Need advice getting baby off breast

[littlemissmousey]

My 6month old son is exclusively breast fed. In the early weeks he would sometimes have expressed milk in a bottle- i had so much milk it was no oroblem to express. I struggle to express now so am trying formula in prep for going back to work. In short, he hates it and screams the place down. Please does anyone have any advice on how to do mix feeding?

Have you tried feeding him the formula in a cup so he expects a different taste?

How about mixing his food with formula?
Make it sloppy, have a cup of formula in the high chair at meal Times too.

He isnt very good at taking a cup, we try giving him some water and he very rarely drinks it. Also the only thing we have managed to get him eating is fruit purees and a bit if porridge. I will mix the porridge with formula and see if he takes that. Stupid question, but do all formula milks taste the same? Im wondering if he just doesnt like the Cow and Gate milk we have. Thanks for your help

Do you have to change thing snow because of going back to work in a while? Work doesn't have to mean the end if breastfeeding, if you'd like to continue. Call LLL helpline I any case as they could help you work out what's right for you. There maybe more options than you think

How many breastfeeds does he have during the day? Returning to work doesn't have to signal a switch to formula (although if you've had enough of breastfeeding, don't feel that you have to continue either).

All formulas are pretty much the same - no brand is better or worse than another, but they do all taste slightly different. A different brand may make a difference, but it's possible that the switch to taking anything out of a bottle or cup is just a bit odd for your little one and will take some getting used to.

You could try an open or sippy cup (no need for bottles at all), or you could substitute feeds for cheese and yogurt in the day, with water to drink and just breastfeed mornings, evenings (and possibly overnight to catch up).

I hope you find a good solution. Good luck with your return to work.

Try Aptamil- my mix fed DD suddenly developed a dislike for cow and gate but she took to Aptamil after that.

DS1 would occasionally have a bottle of expressed milk..until I went back to work when he refused bottles all together . Which is just as well, since DH had accidently switched off the freezer while we were on holiday and thawed the 20 litres of expressed milk I'd spent four months slaving away with a pump to store. Bitter? Me? oh yes.

I went back to work when he was around 7 months old and we never bothered with formula as a substitute to be honest.

We bought a doidy cup and when I was at work DH would encourage him to take little sips - at the very beginning I think he even used a syringe (a calpol one probably - we have a million of them now) to make sure he took some hydration if he wouldn't sip much. DS would munch on a bit of finger food at meal and snack times and then I'd feed him before bed when I got home, whenever he wanted through the night and before I left in the morning.

The way I looked at it was this - if he were sleeping through the night, he'd go 10 - 12 hours without a BF. All we did was reverse cycle it so he went through the day without the BF and he caught up at night! He was fine and self weaned around 16 months. Will be doing the same with DS2 who is due next month, if it suits him.

Re foods to try; broccoli was an early favourite here. DS could hold it like an ice cream cone! Also, he'd enjoy sucking / gumming a bit of meat. You could try pasta, cheese, yoghurt, mini shredded wheat soaked in water / formula / juice. Baby sweetcorn also popular. DS seemed to like strong flavours - still does.

To be honest, from just before 6 months we gave DS pretty much anything we had in the fridge to try / play with. Just before I went back to work we went to a friends for dinner and he had roast beef, roast potatoes, yorkshire pud, horseradish sauce and a taste of a bit of stilton . Only things we tried to stay away from were cows milk and honey until he was 12 months and whole nuts.

I'm sure if you give your DS plenty of opportunity to play with different foods, he'll get a taste for them - there's no rush. Food is fun when it's all new textures!

Thank you for your responses. I am planning to mix feed when I'm back at work as both. Baby and me enjoy it. I will try aptamil, the cow and gate seems to smell funny! Lol. We have a sippy cup so I will try some formula from that. Hubby is a bit nervous about what we let him try but I am trying to get him to try as many things as possible

Ah good luck. If you can express at all then try mixing in a little bm with the formula - it helped DS1 at first then we gradually stopped adding any.

You don't need to give formula at all. When do you go back to work? I went back at 9 months, no formula needed.

thegreathunt how did you do that? I'll be going back around the same time so would be v interested to know!! Didn't you have to move to formula milk before your return (ie I thought babies at that age still mainly subsist on milk?)

I went back part time and fed dd morning, bedtime and in the night. She had to have expressed milk in the day (I would pump at work or in the morning) but only one feed as couldn't pump much more. She had calcium enriched foods (dairy intolerant) as well.

I did work part time though (3 days a week) so fed more on my days at home. When she was 1, I went up to 4 days.

Ah ok. Full time work + no scope to pump won't let me do that.
OP, sorry about the thread hijack!