Dropping daytime feeds - how?

[babybat]

I've recently gone back to work, and DD (12 months) has started nursery. She's currently having three/four feeds a day - when she wakes up, after lunch/before her afternoon nap, and just before bed, with a night feed roughly three times a week. At first I sent her in with a bottle of expressed milk every day, but she wasn't keen to drink it. I find pumping difficult anyway, and finding a place at work that I could express and then take time out to literally get a few ounces was stressing me out. So I discussed with her keyworker and we decided to switch her to cow's milk in a sippy cup, which has gone well so far.

The thing I'm not sure about is what I should be doing on days when she isn't at nursery - should I still offer a breastfeed, or should I give her cow's milk for the sake of consistency? When I do bf her she feeds well, and doesn't seem keen to stop, but I don't know whether I should be planning to phase out all daytime breastfeeding when she's with me. She's teething at the moment which has meant she's got a bit fussy about eating, and I don't know whether I should be cutting down the amount of milk in order to encourage her to eat more, or whether it's important to make sure she's getting enough calories. She's on the 25th centile, so not a particularly big baby. I don't really feel ready to stop breastfeeding her completely, but I don't have much RL support - all of my NCT group stopped bfing months ago!

At 12 months your supply should be very well established and flexible. For example, I returned to work 3 days a week at that stage and although I sent an expressed bottle to nursery with my son each day he soon wasn't fussed about milk at nursery and managed on food and water - but carried on breastfeeding on demand on non-nursery days (and evenings and nights...). Basically, don't worry about having to stick to the same pattern every day if you don't want to.

Thanks! It was feeling a bit like we'd got into a nice routine just the two of us on mat leave, and now being back at work with her at nursery has got me thinking about how our routine will change! But as long as a daytime feed works for her on non-nursery days, I'll try and stick with it.

My DD started nursery at 12 months (2 days a week) and I didn't send anything. She was offered cows milk in a cup but more often than not just had water.

On the days when I was with her, I didn't stop her BF but I didn't go out of my way to offer it either. She started to not look for it during the day at about 14 months.

Are you happy to keep feeding for a while longer? Having days when you feed more and feed mess won't affect your supply so you should be fine to continue if that's what you want to do.

Like the others have said you probably don't need to really do anything - I fed both dd's whenever they asked (within reason!) during my days off and my supply adjusted. At 12 months they would drink milk or water from a supply cup at the childminders during the day. They would still do the same at home with me, with an occasional breastfeed too