Starting to combination feed at 10 months - advice please!

[Bellebill]

My 10 month old baby normally has around 3 breastfeeds a day. So one in the morning or mid morning, one in the afternoon and one before bed. The problem is that he is a distractible baby and particularly the afternoons he shows interest in feeding but within 10 seconds he’s lost interest and wants to climb or crawl away.

He recently was poorly with hand foot & mouth as well as a cold a couple of weeks later. Had him weighed today and he’s dropped weight unsurprisingly.

I was thinking for that awkward afternoon feed about replacing that with a cup of formula. But I have never formula fed before so I wanted to know...

How much do I give for that feed?
Which is best formula for babies that breastfeed in terms of accepting it? I heard they taste v different from breastfeeding.

Or shall I just stop the afternoon feed? I find if he has less than 3 feeds in a day he will try to reverse cycle in the night and be up at least twice!

Hints / tips please xx

When 11mo DD goes to her childminder I send one of the little bottles of 200ml ready made milk. Usually she has around 150ml (5oz), sometimes more. Then bf morning and evening. I use cow and gate simply because it's available in the local shop. It took a a few days for her tummy to adjust so beware the nappies! But i think she just accepts it as a different taste the same as food. She has been taking a bottle with ebm from quite early on though so she is used to bottles. We use the soft rubber NUK teats which I saw recommended on here, she hasn't tried any others though so can't comment on other types.
Disclaimer: she will take a bottle from anyone except me, but has no problem with me giving her milk in a cup.
Hope that helps

If she won't take it, do you express at all? You could try just mixing a little formula with expressed and gradually increase the proportion over a few days.

Thanks everyone! So mid morning today he had a cup of about 5oz with a snack and he drank it fine! I guess it’s like you say - it’s just a different drink to him. Here’s hoping it doesn’t give him a funny tummy and yes I’ll hold my breath for the changing nappies 😂 xxx

I wanted to do this when I returned to work when DS was ten months. Point blank refused any formula out of any cup so HV advised to just let him have cows milk, he also wasn't keen on this so just bulked up food with milk and cheese and gave extra yogurts. 15m now and still doing fine

Couldn't you just give him a snack? I wouldn't bother introducing f now ( having to sterilise and buy it plus bottles etc)when you're so close to being fully weaned and having cows milk.

I wouldn't bother, just keep offering the breast and nutrient rich food

He has lots of snacks in the day, including yogurt, dairylea cheese string, cereal with gold top and cheese on his food!

He drank the formula from a cup and he won’t drink from a bottle. I’m thinking I’ll still need to sterilise the cup he drank his milk from. But then I still sterilise his dummies so that’s not a biggie.

Does anyone know if I am introducing a bottle of formula a day whether I need to give him vitamin d drops?

It's bf babies or those who are having less that a pint of f a day that need the vitamin d drops. As you're u likely to get through a pint your baby will still need the drops.

Thank you!!