If to stop....and when

[domesticungoddess]

My DD is 8 months old. She eats three solid meals a day plus is breast fed on demand. She has never been a good breast feeder in the day...she is too busy being distracted. I still always offer her the breast in a quiet (and if possible dark) room during the day. She feeds when she wakes up (although not always, she sometimes refuses first thing), mid morning, mid afternoon, bed time (6pm), 10pm and twice in the night (1ish and 5ish).

I love breast feeding her. And I have to admit when she wakes up at night I have always offered her the boob so she goes to sleep with a boob in her mouth all the time.

I am going back to work (part time) when she is 13 months old but work shift (some nights, long days 8-8 and odd weekends-NHS!!!) so have to stop breast feeding by then.

Is there anyone else who was in the same position and carried on feeding ? Would that be possible with shift work ?

I want to feed her as long as possible so if I had to stop it would not be until the 11th hour.

Thanks

You'll probably find by the time she is 13 months she will have cut down a lot with her feeding or you would be able to cut her down to one or two feeds a day so you would be able to continue feeding her around your shifts.
My DD is 15 months now and I still feed her first thing in morning and before bed but if I remember correctly, at 8 months she would feed around 6 times in 24 hours (she didn't sleep through till a year old) which reduced to 3 by a year and at a year, I cut out the daytime feed and she didn't notice.
If you were working 8-8 you could still feed her in the morning and /or at night depending on her waking/bedtime.
As far as I am led to believe, your supply keeps up with whatever they take so even if you were only feeding a few times a week you would still produce milk to give her.

By 12 months we were alternating feeding and resettling on waking so she didn't always feed. At 14 months pain when feeding and being pg got a bit too much and we had no problems dramatically cutting down her feeds and then stopping. Therefore provided DH or whoever is looking after her is able to settle her I really think you'll be fine feeding ad hoc at that stage.

I'm sure I've read a poster on here who does shift work and still feeds. I think that by then you'll be fine tbh, I certainly wouldn't stop before then if I were you, I'd see how it went for a while when back at work.

I think you would need to make sure she can settle without feeding before you go back though,

To be honest she is a really poor breast feeder in the day-the two day time feeds are 1-3minutes each at best (some times I can get her to have four two minute feeds all day) so I have been reluctant to stop the night feeds as I feel that is when she gets most of her milk.

Do I need to be giving her other drinks-I give her water in a sippy cup but most of it gets spat out. She has very wet night time nappies but less so in the day.

you should have no problems keeping bf with shifts at that age tbh. she'll probably just make up for the feeds she missed when you are around instead. in any case, unless you're feeding on demand and she demands a lot, mostly at that age you're down to a few feeds, maybe morning and evening or with a midday feed as well. they can all be replaced by normal milk or another drink, and she'll more than likely be fine accepting a cup from another caregiver even if she won't take one from you.