Q. My daughter is 6 1/2 months old and I have been purely breastfeeding her. Now she's started eating solid food twice a day and she only drinks one bottle of milk during the afternoon. The rest of the time I latch her onto my breasts directly. The problem is I don't know why she refuses to drink milk in the afternoon. Before that she was fine with the bottle. She eats her cereal at 9.30am, and she will not ask for milk until around three in the afternoon. Is she not hungry? When I try to give her milk in between, she cries and rejects it.
Jasmine, via email

A. At 6 1/2 months, after introducing solid foods, she most likely needs her breast milk four to five times a day. If she has taken a good amount of cereal at 9.30 am and refuses milk in between, most probably she is not ready for the milk yet, she will take her milk when she is hungry. If a mother is concerned that she is not taking enough breast milk, she can mix the cereal with the expressed milk.

KW Chew is a certified midwife and an International Board of Certified Lactation Consultant with a Masters degree in Education.

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