How/When to stop bfeeding?

[Vmama]

hello

2nd post of the day my apologies! My 12 week old DS is exclusively bfed and tho it's been a struggle it's going well now and he's gaining weight well and above average weight for his age.

I have always planned to stop bfeeding before I return to work for many reasons and I still want to do this. He will be 7 months when I return -my query is when do I need to start stopping if that makes sense -I think I've read that it takes a while to stop completely.

Do I start substituting bfeeds for formula feeds? If so when should I start doing that?

I'm a bit gutted that after such a struggle to bfeed him he'll end up on formula for a short time but I know that formula is fine and I'm silly to feel like a failure for having to do this especially since I didn't give up earlier when my nips were bleeding and every feed hurt like hell!

I think i feel bad cos I read somewhere that giving formula strips their stomach of the goodness of breastmilk -please tell me this is rubbish and I haven't breastfed for no good reason? Is 6 months breastfeeding good enough?

Also any tips on which is best formula for a bfed babe? I keep hearing about aptamil being the closest to breast milk is thta true -what have other people done?

Vmama, 6 months breastfeeding with no other foods or drinks gives the best health outcomes as far as we can tell - you certainly do not 'undo' these benefits by introducing formula after this time. But you may find it easier to carry on with some breastfeeding when you go back to work - the baby has formula when away from you and breastmilk when he is with you.

Please don't believe anything you read about one brand of formula being better than another - it's all marketing stuff.

You can use whatever brand you want.

If you want to totally stop bf by 7 months, starting to stop at around 6 mths will give you plenty of time for you and your baby to adjust.

HTH

i work, bf and formula feed, suits us

To make it easier a few friends have recommended using Tommee Tippee bottles as they are similar to the shape of a breast and if you do want to do a bit of both hopefully this will help. You will probably still need to be patient though as baby needs to learn how to use the bottle.

I intended doing both for quite a while but found that dd unlearnt how to latch onto me and my milk went very quickly, so I am completely on bottles now. Although I know many who do both successfully. Good Luck

I started stopping when DD was about four and a half months old, had a week's false start when she was having NONE of it. She'd always taken a bottle, an ounce or two of EBM in a Doctor Brown's, but when expected to take six ounces or whatever of formula ... no. Not happening. Not surprising, with the benefit of hindsight. Ended up with Nuk bottles, and using a mix with an ever increasing proportion of formula (aided and abetted by hired electric pump). Got her to take enough bottles to get her through the day, breathed a sigh of relief and stopped trying - carried on with mornings, evenings and nights until nine months.

We actually did end up using Aptamil, but suspect that with the gradually phasing out of the EBM and phasing in of the formula she'd have gone for any of them.

If you end up really struggling, and if he turns out to be a good eater of solids, morning/evening/night breastfeeds and solids and water during the day can work for some mums and babies. My friend did this, returning to work at six months and neither of her children had formula.