How do I express without affecting supply?

[MadGhostlyGnome]

DS is nearly six months and exclusively breast fed. I haven't ever really bothered with expressing, other than the odd bit of hand expressing which doesn't produce much, mainly because I haven't needed to be away from him and I didn't want to mess things up when feeding was going so well.

However we're getting to the point where I would like to be able to go out for a bit and let DH look after DS knowing there was a decent bit of milk stored for them to use. I'm hiring a breast pump for a week to try to do this but have no idea how to go about expressing milk to freeze without it affecting what DS would normally drink.

Should I pump regularly, irregularly, for a long time, a short time...? How much milk should I aim to get? I am absolutely clueless. Help?!

I'd really not bother at 6 months and just give him formula. He should be starting other foods now and the occasional bottle won't be much of a problem.

Unless your DS resists formula.

Hi, I returned to work when DS was almost 5 months, I built up about 30 bags of milk (frozen) for my return. I then expressed until he was 12 months, at which point he started drinking cows milk and I fed him when we were together.

One month prior to my return to work I introduced a 7 am express, for approx 20 mins. He fed at 5:30am. I did this every day without fail. I then introduced another time of day ( can't remember what time, probably 11am ish). I froze the milk and it meant my supply just increased which made my return to work easier (20 ounces a day expressed at work over three sessions long hours!).

I used a spectra dew electric pump - it's very good - far better than one I used previously. About 15 mins to express.

Hope that helps.

Morning, regular, 20 mins. Expect a very tiny amount to start with. Persevere. Don't bother to do it in the evening as I believe hormones increase supply over night so you will get more in the morning. I found a hand pump impossible btw.

Thanks, a morning session (or two) it is then. He's been drinking less overnight recently so boobs are full by the morning, will give that a go.

Don't want to use formula given the choice, would rather give breast milk.