Work and breastfeeding

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I'd like to know other people's experiences of bf when back at work. I'll be back at work with dd is 9 months. She's 6 months currently, ebf now and fed on demand.

It will be tricky to express at work as I'm not in an office but out and about most of the time. Breastfeeding support team told me that I should be able to manage with expressing once a day, take the milk to the nursery for the next day and do a morning and evening feed. But friends who've gone back to work at similar ages have told me they didn't express during the day, and babies did not need formula.

Can people share their experiences? Will a 9 month old manage with just a morning and evening feed (plus night time if she requests) without me needing to express or give her formula?

I went back when DS was ten months. By then he was down to four feeds a day (morning, morning nap, afternoon nap and before bed) but the nap time feeds were very quick comfort/sleep inducing feeds. He managed fine without those when we wasn't with me (3 days per week at that point) and never had expressed milk/formula at nursery/when with DH. He just had water to drink and they offered him a snack when other babies were having daytime bottles.

The daytime feeds dropped out altogether pretty quickly after starting nursery but we kept BF until 19 months, when he decided he'd had enough.

You will probably find your baby goes crazy feeding at night to get all the milk she's missed out on in the day. I went back to work when dd was 9 months, but she'd started taking a formula bottle by then too so I didn't worry about her needing milk. Ds2 was 12mths when I went back. He wouldn't drink milk from a bottle or a cup, he must have had sips of water, but fed like a demon through the night.

I went back to work in Jan when DS2 was 9 months. DH is at home with him until just after his first birthday.

I feed him in the morning before work, express once at lunchtime (takes 45 mins to get 4-5oz - I'm doing it as I type!) and feed him to sleep at bedtime. He also has one or two or three feeds overnight.

It does help DH settle him to sleep for his afternoon nap. He has his morning nap in the buggy on the way back from dropping DS1 at preschool. Then after lunch DH gives him a bottle and he settles himself off to sleep after that.

DS1 was only feeding morning and evening by that age, though. DS2 is a big hungry boy so I kind of feel like he needs milk in the day. They're all different.

I'm looking forward to stopping the expressing because it is tedious. Only a couple more weeks and then he can start having cow's milk.

Thanks everyone that's really helpful.

My employer bought me a mini fridge for storing breastmilk. I could express in either the first aid room, or my office (shared with a young man). The first aid room was more comfortable as there was an easy chair, and it was hardly ever used.

DS is 23, so this was quite radical at the time.

In my experience there is a massive shift somewhere about 8-10 months, depending on the baby, when they start to take most of their calories from food rather than milk. I expressed for both of mine when they went to nursery at 9-10 months, but neither of them drank it! Just had water in the day, and bf morning, night and sometimes during the day at weekends.

The other way to juggle the feeds is to feed on waking, feed as you drop off at nursery if required, feed on collection, and feed at bedtime.

Over the next 3 months, they feeds will drop as food becomes more interesting.

Mine is 9 and a half months at the mo and I've got her down to two feeds a day in preparation for her starting nursery next month. She has a feed when she wakes up and again before bed at night. During the day she has three meals and water from a cup (couldn't get her to take a bottle at all!). She was having three or four feeds a day until a couple of weeks ago. She's not gone crazy for extra milk in the remaining two feeds and she sleeps through from 7 til 7.

I was really worried about her needing milk during the day but I get the impression they are hardier and more adaptable than we give them credit for!

Oh also - I haven't needed to express any milk during the day to relieve painful boobs, or had any leaking either. It feels good to be back in proper underwired, non-nursing bras!

mine is 9 months and been at nursery full time since he was 7 months.

I express twice a day and get 5-6oz in total. he has this in 2 bottles during the day as well as 3 meals and water.

He hasn't fed more at night, but has always woken 2-3 times anyway. I do a morning feed one when we get home then a bedtime one. I offer these 2 in the hope he will top up before bed! seems to work ok!

I've been back at work for four weeks so still finding our way... Tried to get my girl (now 10 months) onto a bottle before she started nursery but she wouldn't have it. I started out expressing twice a day at work and she would drink some or most of it from a cup at nursery. She then fed a LOT when I got home, but didn't wake in the night. The interesting thing is that she seems to eat everything in sight at nursery (and much better now at home too since she started nursery) - so it seems she knows what she's doing. I've cut down to expressing just once at work, and if I don't have time then I send her with formula and she'll drink it or she won't. Either way I'm reassured now that she's not going to starve.