Dropping breast feeds before 6 months

[LotusPalm]

Hello!

I was hoping some of you ladies may be able to give me some advice on how to go about dropping breast feeds for formula. DS is currently 12 weeks, and will be ebf until at least 4 months, but I then need to move to mixed feeding for my sanity and my families best interests. I bf my first son until he was 10 months and dropping feeds was natural and without difficulty. I didn't even get any engorgment.

I have suffered from oversupply for the last few months, which seems to be settling now, but he still only feeds from one side and my breasts are very full in the mornings. Particularly now that he has dropped a night feed.

I don't do a dream feed at the moment as we are going on holiday in a couple of weeks and we won't do it there. I will start this when we come back though and he will be 17 weeks. He currently only feeds around 2am. I would like this feed to be a bottle. It would also be really useful if the bedtime feed could be a bottle too - I do this as a split feed at 5 and 6, but expect that by then it will be just one feed at 6pm.

I'd like to keep the morning feed and probably one other (11am or 2/2.30pm). Which would be better to keep? I thought 2.30pm as spaces feeds out a bit better? Plus we tend to do groups in the morning and it's not so easy feeding him out and about.

I'm planning to drop feeds quite slowly, taking over a week to drop a feed, but dream feed and bedtime feed are the ones I want to drop first. Is that possible?

What order should I drop feeds? How do I go about it so that I don't get engorged or over-full boobs?

And how do I stop feeling guilty about it?!

Thanks in advance

If you drop two feeds that are one after the other you may have issues with engorgement esp. if you already experience over supply. Generally having a bf in between two bottle feeds or bottle feeds with more than one bf in between would be more likely to have less issues with engorgement/plugged ducts/mastitis - unfortunately you can't switch milk supply on and off as and when needed

Hi, I was encouraged by my health visitor to drop breastfeeds at 12 weeks due to repeated mastitis and thrush issues.

I started by dropping the last night feed before bed. I would take my pump to bed with me and if I woke up feeling too full would pump slightly to take the edge off. Once my boobs were used to my not feeding at this time (approx a week, although i needed to do it slowly to avoid mastitis issues), I'd would give it 2-3 days before stopping an opposite feed, eg the midday one. I found by dropping opposite feeds, I didn't suffer from engorgement.

We now successfully feed first thing in the morning and last thing at night, but this one is mainly for comfort. I've also found that in those times during the day lately when my ds is a bit fretful (he's 6 months and teething), I'm able to feed him, for comfort mainly, with no problems or confusion to me or my boobs. :0)

Hope it goes well for you.

Horsey - thanks so much for the advice. Did you only pump if you felt full, or did you express a specific amount, getting less and less as the week went in. The problem that I have found with trying to drop the 11pm o'clock feed is that the boob that he doesn't feed on in the night (if he feeds at all) is massive by the morning, even.if I have expressed 3 or 4 oz in the night, and he doesnr empty it on the morning feed.

He only takes one side each feed. I would like to change this as well!

Thanks again

Hi Lotus, if I was trying to drop that particular feed I would only pump to take edge off the fullness in the night/morning if I needed to (if I could actually last til the morning and let my ds feed, it seemed to be so much more effective). Then, gradually over a few days my boobs would not feel so full by the morning. You really only want to pump a small amount to releive the fullness though, if you pump too much out you boobs won't get the message that you don't won't that feed anymore.

Hope that helps :0)

Thanks horsey.

We now have the added problem of ds effectively dropping his night feed now we give a bottle at 10pm! My boobs are massive and painful by the morning, and because he only takes one breast at a feed, one basically isn't fed on from 6pm to 10am the next morning i think I've been really lucky not to get mastitis!

If i could feed on both sides per feed then am sure that things would be better, but no idea how to do thus when he y feeds for about 10 minutes at a time anyway!

Any one have any thoughts?

How about giving a quick feed yourself before the bottle, even a couple of mins each side?

This is what I now do as when I go back to work (or win the lottery so I don't have to!) I would like to keep the night feed, so to keep my supply at night, I breastfeed before the bottle?

How are you getting on Lotus?