Is the whole virgin gut thing compromised when you give solids anyway?

[Caz10]

Dd2 is almost 7mths, was ebf until we started blw a few weeks ago (can I fit in any more acronyms?! Ffs!) anyhooo... I don't want to start anything vaguely bf v ff related, other than to say bf is my strong personal preference. I've got things coming up over the next month or so that will require me to leave her over the time of a feed, plus I feel so much more confident with her being my 2nd that my going off to the shops alone for 3hrs will not do her any lasting damage (was a total wuss with dd1!). I'd quite like to start going out on my own every now and again! Anyway, despite shelling out on a frigging medela electric pump I cannot express more than a few sodding drops. Given that she's eating food now, inc small amounts of cows milk eg in cereal, am I as well just leaving her with a bottle of formula? Are the "virgin gut" effects of bf over when you introduce food anyway? TIA!

I'm no expert in this, but logically if she's started having cow's milk in her diet I can't see how the odd bottle of formula is going to make any perceptible difference to a mainly bf bigger baby.

I think you are right, I think I just need someone to come along and say it's ok to give her formula now! Totally had not expected to be so crap at expressing

Isn't the virgin gut related to the reason for not giving them solids, i.e. it is open for up to 6 months?

Yes, what Penguin said.

And once you give anything other than bm (eg solids), it's not a virgin gut anymore anyway. You can read about it on Kellymom.

Of course there are other benefits of bf which are dose-specific, but if I were in your situation, I'd just give the formula. (Mind you, I was a complete wuss about leaving my pfb DS so it was never an issue I had to face - plus I could express).

If you wanted to express, you might find that hand expression or a different pump give different results. I got much better results with an Avent hand pump than with a Medela electric one (much to my surprise).

Thank you all. I just had absolutely presumed expressing would be so easy! But good point re trying another pump, I also have a hand one so will give that a go before i abandon altogether. I think I feel much less bad re the formula when she's already eating a lot of solids. Off to read kellymom!

Have you tried expressing by hand? Sometimes that gets more although it can take longer.

I've just started( ok it's only once) leaving DS (8 months) and he has just had water in a bottle. It worked quite well I feed him before he went out and then OH gave him a bottle with cool water in it. Both of them were fine.