moving onto bottles 12 mo how much and how often?

[hurrydownthechimneytonight]

hi ladies, its been a while since i posted and would appreciate some advice please.

DS is 1 in under 3 weeks and i am planning on stopping breastfeeding after his birthday. Currently has 3 full meals a day and feeds from me about 5 times a day........

Have already got him on ebm for his bedtime milk although have always struggled expressing more than 3oz.

Have read he should have a pint a day at age 1 which is 20 ounces...is this correct? how often do i give him a bottle, im not sure how he will react to just 3 feeds of milk a day?

I have been slowly introducing him to cows milk and he just fed himself an 8oz bottle holding himself then falling asleep (im almost in tears over that).

Any advice appreciated, but please dont try to persuade me to continue bfeeding its been hard work to do a year and ive had to express every morning for the last 5 months. family been against it etc and to be honest im in need of a break now.

much thanks xx

Hi, my DD was FF, but at 1 year, she was having a cup of cows milk with breakfast (cows milk on that), a cup of milk at around 11, then a bottle at bed time (about 210mls).

However, ideally you would not want to be giving bottles past a year (took me til 18 months to get rid of that last one though!). So maybe give the bedtime milk from a cup too?

at age 1 the minimum intake drops to around 350mls per day (approx 12oz). I would look to move away from bottles and use a lidded cup instead - at that age both dd and ds just had milk with breakfast and at bedtime and water with meals/snacks

gosh 12 oz seems such a small amount!

He does have a lidded cup of water with each meal and drinks that fine, but i thought by offering him a bottle (which he falls asleep to at bedtime) would ease the shock of no boob, then move of the bottles within a month or so....

Its all such a minefield isnt it!

I really needed to know how to break down the bottles, ie give him a mohoosive bottle of 8oz before bed, 8 oz in morning? small bottles in the day, he usually feeds as soon as he is up, mid morn for nap 10:30ish, then 2:30ish then 5-6pm so 4 feeds a day of who knows how much.........

I hate sounding so silly but I really have no idea about amounts etc...

Thanks for the help so far!

I was in exactly your position a couple of months ago (DS is 14mo now)

I quickly got onto two feeds a day, initially of EBM mixed with cow's milk, then just cow's milk - one on waking and one before bed. I usually put 9oz in each and whatever he doesn't drink in the morning then goes on his cereal and in my tea! In the evening he has as much as he'll drink before bath, then the rest after, then teeth and bed.

Could you work out which feeds he likes best (ie drinks most at) and push those ones? I found that as DS got older and more into food, I didn't want him drinking loads of milk before meals.

I know you're meant to stop bottles soon after one but DS would only sip water from a sippy so we went from boob to bottle at 1yr . But it works for us, and I'll just figure out the next step later - DS was never very interested in milk before so I needed to get it into him.

So I reckon your idea of bottles roughly at boob times is fine, you can always tweak it later, and older babies are more adaptable, I reckon.

Oops, I seem to have rambled on somewhat...

mistress thanks for the info, so u give ur DS 18 oz a day?

I'm thinking as he has had no reaction to cows milk at all so far (have been gradually giving him little bits along with his cereal) I may give him a big bottle tommorrow combines with my ebm and see how he gets on.....

Cant try it tonight as he drank 6 1/2oz mid morning and I dont want him having tooo much cows milk yet...

My son is a gannit and would feed from me all day given the chance!!

Yes, about that, probably a bit less, he varies it sometimes but I don't sweat it if he only takes 3oz at night (this happens occasionally if he eats too much dinner!)

To be honest if he's 1yr in 3 weeks it wouldn't be the end of the world if he went fully onto cow's milk now

Keep an eye on his poo as the transition can change the consistency a bit sometimes (ewww)

By the way, well done you for breastfeeding til one year - it's a great achievement and you should be very proud of yourself!

Oh, and Avent do a squidgy sippy/bottle thingy with handles that you might like to try later, I've just bought one and am going to test it out soon - here

My 13mo has about 7oz when he wakes up, then another 7 or so oz mid morning, then 7oz before bed. I would stress that sometimes he doesn't quite finish them all, but that's what I give him. Along with oodles of water.

ok that sounds good to me!

I think I will take Pennys 7oz 3 times a day, that sounds like a good plan.

As for the cows milk he managed quite fine today with a bottle and no reaction as yet..

I think I will do a couple days giving his mid morning feed as cows milk and by Fri/Sat try to give his bedtime bottle as cowsmilk too.

This way I wont have to sit expressing every morning bleary eyed while feeding him at the same time!

In all honesty though I do find it a struggle to not get my boob out when we are hav ing a cuddle and feed him. my health visitor said to me once does he need to feed or do I need-/want him to feed, I think she was right there!

Thankyou soo much and thanks for saying well done. Not many people have said that to me, I have found when bfeeding for 6 months people seem really interested and suprised saying well done etc. but then around 7/8 months the same people seem very suprised wow your still feeding him when are you giving up? He doesn't need your milk anymore, its not doing him any good etc etc!

x