Dropping feeds - which ones?

[lulu25]

My DS, 24 weeks, is still exclusively (give or take a bit of mashed sweet potato) BF. I want to replace a couple of milk feeds with formula once he reaches the magic 26 week mark - much as I love him, I really would like to be able to hand him over to his dad for longer than three hours.

Question 1: which feeds do I replace? I'm planning to go down to two feeds a day: first thing in the morning, and then either teatime or bedtime. I thought maybe if I replaced the bedtime feed with a bottle it would help him get through the night (he currently wakes once at about 3am).

Question 2: bottle or cup? He won't drink expressed milk from a bottle. Should I try different bottles, or is he old enough to take formula from a doidy cup when I switch over?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

dont know about the replacing feeds but dont expect a bedtime formula feed to work miracles. My formula fed ds was still intermittantly having 1 night feed until approx 8 months.

My DD is 7.5months. By 6.5 months only feeding morning, lunch, 3pm and bed. Last week dropped 3pm feed for a snack. So very soon you can have more time off and still BF. I think one night feed is very lucky. Formula will probably not help sleep. Many women I know have tried to replace some feeds with formula at your stage and their milk supply seriously decreased and they had to give up BF. good luck you've done very well to get this far.

I'd not necesarrily bother with forumula unless you want to leave your ds overnight. When my ds was on three good solid meals he went down to two good b-f a day and then would have two very short ones (one midmorning and one midafternoon). If i had to go out these would be replaced by either expressed or cows milk from a doidy cup. Like your son he never got to grips with a bottle
As He'd only drink an oz in the daytime feeds i guess he was getting all he needed in the early morning and night feeds
This is rambling but i guess what i am trying to say is that when there are on solids you can leave them for most of the day AND continue to breast-feed without any formula feeds

Sorry no advice with the cutting down of feeds but I agree about formula not helping with sleep. I have had to give formula twice this week at bedtime and it hasn't made the slightest bit of difference to DS sleep. It's a myth I think.

Just to be awkward, putting my DS onto formula definitely helped with sleeping. However, solids helped even more.

I'm inclined to agree with the others - in a few short weeks your ds will be established on solids and you'll find he cuts back on bf's naturally.

By all means start to offer him a sippy cup any time now, with either water, ebm or formula in it. If my ds was anything to go by it can take the best part of a month before they get the hang of it and take more than a quick sip anyway, so the sooner you start, the sooner he'll figure it out.