Help, my 10 month is off to nursery , is breastfeeding her just morning and night sufficient?

[VixtaT]

Hi, I am returning to work in a few weeks, my 10month old little girl will be splitting her time between relatives and nursery. She is still being breastfed. I tried to wean her onto a bottle but she won't take one and to be honest at 10 month seemed a little bit pointless. She will take water or formula from a sippy /straw cup , but struggles with choking so won't take much. I have tried to wean her down to having the two milk feeds , one at night and one in the morning with 3 meals in between and snacks along with water , but she will occasionally mooch for more milk feeds and being weak I have allowed her. Do you think I should give my relatives/ the nursery follow on formula for her to drink at her meals in her cup or between if she wants , or just go with water during the day and I will then feed her before and after work? It's all too stressful !!

My little girl was only having two feeds per day at 10 months (morning and evening) and just water during the day time. Obviously this isn't the same for everyone. Could you send her wherever she is going with a bottle of expressed milk or a carton of formula (no need at all for follow on milk, she can have standard first stage formula) and give instructions to only give it if really necessary? Obviously not asking them to withhold it from her if she wants a feed, but to just see how she goes without it being offered.

Make sure that if she does cut down to just the two breastfeeds a day, she gets plenty of other dairy in her diet.

It isn't weak to give her feeds.

My dd fed like this when I went back to work at a similar age. It was fine!

Thanks for your advice and reassurance lozzapops and iggly. I always make sure she gets lots of dairy, she loves cheese and yogurts, they are a firm favourite. I am just a little paranoid that with only two milk feeds from me , I can't be sure whether she will be getting her daily water/ calcium intake from water/ food alone during the day. With only two feeds i have noticed that (as expected ) her nappies are a lot less wet . I guess I need to just get used to the idea of not being in control anymore :(. I can't feed her forever ;).

She will get used to taking more water from a cup over time. Mine doesn't drink a huge amount of water during the day, but some days is better than others. I was given some good advice, which was to not look at their intake on just one day, but to look at the whole week. Some days she drinks not much, other days she drinks a lot more, so overall she is doing well enough. You can always choose to feed more frequently over the weekend/on your days off, and over the course of a week she will be having plenty of fluid.

My daughter was closer to 11 months, but she was fine with three feeds: one on waking, one as soon as I saw her and one before bed. Then water and snacks in the day. She never had formula or cows milk as a drink, but ate lots of cheese and yoghurt.