Help me get my boob-monster ready for nursery!

[timothyclaypole]

Evening ladies. DS2 has just turned 1 and will be going to nursery three days a week when I return to work in 4 weeks time.

As the OP says, he is a boob monster! He has a bottle at bedtime which we introduced a little while ago, but he doesn't really like it (although he is getting better). The rest of the time, unless I leave him for more than a few hours, he is bf.

We've never really had a routine so I suppose you'd say he's still bf "on demand". He has a habit of snacking, and using the boob for comfort. So, if i go out for a few hours he'll be fine (usually, unless he's in bed which is a different thread i suppose!). He may take a bottle if offered, or he may not. If he's with me, he'll be on and off the boob all the time. Not great for either of us i know but that's they way it's been.

The longest I've left him is from 5pm until 1pm the next day, and he drank hardly anything (although MIL didn't try any other "recepticle" than a bottle, so he may well have sipped from a cup).

He still feeds through the night, sometimes lots, but again that's another thread!

So, he'll be at nursery from aprox 8-5.30. I need to know he'll drink at least a bit of milk when he's there. But, I want to be able to bf him on my days off / the evenings and mornings. However, I don't want him catching up on his booby milk overnight...

So, what shall I do? DS1 was fed ebm / formula / cows milk by someone else at least once a day from the start due to awful feeding issues so it wasn't a problem for him. I'm new to this so any advice is gratefully received!

Personally I don't think you need to bother with the bottles, they aren't recommended after 12 months anyway.

I'd be feeding him before breakfast, when you pick him up and before bed. Just make sure that the nursery keep an eye on how much he is drinking during the day.

If you want to get him drinking from a proper cup, give him it in the bath so that spills won't matter.

Think the nights might just be another thread though, you could be right......

Thanks jilted. I'd like to do what I did with DS1, which was feed as you've suggested on nursery days, but as normal on the other days. I'm hoping that that would work?

Argh, the nights!

Absolutely no reason why that wouldn't work although you may want to express for a while at work for your own comfort.

Hi timothy I was in much the same situation as you, DS bf on demand and started Nursery at the beginning of September about a week before his 1st birthday.

I'm working 4-5 days a week (alternate days off with DH) On work days he feeds first thing, when I get home & bedtime.

I started off expressing twice a day at work, then after a few weeks dropped down to once a day and now I'm not needing to express at all (still bring my pump to work though just in case) Still feeding on demand at weekends and on my days off and it's working fine.

DS was taking expressed milk to nursery and normally drinking most of it, he's never really taken a bottle but uses a Tommee Tippee non spill cup which he seems quite happy with - he's been drinking water out of various cups for a few months and was happy to take the milk from it, although Nursery have found that he prefers it warmed up. Now he's just taking cow's milk as I've stopped expressing, and they also give him water.

I found with DS that not feeding during the day didn't make him feed more at night, in fact we have recently night weaned him, I think he just makes up for it in solids when he's at Nursery.