feeding expressed milk when mum goes to work...

[InkasDad]

Hi - I'm taking 4 months parental leave in Dec while my partner (mum) goes back to work - We want to give our daughter (she'll be 8 mths) expressed milk by bottle or cup while mum's at work but she gets very distressed when we try to feed her this way - getting worried that I'll have a very unhappy and hungry little girl - anyone had this experience and can help ??

No experience but watching as we may be in a similar situation a few months hence!

How long will your partner be out of the house op? You might find that by 8 months your baby will be on 3 meals a day and won't need much milk during the day at all so a feed before work and one immediately after woukd be enough. I didn't return to work but by 8-9 months my dd barely bf during the day and would certainly have managed had I not been there. A friend of mine did return to work and said that her baby made up for it in the night for a new weeks to adjust so that might be something to be aware of !

We’ve had some success with Mam bottles. December is a long time away though so she might be more accepting of cups/bottles by then, especially if she’s started having water.

I went back to work when ds was 7 months and he was basically incapable of drinking from a bottle; it could be done here and there but it would take HOURS and much choking/spluttering/screaming and swearing the part of dp.

So ds went to nursery and I would dutifully leave bottles of expressed milk which I filled in my lunch break... But they were completely wasted as he never drank a drop! I'd offer bf when i dropped him off and picked him up, then as usual at night (so A LOT), but he was happy to be spoon fed instead in the daytime - his decision.

Just make sure baby has a cup they can use for water but it'll be fine, babies rarely starve themselves :)

I’m a childminder. I have been in your situation more than once and generally find that the baby will feed more overnight to make up for not having milk in the day.

Does your baby drink from a cup and eat food reliably? This is a big indication of how well it would work. I had a baby over the summer who wouldn’t do either of these things for me, I tried all my tricks and numerous ways (bottle/cup/spoon) to get her to drink milk, but she wouldn’t have any of it and if had to give notice (out of fairness to the baby).
December is still a few weeks away (which is a really long time for a baby), at the moment it might seem impossible that baby will take enough food to get her through the day, but once you start properly weaning, it doesn’t take long to get them on three meals and snacks in between.