Breastfeeding/feeding question

[klinney]

My son is 6 months old and is exclusively breastfed. I work part time so I pump while at work and he takes a bottle. We haven't really started solids yet. I tried rice cereal but he got really constipated so I stopped. Last week I gave him pureed apples which he loved but he is a really bad spitter and for the rest of the day he spit up apple which was not pleasant. I have several questions.
1. For those of you that have babies who spit up a lot, when did it end and did anything help? He gains weight well and the spitting up doesn't bother him at all but we would love for it to end!
2. I have had mastitis three times I think due to overproduction. Our son wakes up for a 5am feeding after going to bed around 8pm and has been doing so for a couple months. I however still wake up completely engorged. I used to let him nurse on one side and I'd pump the other side b/c he couldn't nurse both and I was in pain. Then I thought that my body was getting confused and thought that he needed that much milk so I have been letting him nurse on one side at 5am until that side is soft and then switching him to the other side. This way I'm not in pain and don't have to pump. However I've been doing this for at least a month and I still wake up engorged. Is that normal?
3. At what point do the feedings decrease? He still nurses every 3 hours. I would like to continue bfing for as long as he likes but I would also like for my breasts to go back to somewhat of a normal size (they are huge) and I would like to not be engorged.
4. Does there come a point when some of the daytime feedings are dropped?
I know this is scattered but basically I am in need of some guidance with how to stabilize my milk production and how to add in food.
Thanks for any help.

[lizajane]

they don't stop spitting up until they are ready to stop. i know. it is SO annoying. i think schuyler stopped around 8 or 9 months. at least, it slowed waaaaaaaay down then.

i had mastitis when i was trying to "pump off" the extra milk. you are telling your body to make more milk when you pump. try pumping off one oz to relieve the pressure, but not more. it should take care of itself once you stop pumping and stop feeding him "extra." your body will get used to the time between feedings as night. it just takes a few days of doing nothing.

i got smaller around 9 months, i think. schuyler ate 4 or 5 times/day at 6 months. (in a 12 hour period) at 9 months, we went to 3 or 4 times. we were down to only 3 at 11 months. at 12 months, we went to 2. and at 12.5 months, we are down to one.

my ped told me at 9 months that i could drop to 3 feedings, but i just couldn't make it work with our schedule.

[klinney]

Thank you so much for your help!

[mommyj_2]

My little man also stopped spitting up as much around 7 or 8 months.
He's 9 months old now, and he still nurses a lot during the day. He ate every 1-3 hours until about a month ago, and now he probably nurses every 4 hours or so...I'm not sure, but I do know that once he started solids he had one longer stretch without nursing. I usually feed him solids 1-2 times/day, and I've noticed he nurses less during the day when he eats solids twice.

HTH!