Back to work thread (advice please)

[Spinosaur]

Hello, I am going back to work in 2 months time. I have 5 month old DD, she is ebf and I need to sort things out for when I am at work. I haven't a clue really, I have 2 other children, they fed until they didn't want it any more and so this is a new situation for me. I have considered expressing but as my son has SN and is very busy, my time is limited and so far my attempts at expressing have been rubbish. My question is: do I go straight for a cup in the day rather than bottles as she is loving sitting at the table with us and trying banana or do I go for a bottle? What do you think and How should I do it?

I personally tried a bottle, but my dd wouldn't take it from the childminder (she would take it from me or daddy). We then tried a cup, but again she wouldn't drink milk out of it, she would only drink water. So we then accepted that she would have solids and drink water through the day, but would wait for milk til I got home. It seemed to work ok. The first few weeks I was back at work she was waking up LOADS at night, but she did settle down to morning, after work and bedtime fairly quickly.
So that's what we did, hope it's what you were wanting, sorry if it's not.

I tried bottle, DS just chewed it. Now we use a sippycup (DS is 6 months) which is messy but at least he gets to drink as it pours out easily (we removed the valve-thingy which means you have to suck). We still give it to him like a bottle though (in our arms) not sitting up. But mainly cos he'd never drink it if he was sitting up!

I would try a bottle first since at 7mo, she might not be really established with solids at that age. If she's hungry/thirsty, she might still just want milk, instead of being satisfied with food and water. IMHO, they can't drink that much from a cup at this age. (Or maybe my DD is just slow and only started really drinking from cups from 10mo).

Have you tried the NUK latex teats or the breastflow? If your DD chewed on the teats (like Bartiimaeus), it might mean you simply need to switch to one that she knows how to suck. If you can't express, I'll try pre-made formula first as they taste far nicer than the powered stuff.

But there's also a chance your LO will be really really into solids and will stuff her face full of yoghurt and cheese and meat at 7mo.

Thank you everybody. It is just as I thought! I will try everything suggested, and hope it all sorts itself out. I know she is little and that is why I don't want to rush her. Are the cartons majorly more expensive than the powder? I think as I am just at the beginning of all this a few cartons might be easier until we find out which way she is going to go! Water/milk cup/bottle? who can say?

The price of the cartons depends on how many days you work and how much your LO drinks. I went back for 3 days when my LO was 7mo. She drank about 70ml twice a day. This means 3 cartons a week only, as I bf when I'm with her. I found out powdered formula only lasts 4 weeks once opened, which I didn't expect. This works out about just slightly more expensive for me to buy cartons. In any case, my DD dropped all her day time feeds by 9mo, so it's just 2 months of bottles.