of the sip cup (any liquid) and then clamp up. As far as baby food... she likes the boxed rice cereal. I have started mixing different fruits in it to give her some new tastes. She will occas eat the yellow veggies and green beans. She does not like the Gerber or Beach nut meals. She does not like the jarred cereal (I always get the ones with 45% iron - not 2%). As far as table food she loves rice crispies. She is interested in our food, but only on her terms... she takes a few bites then clamps her mouth and turns her head. She refuses most fresh fruit . The one she will consistently eat is tiny bits of watermelon. I think the tastes are just overwhelming to her. Her joy in life is to nurse. All of my other kids were enjoying baby food and appropriate table food by this time.... I hope she comes around in the next couple months

of course she will willingly put anything on her mouth SHE finds on the floor - crazy girl!

 

[kandls momma]

We will be visiting WDW in August and I'll be nursing my 9 month old. I was a little worried about NIP and trying to keep him covered under my nursing wrap with it being so hot. I might just get bold and say heck with it and just nurse him uncovered! I've gotten pretty good at being discrete!

Dark, air-conditioned attractions are a great place to nurse! My little one would not settle down to nurse outside (too hot, too many distractions), but the rides were great!