infants will slow down on breastfeeding (or bottle feeding) during the second half of the first year. This seems to be a normal pattern. They are no longer content to "waste" time breastfeeding when there is a world out there to explore.

However, babies' brains need a lot of fat to grow and develop during the first year or two of life. Most typical baby foods do not contain very much fat. It is therefore important to try to keep breast milk or formula as the major component of your baby's diet until one year of age. Most babies will not give you the 15 minutes on each breast every 2 or 3 hours that they used to, and this is ok. Older babies are more efficient, and will get more milk in less time than when they were younger.

For easily distracted babies, find a quiet chair in a quiet room of the house to get a few good nursing sessions in each day.

For bottle fed infants, try to get a minimum of 32 ounces each day into baby until age one.