Stopping BF around the 6 month mark

[thefurryone]

Hi, DS is now just over 6 months and I'm in two minds about whether or not to carry on feeding and was just wondering what others have done around this point.

We had a bit of a shakey start to feeding, issues with thrush and vasospasm both of which seemed to have been caused a bad latch. I nearly gave up at 3 months but then things just got better and it's been fairly plain sailing until now, although DS does have one bottle of formula a day.

DS got his first teeth (bottom central) at 4 months and there were a few nips at that stage but nothing unbearable. Two weeks ago his top lateral incisors appeared and he bit me a couple of times but nothing too painful. Now it looks like his top central incisors are about to break through, he's clearly teething and tonight he nearly bit my left nipple off! It bled and now there is a big hole at the side. Stopping has been on my mind, and I'm wondering if this is the sign I've been looking for to push me one way or the other.

On the one hand I'm reluctant to give up the convenience of BF, particularly as DS is still up a fair bit in the night and I generally feed him back to sleep. On the other I will soon be leaving him with GP for one day a week whilst I get back into work and then he'll be in nursery FT from January. Although I had thought that I would continue with a couple of feeds a day once I'm back at work.

Anyway I just wondered what other people have done around this stage, or if there are others who are currently trying to decide what to do as they head back to work.

Hello around this stage I started to mix feed a bit more as I was also going back to work part time and didn't want to be worrying about expressing milk or feeling like my boobs were going to be full or leaking at work!!

It worked for me as I didn't want to give up completely - actually loved bfing and the closeness I felt to dd but also wanted her to take a bottle.

I did it very gently so stopped one bf a week and replaced with a ff so by the time I went back to wk when dd was 7mo I would bf in the morning, evening and at night if needed and she had 2 bottles of ff in the day

However this did really signal the beginning of the end of bf and by the time dd was 11mos she didn't want to bf any more

I kept feeding DS until he was 2. When I went back to work, he was 1 and at first I expressed for one feed in the day plus fed morning, bedtime and in the night. I quickly stopped expressing and just gave him milk. I went back part time so on my days home he fed more.

There's no reason to stop at 6 months - the guidance is confusing because it sounds like they're saying stop BF at 6 months when it actually means start solids (so you're no longer just giving BM).

You could keep going (it's so much easier past 6 months) and when you return to work, see how it goes?

I thought I would stop bf when DD got teeth but have been very lucky and she has never bit me nor have we really had any problems. Every benefit that the NHS say will happen because of bf I see in my DD so I can only really encourage you to do it but ofcourse it is your own decision and what works for one doesn't work for everyone.

What I can say though is bf starts getting alot easier from this stage on, as they eat more solids they feed less, you stop having to wear breast pads and leaking which I hated and as they get older you can tell them to wait and have it when they get home. Although most people think bf a toddler is strange I can honestly say it is when I have enjoyed it the most as it isnt a chore you have to do and it is alot less frequent. It also acts as a reset button when your child is about to go into melt down or is hurt. My DD is 2 now and has one feed in the morning lazing in bed, one in the day when she has her nap and then at night and we cosleep so she has a few through the night.

As for going back to work I'm sure your DS will be fine without it and soon settle into a new routine with a different carer he may not take a bottle from you because he wants a bf and you continuing to bf him will help with the separation and reconnection that you will both want and need.

girliefriend that is sort of what I was thinking about doing, but I do worry about tipping him too far and BF ending, which I guess answers my question about whether or not I really want to stop.

Iggly I'm half inspired by your experience and half really daunted at the prospect IYKWIM. Whilst there are times I really enjoy the BF relationship, there are others where I just get so overwhelmed by the relentlessness of it all. Whilst I know the "need" to stop at 6 months is a manufactured limit reinforced by the average length of maternity leave, in some ways I'm so tempted to go with the crowd, as most people I know in RL who BF are stopping around now.

Daisy1986 I definitely already appreciate the benefits of being a mother who BF such as the reset button, I was actually just thinking the other day about how strange it would be trying to work out what to do in some situations if I couldn't just feed DS.

I guess if I think about it rationally the pros of carrying on well outweigh the cons.

Don't know if this is possible, but I put DS into a nursery very close to work and popped out to feed him in my breaks. I slowly reduced the feeds from 3 a day to 2, then 1, and now I don't go at all and just feed him when I pick him up. I think he was probably about a year old when I wasn't feeding him at all at work but I could have pushed this more had I needed to.

He's 16 months now and I love still having the ability to soothe him whenever I need to. Tantrums are much easier to deal with. On the other hand, term or extended BFing has its own challenges so if you do carry on it's worth spending time getting to know people who are going through it. It can feel really isolating when you don't think you know people IRL who are or have done it (turns out though that loads of people do :) )

We've gone for a nursery near home so popping into feed him wouldn't be an option. I'm not really worried about him getting fed without me, he's generally pretty chilled about the method of delivery or the type of milk he gets, so will take a bottle and any type of formula as well as BF.

I think I may head back to a BF group that I went to when DS was younger, there were some women there who were BF slightly older babies, I'm just a bit worried that they'll be a bit about the mixed feeding.

Well bollocks to them if they are, frankly. If you can't or don't want to express for the child care, it's no one's business but yours.

However, I suspect that you'll actually get a lot of support and perhaps an insight into the journey you're heading into (which is wonderful, mostly :) )

I went to a bf group when I ws mix feeding and prob imagined a few looks but like the above poster said bollocks to them, mix feeding is better imo than giving up completely!

I found that after 6 months bfing was even easier and more convenient so I just carried on. When out and about they could have a little drink cup but it was still super handy to bfeed them in the evenings for quick settling. Dd3 was mixed fed from about 6.5 months because she is milk protein intollerant so I was dairy free while feeding her, I got a calcium deficiency and she was suffering if I'd not checked the ingredients of what I ate properly so we decided to change her over to soya formula, she was on formula full time from 8 months. If we hadn't had any problems though I would still be feeding her now (18 months) and let her self wean. The longest I fed for was dd1 who selfweaned at 22 months.

Would normally be a bit thicker skinned than this but last time I went someone did make a comment when I said I thought it was great that DS had no issues taking a bottle.

Finding it really hard to feed DS today, so painful, he's already had one extra bottle & my right boob is working overtime. Hopefully it'll be ok in a day or two otherwise this really will be the end

Whatever happpens you have done really well to get this far so don't feel bad.

If he bites you again I would take him off immediatly and say quite firmly 'no' and stop the feed. He should quickly learn that biting does not pay!!!