Moving to formula for return to work - how?

[LightminTheQueem]

DD2 is 7 mo and bf on demand as well as having some solids now. I'm going back to work 2 days a week when she'll be 1 and I need to get her down to one bf a day, or none, for then. Early starts mean I won't be able to feed her in the morning before I leave, but maybe in the evenings. How do I move from bf on demand to her having formula and food by then? I have started to give her formula in a sippy cup sometimes (won't take a bottle) and she drinks it but still drinks a lot more from me after. Do I need to have a schedule, or can I just give her milk whenever, or before food? We tend to just have snacks whenever I'm hungry (often).

First thing I would say is that 5 months is ages in the development of a baby so try not to stress out about this now - easier said than done I know. I started moving Dd to formula from ebf at about this age and I was going back to work at 9.5m. There was plenty of time.

I would carry on offering the sippy cup of formula followed by bf at times that are reasonably separate to solid mealtimes - say an hour away if at all possible. What I then did was start to offer a solid snack alongside the formula and shorten the bfing element. After a few weeks she no longer seemed bothered about the bf at these feeds so I stopped them and just did first thing and bedtime. Then did the same thing (minus the solid snack element) at bedtime and finally first thing in the morning. That was last because it was the only feed I would consistently be able to do once back at work. As it happens one day I just forgot to offer bf after ff and she didn't notice so we stopped then.

I will be trying to rerun this in a month or two with DS (although he at least takes a bottle) who will no doubt react totally differently!

Totally agree that 5 months is an age in baby development! Both of my boys really ramped up their solids intake around 8/9 months and started dropping breastfeeds naturally as their food intake came up, it meant that when I went back to work both times they were on 3 or 4 feeds a day and were really only missing one while I was at work. Obv in your case your schedule means she'll need to swap out more feeds, but it will probably be a lot easier to do when she's eating more food.

Ok, thank you. I think I am getting a bit ahead of myself as she's really still getting used to food, maybe it's too much change all at once. I'll try the formula before snacks once or twice a day and see how she goes with that, thank you!

Hi LightminTheQueen, so you are coming up to a year breastfeeding, going back to work two days a week and need to get her down to one feed a day for the two days you are at work. No problem! Lots of people find a bedtime feed a great way to reconnect after you have both been out all day. If on days off, you want to carry on feeding her, you can. At this later stage of breastfeeding, your supply will be both flexible and robust enough to completely tailor breastfeeding to your needs. You might have to express at first - maybe once while you are at work, but actually lots of people find that their supply responds - even to having days on and off. And they like the protection from illness that breastmilk offers too, particularly as LO is off getting into everything .