Going back to work with EBF 5month old HELP

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I have to go back to work for two weeks when EBF DS will be 5months old. I'll be leaving him with DH but have no idea how he will cope and what he will eat/ drink. To be honest, I'm sick with worry about it (have been quite miserable since the birth tbh). DS won't take a bottle of expressed milk but had occasionally taken water from a doidy cup.

Various options for daytime feeding are:

1. Try formula in a bottle.
2. Start on solids ie puréed veg or baby rice and water in doidy cup.
3. Be prepared he might be really unhappy and difficult and refuse everything.

I'll still be bfing morning, evening and night.

What would you do? And has anyone done it successfully?

It is stressful, isn't it? I did the same, kept trying with a bottle and eventually my dd took it the day before I went back to work! I found Tommy Tippee Closer to Nature bottles were most acceptable to her! Try not to let it ruin your time with her - many people have concerns about this, but I've never heard of a baby who wouldn't take the bottle in the end. Good luck with your return to work.

Thank you for the encouragement. It's partly feeling guilty a out going back to work at all as well as the practicalities I suppose. Fingers crossed.

My husband worked on giving a bottle/soft spout cup in the evenings before I went back to work, but it's since they've been at home together that DS has really got how to use it. I think he still saves his big feeds for me, bit he's not starving and sad during the day.

The nuk soft-spout cup worked well for us from 5-6m. Going back to work is tough, but it's also a chance to hand over responsibility for a few hours. My current challenge is not to feel guiltily about not feeling guilty.

Also recommend the Nuk soft spout cup, seems very popular with BF babies. DS2 initially took milk from a Doidy cup, then moved on to the Nuk one.

I'd leave dh with expressed milk, the bottles, doidy cups, a flip top cup (not one with a valve), and spoons and let him get on with it. I think at 5 months, I'd suggest the flip cup as its going to drip milk into his mouth, so he'll get the idea quickly.

I'd also tell your dh that if it doesn't go well some days you Don't Need to Know.

Try not to feel guilty! Remember that your lovely ds will be spending great time with his dad. And bf is a lovely thing for mums and babies, especially, in my opinion, if mum goes back to work. It is special, personal time that you can still have together. I went back full time, as a teacher, when dd was 5 months (no choice financially, I felt, at that time), but continued bf till she was almost 2, when she self-weaned. We still have a lovely bond, and she is such a happy, curious and delightful girl.

I had this same guilt when I went back last week, I was so worried about DD being hungry and thirsty and crying for me. She's a bottle refuser, we have tried every single kind and she wouldnt have them. I ended up crying with worry about her. She's just 6 months.
However, she's has just mastered a flip top, non valve cup (tommee tippee ones with two handles) and will take milk and water from them, but only if I'm not there. She's also just started weaning in the last 3 weeks so will gum on a rice cracker, cheese on toast, banana etc. And then she launches herself onto my boob when I get home and feeds for about an hour. She is apparently very happy when I'm not there and the smile when I get back is lovely. You will be fine and so will he

Thanks Mc. Did you formula or expressed milk?