Nursery - please reassure me

[Kraggle]

Dd is 9mo, breastfed, never had formula or drank from a bottle.

She’s starting nursery in two weeks, 2 full days and a half day. How will she cope without feeding?

She eats reasonably well (finger foods and some spoon feeding) and will —spill— sip water from an open cup or tommee tippee cup. I’m just envisioning her crying all day being hungry and wanting milk.

I’ll still be feeding her when we get home in the evenings etc (and probably all night) and will feed as normal on my days off.

Why don't you start expressing and see if she might take it from the bottle now before she goes? Mine is 11 months and would want a bottle in the afternoon. They still need between 16-21oz before they are one.

Hi
I had the same situation. But also had a poor eater.
Does she like yoghurt? I phoned the nct helpline and they said this was a good substitute for milk. I put a couple of ellas kitchen ones in her bag and the nursery gave her these instead. It wasn't long before she was drinking from the tippee cup like all the others. Good luck.

Please don't fret. Nursery will encourage her to eat and drink and have a variety if things on offer. You may find her appetite increases for yoghurt, cheese etc as she is not full of milk. Great that she uses a sippy cup (T tipped) you may find that without the option to feed from you as you are out of sight, she will drink milk from a cup.
View it as they next exciting step.in her development, rather than with trepidation and angst (easier said than done I know!)
Walk past there in the run up to her starting and chat to her about how lucky she is to be going there soon. I know she is little but they really do take everything in!

Thanks. I don’t really get anything out when trying to express (only been able to breastfeed from one side as it is so halved my chances to begin with) also didn’t think they were supposed to have bottles past one year so didn’t think there was any point fighting to get her to take one!

She eats fromage frais/yogurt pouches not keen on cheese.

I might buy some formula and see if she will drink that out of a sippy cup. She doesn’t drink much though when she has water, she takes a little and spits half out.

I wouldn't worry about it. As selly said, the nursery will be encouraged to eat and drink. She will probably also copy the other kids at meal times. That's what my son did and he, annoyingly, eats better at nursery than he does at home!

*will be encouraging her

Fail lol

I would start preparing her for the nursery routine now, maybe cut down to only one milk feed in the day and move feeds to when you will be available - if she does refuse milk any other way then missing one feed will be much less of a problem than missing 4. Get her used to eating food and drinking (water or milk) from a cup during the day and she'll be able to manage the nursery day without being hungry.

Sorry if this is obvious, but if she is fed to sleep make sure you get her used to falling asleep another way too, something they can do at nursery!

I had a baby who refused bottle until 7 months. He was breastfed until 8 months. Went back to work when he was 10 months by which point he would take a bottle at home. Weirdly he refused the bottle at nursery (but still had it at night at home) He would take a little from a cup, at nursery, but most he got before and after. You could breastfeed before and after and get them to take a soppy cup of milk in afternoon.

Try not to worry, nursery staff seem to work magic, or maybe it's the peer pressure of the other babies all doing the same thing!
My baby has just started nursery. I tried dropping one of his two breastfeeds in the day for cows milk in sippy cup beforehand and gave up, as he wasn't interested if I was there. At nursery, however, he drinks the milk no problem!
I worried about sleep because he feeds to sleep (or drops off in car or carrier). At nursery he goes for his naps like all the other babies there!

as someone up thread said, if baby only falls asleep being fed, try hard to give your baby some other way to be comforted to sleep when you aren’t there. (Probably to late to try a dummy, but by being rocked, patted, pushed?) Will baby be comforted by their father or take a bottle from him? Even if baby refuses a couple of times, it is worth persevering and continuing to try. Some babies like to suck a lot and if the breast is taken away for 8 hours, they miss the comfort of it. They don’t miss the nutrition, as they can get that from elsewhere but the physical action of sucking, which is really important to babies even at 9 months.

I had a bottle refuser too but she would take 2-3ozs of formula from a tommee tippee free flow sippy cup. Definitely worth trying one of those as it's so different from a bottle.