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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

Leaving a breastfed baby

5 replies

BatEtherWitches · 02/11/2011 11:09

DD is nearly 5 months old and exclusively breastfed. I used to give her ebm top ups, but she has not had a bottle now for over 3 months.

I have to go out one evening next week, and leave her with DH - I'll be gone probably 2-3 hours at around the time she has her last feed and goes to bed.

I've never left her before for more than an hour, or at such an inconvenient time.

Some questions: I'll have to express milk for her last feed - how much milk should I be aiming for Confused

I haven't tried expressing for the past few months either - should I practice that beforehand? I am a bit wary of overstimulating my supply or something, but I don't want to find I can't get any out at the crucial moment.

I'm worried she won't take a bottle, although she took one happily enough when she was younger. Ought we to practice that too, or just assume if she is hungry enough she will drink it?

OP posts:
MigGril · 02/11/2011 13:09

Can you not just feed her early, top her up so to speck before you go out?
Most 5month olds would be fine for the lenght of time if you top her up first.

I'd be trying to express now, there is a good site kellymom which has a calculator to tell you how much you'll need to leave.

lilham · 02/11/2011 13:14

She'll be fine for 2-3 hours. Like MigGril, I'll top her up just before you leave. My DD is tricky in that she won't take a feed if she's had one in the last 1-1.5 hour beforehand. So maybe you need to time the afternoon feeds a bit. Your DH can rock, cuddle, drive the car etc to get her to sleep. The worst case would be only that your LO won't be able to fall asleep until you get home and feed her to sleep.

Mampig · 02/11/2011 13:53

Hi- just wanted to let u know that I gave up expressing a couple of months ago as it was pointless! But on Saturday I was taken to a spa by my sister for 3 hrs. I topped up before I left but dh was to feed formula if needed before I got back. He did use the formula but I had taken my manual pump with me to express for my own comfort. I was astounded when after about 4 mins of pumping I had 4!!! oz collected! I was so excited!!! So you may find that it is worth pumping your missed feed! Also I bf when I got back and still had enough for that feed tooGrin. My ds is 18 wo btw. So delighted cos it means I can express at work and use next day- and I had been planning ff while at work with bf when I came home! Try it- it might work for u! Fwiw I found medela swing no good- my boobs prefer cheapo manual one from Tesco BlushHmm

Original poster
BatEtherWitches · 02/11/2011 16:38

Thanks, I will try to top her up just before I go. I know she can easily last that long at other times, she just tends to be less good-humoured Wink in the evenings. Don't want DH to have too awful a time, as he will have other DC to look after too!

Mampig, that is good to know about the expressing. 4oz!! That is loads!

OP posts:
Trillian42 · 02/11/2011 21:27

Definitely try the bottle in advance though! We had a wedding to go to when DD was 6mths and she wouldn't take a bottle despite lots of attempts for the previous week/10days. I ended up having to leave the wedding after 3 hours because she was hungry and wouldn't settle for my mum. I was so disappointed because the couple were great friends and we had been looking forward to it for ages :(

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