Introducing a bottle at 4months in anticipation of a weekend away...at 6months...

[emski1972]

Hello and I hope this is the right place for this question. I'm hoping for some sensible advice please!!
Right I have been convinced by my friends to join them for a hen weekend 1st July. Cant wait but am starting to feel apprehensive as DD has been exclusively breastfed until now. I have a pump an all the gear (and a bag in the freezer) and loathe the milking parlour and sterilising business...its such a faff. We have tried a bottle of expressed milk a few times well twice.
Anyway I need to get busy now and make sure DD is prepared for a weekend with DP.
So my question is...if I express and I don't like the idea of introducing formula, how many times in a day should she be fed with a bottle so that when it comes to 2 nights away its not a surprise for either of them?

My tiny brain cannot comprehend how much I have to express each day in order to leave a supply in the freezer and make sure she will take a bottle.

Do hope that makes sense and thanks in advance!!

I guess the first question is will she be on solids by then? And if so how much will she be taking (though TBH that's a question that could only really be answered a few days before you go)?

If she is still going to be EBF then you would be generally looking at 1oz per hour apart + 1oz extra per feed.

So if you were away for 1 day you would probably be looking at 24oz with 6-8 feeds so 32-34oz. Times that by how many days you will be away and you will get the amount of milk you need (obv ). I suppose you would be looking at around 60 hours apart which would be 15-20 feeds so 75-80oz (though a buffer of an extra feed or two in case of spillages would be handy).

As you have 8 full weeks between now and hen do you would only need to express 2oz a day to have 112oz by the end of that so depending on how much you can express you might only need to express every other day or even twice a week if you are able to express lots.

As to how many bottles she needs to get used to it before you go is a 'how long is a piece of string' question but I think that giving DP a few trial runs would be a good idea, you could start by leaving for a couple of hours and working up to half a day.

Some bf babies prefer really quite warm milk and having the teat warmed too but trying it at room temp first might be easiest. Don't forget EBM has 6 hours to be used once in the bottle and fed from and will keep in the fridge from 5-8 days (depending on the temperature of the fridge and where it is stored). More info here.

I believe that babies on formula are supposed to need between 150 - 200ml per kg of their weight each 24 hours in order to satisfy hunger. This may not be the same for breastfed babies however (as it isnt s measurable!), so I'd opt for the higher figure if you can. So if your baby will weigh approx 8kg at 6 months (about average) she is going to need 3200ml over 2 days. Sounds like a lot but you've got 8 weeks so if you can express 60-80ml per day starting now you will have plenty.

If you are going to express try doing it once a day at roughly the same time in between current feeds (assuming your baby is in a recognisable pattern now). Your body will assume this is an extra feed and so will start to produce more milk naturally over a few days - so start with a smaller amount and then build up. You will probably be more successful earlier in the day or at the least stressful time of the day. If you can express a whole feed its better as it will contain both fore and hind milk and be more satisfying but don't worry too much as your baby won't suffer much if the milk isn't optimum for two days - better your milk than formula in my opinion.

Well done for getting this far with breastfeeding!

Thanks both for the advice...I will get pumping!!

yep pink it is different for BF babies.

Agree with truth's post

Be wary of fussy behaviour or nursing strike on your return. Also you will need to pump while you are away for comfort

Breast milk changes as the baby grows older. As a result, they don't actually drink more volume of bf after the first month. Kellymon has a very useful page on this.