How to gradually stop/reduce breast feeding?

[birdybirdbird]

Hi. My LO is 6 month old and still feeds a lot. Or at least it fells that way to me! He’s combi fed and had about 200ml formula a day (2 feeds) and also around 12 breast feeds a day. Breast feeding was a massive struggle to start with - tongue tie, low supply, horrendous baby blues - and I’m so glad I’ve made it to 6 months with him being mostly breast fed but... I think I’m done or at least getting to that point.
Ideally I would like to gradually reduce the number of feeds over the next few months, maybe ending up with 2 when I go back to work in July (when he’ll be 9.5 months) Seems a stupid question, but is it as simple as just giving him a bottle instead of a breast feed? And just gradually upping the number of bottle feeds? Any suggestion about which times of day it might be better to drop first? Is it possible that it will damage my supply to extent I’ll have to give up completely? Sorry, lots of questions!

No advice but watching! I also go back to work at 9 months and want DS to be comoletely off the boob by then. Thinking of introducing a cup of breastmilk at first...

I started combination feeding with 1 formula feed at 6 weeks then around 3 months I just started giving her a second bottle instead of a mid morning breast feed then at 4 months started giving her a morning bottle rather than breastfeed. After that I quite quickly cut down to only the bedtime feed; the main thing for me was to give it a few days preferably a week between dropping breastfeeds especially at first as otherwise you can easily end up engorged. Sometimes I’d have to breastfeed a little to take thr edge off then give a bottle.
I kept up the bedtime feed for quite a while with no effect on my supply; your body will respond to what you ask of it so if you want to increase the feeds again you can.

I think the usual advice, or at least what I've always done, is to drop or replace a feed a week so you're not at risk of mastitis.

I should add that I kept the night feed only for my son for a few months, and fed my daughter once overnight only for a few months and my supply just adjusted to that

Try and space out your feeds - including boob - so that you’ve got more of a ‘schedule’ even though I cringe typing it. My 6 mo was fed at 7, 10:15(ish) lunch/ feed at 11:30/12 2:30 dinner / feed at 4:30/5 and 7 but this has the MASSIVE caveat that if she was hungry or sad or needed me I’d feed her obviously. I was just trying to space things out.
Then it will be easier to substitute a breastfeed for a bottle.
Good luck

Thanks everyone! @KTD27 I’ve been trying to stretch his feeds out as a bit more but he doesn’t really have any predictable pattern (much like his sleep ) He’s always been a bit of a ‘snacker’ I guess. He usually has a morning bottle and then one at another point in the day. Think I will try and stick to a rough ‘time of day’ for that feed and introduce another one.
@Alyosha I’m lucky in that my return to work is a bit staggered so I’d like to get it down as much as possible but don’t have to stop completely. Though I may change my mind once I’m trying to factor in time for a breastfeed whilst getting ready for work!

Ds is similar to yours, very snacky and feeds very frequently. On top of this he is very fussy! So not enjoying feeding now :( good luck.

birdy oh mine was too. A bloody nightmare I spent most of the day with one or the other nipple out. She was on and off all the time. I stretched it out really because she has reflux and it seemed to be making her uncomfortable but it had the benefit (if that’s the right word) of giving us a bit more structure to the day. And honestly now she’s eating solids too it’s sort of sorted itself out snacking wise. She has definitely started taking less on the breast though so I think it’s coming to a natural end which isn’t exactly what I wanted - my first kept up combi feeding until he was one - but this monster has other ideas so I’ll be led by her.

I was transitioning from fully breastfed to mixed fed at 6 months, so slightly different but I think the same thing should work in principle? The HV suggested switching particular feeds for bottles, which would have been great except that, like you, we didn't have enough of a regular schedule for that. So instead I did it one by one through the day - week 1 the second feed after wake-up was bottle (I kept the wake up feed as breast because I'd still be around for that when back at work), week 2 it was feeds 2 & 3, etc until he was on a BF, four bottles, then a bedtime BF. He just naturally went a similar length of time between each bottle (and took a similar amount of milk for each bottle feed) so it spaced easily. That all worked well and it was an easy adjustment - the only time I felt a bit uncomfortable/engorged was the switch from no bottles to one.

My plan was then to still feed morning, evening and through the night. What actually happened was that doing the night feeds while back at work nearly killed me so we started giving night bottles, too - and at that point my supply dropped massively, he got frustrated with the low supply, and it was the end of breastfeeding for us (about a month and half after I went back to work, so 7.5 months). So yes, I did damage my supply enough I stopped completely - but lots of other women manage to feed exactly as you plan, so I don't think it's inevitable.

BF beyond 6 months is when they really start to give you the liposculpture effect, IME. Think hard before you drop too many feeds - my hips and legs began to look slim again beyond 6 months.

Oh blue I wish that had happened to me! The fabled bf fat melting days never quite found me

Yeah, I did lose a lot of weight breastfeeding (weighed a stone less than before I got pregnant at my lowest) and then put some of it back on when I went back to work and so dropped most of the feeds. Though I'm not sure whether that was a) because my quite chunky boy had been sucking the life out of me b) because he'd only sleep in motion (until the sodding WEEK before I went back to work when he'd take cot naps, and has continued doing so for his dad ever since - I am v bitter about this) so I was walking five plus miles a day and now sit down all day or c) whether as a combination of stopping this endless motion and his dad doing most night wakings now, I am no longer so tired I feel sick - I didn't know before having DS that I could feel so tired I lost my appetite, but turns out I can!

I demand fed and was on maternity leave until DD was 12 months and, like you, was wondering how to reduce feeds in preparation before I went back to work. I asked a health visitor and she said something that felt very unhelpful at the time but turned out to be true. She said 'don't worry about it, it will work itself out'.

By the 10 month point, I dropped the mid afternoon feed and she was fine. She was on 4 feeds a day (first thing in the morning, mid morning, mid afternoon and bedtime) with solid food meals at normal time. I then dropped the mid morning feed right before I went back to work and replaced it with formula and, when i went back to work, gave the formula to the childminder. DD swapped over no problem but then got annoyed that she was being left to feed it to herself and it came without the cuddle so she ditched the formula herself. I then continued with pre-breakfast and bedtime feeds. Then at 14 months I dropped the morning feed with no ill effect. I bedtime fed until she was 16 months then swapped it for a bottle.

Throughout, if she woke in the night, I breastfed her and on weekends and holidays she demand fed. So the health visitor was right, it worked out and DD was flexible around the demands of my work! There was one time I had to go away for 2 nights and I forgot my breast pump. I expressed in the bath one night and didn't bother the next. When I then saw DD she fed as normal (with an expression of relief on her face!)

I have read somewhere that babies adapt to the availability of the mother pretty well.

@SophiaLarsen your post is spot on! they absolutely do this and nature has a way of things just working out, especially getting close to a year old once they are on 3 solid meals a day and less breast obsessed as they are moving around exploring so much more.

Often you just are forced to push a feed back after 6 months due to being out ect and thinking 'i'll just wait until i'm home' and you realise they are actually fine. Then that becomes the new pattern.

Yes, I'm sure that's true of a slightly older baby. Mine was 6 months so it definitely wouldn't have just worked out - he still needed a lot of milk through the day - but now at 8 months he isn't ready yet to go all day on solids rather than milk, but it feels imaginable that he will be, which it didn't two/three months ago.