How do you move from breast to bottle?

[sunshineoutdoors]

Feeling a bit down about this tonight...probably due to hormonal changes with trying to reduce breastfeeds?

A week ago I decided that now dd is 6 months and eating solids, I am ready to stop bf. I want to take a month to wind down the feeds and introduce follow on milk first in a bottle, then a cup later on.

I have been giving a bottle in the afternoon, and also before bed. Sometimes she will take the bottle more readily than other times. At the beginning I felt that I would only give the bottle when she was happy to take it, as I didn't want her to associate the bottle with feeling unhappy, so anytime she cried and didn't want the bottle, I offered my breast instead. This felt great when a month seemed a long time, but now I'm a week in I am worried about whether I'm doing the right thing, or if I should persevere with the bottle more rather than instantly switching to breast at the first sign of resistance?

Tonight she has rejected the bottle completely, so I have breastfed her to sleep. Now I feel like I've gone backwards when she had 3oz last night before having my breast. I will try the bottle again in the morning.

I don't want to distress dd, I hope that by only giving her the bottle when she's happy to take it means she'll get used to it more and more and it will be easy to phase out the breast. Is this ridiculously naive?

Also I have been bf on demand, I've not had dd weighed since her 6 week check and have been happy to let her feed as and when she has wanted. This has been quite frequently throughout the day, however she has slept well at night. I have not been worried about how much she is feeding etc. But now as it says on the follow on milk she should have 500-600 ml a day I find I am getting worried about how much formula she has had each day, at the moment it's about 150-200 ml per day in 2 feeds, and bf the rest of the time. I worry that I'm no longer trusting her to know when she feels full or not, instead trying to get her to take more from the bottle, when if she was bf I'd be happy to let her stop and have more in half an hour if she wanted. Is it better to keep trying to get as much formula into her in one go so she gets used to feeding less, or should I go with what she wants and potentially end up making 10+ bottles per day and throwing lots of milk away?

I'm sure I'm worrying and overthinking too much. I definitely didn't do this with the ebf but I really want to stop the bf as dh and I both feel ready to begin trying for our second child and I have not started my periods yet. Also I know it might sound selfish but I feel ready to stop for myself, I have done the 6 months and as wonderful as it is I find it quite draining. Dd would not take bottles of expressed breast milk when she was younger, and now she will drink from a bottle a lot of the time I feel she is ready to move on too.

Any advice / reassurance would be much appreciated. I've heard the hormones from reducing bf can make you feel quite down so I think this is contributing to the overthinking.

Hi, i'm no expert but i have just gone through this process in peparation for going back to work. I decided to introduce bottles 1 feed at a time, starting with the 4th feed of the day (at that point ds was feeding 6-8 times per day and the timings wee all over the place). I did this for a few days then introduced 2nd bottle feed for the 5 th feed and so on. I didn't worry about amounts until he was properly estaished on formula for most of his milk feeds. I tried to just tryst him to stop feeding when he was full - but i didn't offer the breast after bottle to 'top him up' as i thought this might be confusing for him. So he had either bottle or boob at a feed. We are now on a schedule of 5 feeds per day - 4 200ml bottles plus a breastfeed at night. Sometimes he drinks less (and i try not to worry), and sometimes he cries for more (so i make up an extra ounce or two). But generally he has found a pattern which seems to work for him.

I definitely think there is a lot to be said for trusting your baby to take what they need.

Sorry for all the typos - blasted ipod!

My DD will take a bottle but she doesnt like to drink the formula (that's my guess). She basically replaced all her morning feeds with solids by 8mo. She's at a nursery so there's no boob access. What I'm saying is for an older baby sometimes they'd prefer switching to solids instead. It might be you have to work on the night weaning or replacing those with ff. I can't imagine starting this in the middle of the night .

Good luck.

BTW she bf on wake up, when we get home, before bed (this is within an hour of last feed and part of bed routine), and about twice through the night. During the day it's 3 meals and 2 snacks at 8, 10, 12, 2 and 4. Just to give you an idea re feeding times.

Thank you for your comments, it's definitely going better today. I breastfed first thing, and then only offered bottle until half three when I felt my breast was going to explode! I will offer bottles until bedtime then bf again before dd goes to bed. That will be only 3 feeds which is great!

Thanks to your help I've been a lot more relaxed about it today. I've not worried about how much she's taking from the bottle, and I've not offered the breast if she hasn't wanted the bottle, I've just done something different with her (played, gone out) and offered the bottle again a bit later. I think my change in attitude has helped a lot. I will try to keep to maximum 3 breastfeeds a day and then when my milk supply adjusts I'll drop to just morning and evening. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel today! Thank you!

Aaaah! And yet again things go awry! Refusing bottle again and she's crying so I'm breastfeeding her. She's only had 90ml from a bottle and 3 breastfeeds today, bf at 8am, 3.30pm and now at 7pm, ff 90ml at about midday. Hope this is enough milk for her - she has had 3 meals today too and the bfs have all been long ones 30mins +. Can anyone reassure me???

I've kept offering her bottles in between feeds but she's turned her head and pushed bottle away.

I just did this (& have completely stopped sooner than I thought I would as when I got to 2 feeds (early eve and middle of night) the milk really dried up fast. I think you do have to not offer bf straight after bottle refusal. Even a 10 min distract will break the association in baby's head I think. Early evening was the worst for me to drop as that sleepy bedtime feed is so nice but I have a 3yo and the marked improvement on her bedtime antics when mummy wasn't pinned to a chair for 45 mins / she wasn't hurried into bed to appease screaming baby was worth it.

Still haven't got quanties/frequencies anything like. Most she has ever had is 7 and that was after a nearly 5h gap (unavoidable, nightmare car journey!). Normally she stops at 3 (which I equate to her 10m initial bf) and then might have more. Quantities increase as day goes on for some reason. She still wakes three times between 7&7 gets a "dream" feed and one other. Will generally be settled without milk for 4/5am wake up; it's me who is then wide awake. Making a bottle is faff in the middle of the night!

DD2 drinks a lot more Hipp Organic Milk than Aptimil and will only have a Nuk latex teat with a large hole (I think it matches my fast let down).

How, how can they be stubborn so young?!