Nights have deteriorated since I've introduced formula

[ragtaggle]

My baby is six months old and in the last few weeks I have managed to get her to take a bottle - after months of rejecting it. (I was only offering her EBM so it was the bottle not the milk that she was rejecting)

I am hoping to give up breastfeeding soon so at the moment I'm trying to feed her once at night and once in the morning. But for the last few weeks she's been waking up for more night feeds. Before I started introducing the botlle she went from 7 in the evening until five in the morning and then fed and went back to sleep. Now she's been waking up erratically - one and five or three and six.. Consequently her day feeds are getting messed up..

I have a sneaking suspicion that my dd isn't taking enough milk in the day from the bottle because she's holding out for the bfeeding (Which I do at night if neccessary) But as a breastfeeder I have no idea how much she should be taking. Could someone enlighten me? I currently feed her during the day at roughly seven, eleven, two and six thirty. She has solids at three of these feeds although at the moment she's lost interest in breakfast. (Partly because she's feeding more at night I suspect)I offer her milk first at each feed but she rarely takes more than 2-4 ounces. Is this enough for a baby her age?

I once replaced the last feed of the night with a bottle as an experiement and she guzzled seven ounces, suggesting to me that she'd been 'saving' herself for what is usually a breastfeed. How much milk should she be taking during the day? All advice appreciated

Ragtaggle - it is impossible to say how much milk a breastfed baby has been taking to it is difficult to equate the two. When I worked night shift I could express 10oz in one go so perhaps your baby has been used to bigger volumes of milk when breastfeeding.

Sometimes breastfed babies look for the breast during the night becaus they have 'missed' the breast during the day. By that I mean they want the contact with the breast rather than the milk that is in it.

You could try cutting back her solids a bit and giving her more milk to see if that will help her go longer during the night. At 6 months her main food should be milk so it might be an idea to try the bottle after solids when she may be more thirsty.

The other thing you could do is just breastfeed her at each meal because you may find she will take more milk, settle again at night, and then you can just start dropping the breastfeeds without the need for bottles at all feeds. Since you have got to 6 months breastfeeding, it seems a shame to disrupt it all at this stage. You could start dropping feeds without the need to replace them with formula but having 2 courses and a drink instead.

Thanks for this mears but I'm a bit confused. At what stage should she not 'need' milk at each feed? When does milk stop becoming her main food?

Once she is established on 3 meals a day, 2 courses, you can start dropping milk feeds. Im my owm case I did it at various stages with my babies because they started solids at different times. With ds1 I was quite scheduled with feeding. He had the breast only at meal times and I started dropping feeds around the 7 month mark, dropping the luchtime one first. I replaced the breast with a drink of juice (he doesn't have any fillings by the way!). After 2-3 weeks I dropped the tea-time feed. The bedtime feed was the last to go. I tried replacing it with cows milk at 11 months old but he screamed blue murder with colic so he just went to bed without a drink as did all 3 other babies. I got more relaxed with the others and actually let them breastfeed between meals if they wanted and was less schedules about weaning. DS2 stopped breastfeeding at just over 10 months because I was pregnant but he got his milk in his foods mainly. Only my third child liked milk to drink as baby over a year.

You can introduce cows milk into foods after 6 months so that is counted as milk intake. You can then drop your breatfeeds during the day so that you are left with morning and night feeds. You could probably safely do that over the next month or so. Does that help?

mears that's all very interesting - combining bf and solids is goign to be a new experience for me and I've been worried about how to maintain milk intake. Now I see I don't really need to worry too much about it and don't necessarily need to add in formula bottles at all

Thanks very much mears. I understand that now. Didn't realise I could introduce cows milk in feeds now - will start doing.

That is cows milk IN food from 6 months but as a drink from 1 year.