My child stopped drinking breast milk when he was 5-6 months old

[anithadivakar]

Hello,

My child drank breast milk only till 5-6 months & then stopped completely. SInce then he is living only on Formula milk. now he's 9 months old. I'm scared for his not drinking breast milk. I want to know if there is any solution to this. I also want to the effects of not drinking breast milk. Will it effect his intellectual power. I am very much worried.

[anithadivakar]

Hello Renee,

                   First of all thank you so much for the feedback. Actually he stopped on his own. I was producing enough then. But since he did not drink all these days, milk cannot be produced :( I don't know about what can be done in this regards. Also, I wanted to know whether his intellectual power would be as good as babies fed with breastmilk for 1-2 years. Please help me in this regards. As of now I am feeding NAN formula 2 . I also want to know till when can i feed him with formula milk.

Thanks,
Anitha

[Renee Radenberg]

His weight is just below the 25th percentile for his age which is normal. Your child had 5-6 months feeding of breast milk which is very good and gained the full effects of it. Infant formula has the same nutrients for brain development as breast milk. The question why he stopped drinking the breast milk in the first place is an important one to ask. Did you wean him off, or you stopped producing breast milk, or he on his own stopped drinking it? These are questions needing to be answered before you decide to try to refeed him breast milk. He has only been off breast milk for 3 months so if you able to produce more breast milk, then you can start feeding him breast milk. If not then, he has to stay with infant formula.  

[Renee Radenberg]

His intellectual power will be fine with infant formula because most infant formulas have added the 'brain' ingredients as found in breast milk. He had the benefit of breast milk for 5 months also.