Returning to work - the Jack Newman way?

[wherethewildthingsare]

Further to a thread on here about Jack Newman!

I am due to return to work when ds3 is 7 months old (he's now 5 months). According to JN I should be able to leave him just with a cup for fluids (not necessarily EBM/formula or even cow's milk - he says if you are bf 3-4 times a day you don't need to add extra milk, he also says formula is unecessary and cow's milk is fine as it won't be the main drink). LO doesn't much like bottles/teats and I'm not sure it will always be practicable to express. Has anyone tried this approach? How did your babies fare? Did they miss the sucking? Did they get enough fluids?

Thanks

Also - what did the nursery/childminder think? Did they pressure you not to do it?

Bump!

I went back to work when dd was 7 mths.
For 1 mth,went in to give her a b/feed.
From 8 month on,she went without any milk in the day (my milk,formula or cows milk) but we b/fedd for 21'2 years.
Pattern was morning,after work and at night in the week and the same with prob. extra l/time feed at w/end.

She still has never had milk (although does like cheese and yoghurt)

I went back to work when ds was 7 months. I expressed for the first few weeks then sort of knocked it on the head and fed him on my days off and mornings and night.

My mum either gave him formula (she sometimes had it in as she also looked after my formula fed neice) or cows milk as we figured it wouldn;t matter for one feed a day 3 days a week.

Hiya Rach (have lurked on Jan 06 thread )

I went back to work when DS1 was just over 6mo and still bfeeding loads.

I did two shifts to start with, a long Sunday (10-hour shift, so away from him from 9-9 and a late Wed, so away from him from 3-midnight).

For the Wed, I used to feed him before I left, and leave him with about 10oz EBM. For the Sunday, I'd leave a pint of EBM and feed him morning and when I got home (both days I expressed at work too).

It very nearly killed me because I hardly had any EBM stores before I went back to work, so if there's another way to do it - DO IT! I would say though, if you want him to just have bmilk, express a bit each day from now, just in case he doesn't like going that long without it.

Good luck. I have pints of EBM in the freezer now - not sure when I'm going back to work, but did it just in case!

Thanks Hunker! I think I ought to perservere with some expressing and try some different teats (this is exactly why I like bf!). When I went back to work with ds1 I expressed the feed I missed everyday - for the next day. But with ds2 I struggled, mainly due to tiredness I guess. This time I am working mainly from home so should do better but the days I am away for 12 hrs will be interesting! (visions of exploding boobs on the First Great Western!). I am tempted to go in and feed him initially for the first few weeks but am worried about disturbing him and also wasting time to-ing and fro-ing when I could be working. Bah, it's a pain.

Moondog - did you find it hard to leave your LO again after the lunchtime feed?