Is 3 breastfeeds a day enough at 9.5 months?

[gourd]

I'm going back to work in July and LO will be 9.5 months. She's been totally breastfed and wont take a bottle but has started using a doidy cup for water with meals and snacks. She doesn't eat a great deal yet and hasn't noticeably dropped any milk feeds. I'm unsure how well I'd cope with expressing at the morning feed when time is an issue, I doubt I'd be able to successfully transport milk home on my bike if I expressed at work and I've never been able to express much except whilst feeding with the other breast anyway, so ideally I'm hoping she'll be eating enough that a morning feed, evening feed and bedtime feed will be enough. What do you think? Will she even accept milk in a cup at the childminder's? I can't even try out milk in a cup as she's not interested in milk from anywhere else but my breast if I'm with her and when I go cycling for 3-4 hours at weekends she just waits for me to come back and always has, since she was about 6 weeks old - which was when she stopped taking a bottle when I was out. It's a couple of months away and I'm stressing about this. Some days she only eats half a banana all day, other days she manages a couple of mouthfuls of porridge, half a banana, a clementine segment, a bite of soft fruit, 2 spoonfuls of yogurt and a few mouthfuls of chicken and vegetables. It's not very much though. Can she really change that much in two months?

Try not to worry, in my experience she will either up her solids intake, or feed more from you when shes with you or both. Be warned though, mine feeds more in the night since I went back to work

Thank you. She's been sleeping through the night 10 hours+ since she was 6 weeks old, so I really hope she doesn't need to start night feeding! I guess she will adapt but I expect a few disrupted nights at first with her being hungry, as it'll be a bit of a shock for her suddenly spending 10 hours a day away from me. I'll be doing a gradual introduction to the childminder about two weeks before I go back, with 1-2 hours then half day, then a full day in the childminder's care, so that might help her adjust (and my milk supply to decrease) a little beforehand.

Hi Gourd, I'm in the same position in that I'm going back to work in July but DD (who is 9.5months already) isn't eating very much and if anything is breastfeeding more than before. I'm hoping she'll start to take more solids and cut back on milk over the next month or two so that it isn't a total shock when she goes to nursery and can't breastfeed.

Well I'm a bit less worried this week as LO has been eating well, but there's no sign of her needing any less milk yet. In fact she's been troughing milk every 2 hours almost like a newborn over the last few days on top of 3 meals and 2 snacks a day! She is looking rather tubby though, so maybe she's just due for a growth spurt. She's getting better with the cup each day so at least I now know she'll be able to eat a reasonable amount and to drink as much water as she needs at the childminder's. I'm just waiting for her to drop a few milk feeds now...