1 breast feed in 24hrs - how to.

[Hedgehog72]

I'm weaning my 5 month old DS from breast to formula. I'm also trying to get him to sleep through the night. He's on all formula in the day but I breast feed if he needs it at night. This is starting to be only one feed which means I breast feed only once in a 24hr period. In this case, do I alternate breasts each time or use the same breast every feed. Alternating means each breast is used once every 48hrs. Just to put a slight spanner in the works I occasionally feed twice if I think he needs it/if I can't get him to settle. So bare this in mind when offering advice please as I really don't know what to do although overall aim is to drop all night feeds eventually. Last formula is around 9pm, first of the day is 8am. Breast feed is tending to be anywhere between 3 and 6am.

Hedgehog, to be honest, one bf in 24 hours with a baby of 5 mths is not enough to keep up a supply. Very well-established, long-lasting bf can be maintained on one feed a day - but the baby is usually well over a year.

If you really want to stick to one feed only, then your best plan to keep going as long as you can would be to use each breast at least once during this feed (and use each one again at least once if you end up giving him a second feed).

Hope this helps.

Thank you for your reply and the advice, that helps a lot. x

With my first dd, I managed to just do the morning feed every day until she was 6 months old, but it had to be at the same time each day (between 7 and 8) and by then I was using both breasts per feed (i had been block nursing until then as I had an oversupply). So it is possible, you just need to be consistent.