weaning from breast to cows milk

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I'm still breast-feeding my ds (10 months) up to 5 times a day and once at night. I'm due back at work in less than two months (3 days a week) and need to get my ds used to other milk during the day. He happily drinks cows' milk from a beaker (although not much at any one time) but needs (I think) a proper cuddly milk feed when he wakes from a nap. He'll be with a child-minder while I'm at work and I've no idea what to do on the days I'm at work because I'd like to carry on breast-feeding him on the days I'm not. Should I try to give him cows' milk in a bottle sometimes instead of breastfeeding in preparation or just hope he'll be happy to go without a big milk feed for the 7 hours or so that I'm away? Sorry if this sounds a bit confused. Really not sure how best to approach this. He's never had formula and I'm reluctant to introduce it now. I hadn't anticipated him breast-feeding as much at this stage and it makes the transition back to work hard. Expressing is a no go - haven't managed anything of note for ages now. Thanks for any help.

my dd was still demand fed at 9 months but i got a part time job, three hours a day so she had to start going longer. at first i fed her right before i left and as soon as i got back, but to be honest she was more interested in cuddling then taking much milk so i relaxed a bit and only fed her if she looked for it.

she was gettig three solid meals a day with milk or juice and a cup of juice/milk/water when she was thirsty in between.

by 11 months i was down to just morning and night feeds and at 12 months i dropped the night feed and just give her a bottle of milk snuggled on the couch with me, reading a story.

to be honest i was the only one who noticed in the end! thought my very clingy dd would hate not being fed but she surprised me! when i'm not around she's busy with other things and i don't think it occured to her to look for feeds

Thanks, that's really reassuring. He does sometimes go for 5 hours or so without a feed, especially now he's eating more. I'm hoping he'll be so busy and settled he won't think about it. I trust the childminder to be able to comfort and reassure him so, fingers crossed...

good luck! don't worry, he'll probably surprise you, we like to think they need us alot more than they actually do!

HI i went back to work when dd was 3mths, so i did give her bottles of ebm whilst i was away. But i continued to breastfeed her until she was 2 on the days that i was around, on the days that i worked she was just happy with cups of milk. Whatever you choose to leave whilst you are at work, you milk supply will be fine to continue bf when you are at home with your son. Tbh, snuggly cuddles with mummy just can't compare - so most children are happier to go without and then have an extra long feed when they do see their mummy.

I went back to work recently leaving my 10 month old (who was having lots of solids and 5 or 6 bf a day) with a nanny one full day a week and one half day . He would take milk from a beaker but only one mouthful and then push it away. I really worried about his fluid levels and how he would cope not being able to bf at his usual times - especially going off for naps and his 4pm teatime top up feed! He was absolutely fine and didn't seem to look for feeds or miss them. He was happy all day and went off to sleep OK when it was naptime.

He did want to feed as soon as I got back and would often wake for a 9pm feed (never does that usually) but I was just glad he had ways of catching up on his feeds so I made sure I wasn't doing anything on the evenings of my work days.
HTH! Good luck with it