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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Dropping daytime feeds now back at work

2 replies

MsElisaDay · 03/05/2013 11:24

My DS is six months old and I'm now back at work full time.
After a tricky start, I'm now loving breastfeeding and I'm not ready to stop altogether. However, I do want to stop expressing milk while I'm at work, as I hate doing it.
What I'm wondering is, will it be possible to feed only morning, after work and at night through the week, and then feed full-time at weekends?

I'm no stranger to pumping, and expressed exclusively for several weeks at the beginning. However, my job is not really suited to expressing milk and I'm finding it a real pain.

At first I expressed twice a day while at work, to coincide with DS's feeds at 12ish and 3ish. However, I then cut it to once, at lunchtime, as was finding it impossible to find time for two pumping sessions.
Now, though, I really want to stop altogether as I'm finding it very faffy and difficult to fit in around work (I travel to different places every day and can never guarantee when I'll be in the office).

If I do stop the lunchtime pumping session, I'll be feeding DS at around 7.30am and again at 6pm when I get home.
I then offer the boob again just before bed (around 7.30pm), at 11pm and then usually at 4am ish as well.

What I'm wondering is:

  • Is there any danger of developing mastitis/ blocked ducts if I suddenly stop expressing at lunchtime?

  • Will I still be able to feed through the day on weekends if I don't do so in the week, or will my supply fall? I really don't want this to be the end of breastfeeding for us.

Thanks in advance.

OP posts:
JiltedJohnsJulie · 03/05/2013 22:23

I did this but my DC were a bit older. I'd give one of the helplines a call in the morning and talk all of this through with a BFC. Have you got the helpline numbers? Smile

scrivette · 03/05/2013 22:59

I went back to work when DS was 7 months.

For the first 6 months I expressed - it started off three times a day but by the end of the 6 months there was barely any milk there when I tried to express once a day. I continued to feed DS morning and night and he is now 22 months and I still feed morning and evening.

So yes, it is possible but I would cut down slowly when expressing to avoid blocked ducts etc.

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