Advice on cutting down BF at 6.5 months

[AbsoluteBeginner]

I love breastfeeding and so does my daughter, but for my own sanity I'd love to help encourage her to sleep better at night. She currently wakes x3/night for breastfeeds which I'm daft enough to oblige with. Also fully b/f during day, apart from bits of pureed food which she's not hugely enthusiastic about. Occasionally I give her a cup of formula which she does take, although it didn't provide the miracle cure to night waking I was hoping for. The other day I tried to drop the 11am feed in favour of a cup of formula, but got engorged boob and ended up on antibiotics for mastitis. Would like to start gradually cutting down BF, as will have to leave baby with childminder on September 20. Any good advice on doing this without risking manky boob again?

AbsoluteBeginner - I would not reduce breastfeeds thinking that it will make your dd sleep at night. At over 6 months she does not need formula. I would increase her solids and get her onto 3 meals a day. Once that is established (which I did over 2 weks), you can start dropping daytime feeds. You can replace them with water or juice. What I would do is try not to feed her so frequently at night. She will then take solids better throughout the day. Do you have a partner who can go to her at night? If you get engorged, express milk, freeze it and you can give that to the childminder in September. There is no need to give up breastfeeding to get a sleeping baby. HTH.

Thanks Mears. She is on three meals a day but only seems to take very small quantities (eg two ice-cubes of pureed pear). She only accepts fruit and sweet things. My partner does go to her at night sometimes, but squealing is so bad I usually give in and give her a feed as it's the most efficient way of getting the three of us back to sleep. It's complicated by the fact that she has eczema and when she gets distressed she lacerates her itcy scalp so I daren't leave her crying for long. I'm not going to give up BF yet whatever happens, would just like to cut down.

ab, what have you tried for the eczema? there's lots of threads on here with useful advice. btw, my dd (15 mths) still sometimes feeds in the night - she's a late teether - we did a bit of cold turkey/rocking but sometimes it's the only thing that will make a difference and as you say give everyone at least some sleep. if you do drop a feed occasionally try expressing, it works wonders and you can give it defrosted to your childminder.

AB. I went back to work when ds was 7 months and managed to continue to bf at 7am and 7pm. DS was not sleeping through the night and I was worried about returning to work on insufficient sleep. I was very anti Gina Ford in the early days but wanted more structure for the childminder. We tried the 6-month routine for feeding times and it worked brilliantly. I know not everyone likes GF but getting the food right during the day seemed to make all the difference to sleep at night. We also did some controlled crying and stuck to it. Everything fell into place within 3 days - a miracle! 12 hours every night and ds is now 2!

I had problems expressing but managed to relieve engorged boobs with massage in the bath. HTH