Introducing formula at 6 months, few questions!....

[Icecreamlady]

After MUCH consideration I have decided to start to introduce some formula to my DS - at the same time i intorduce him to solids -after 6 months of exclusive BF. Would like to eventually wean him off my boobs but guess i need to do it gradually?
How do i 'dry up' my milk so it is comfortable for me and in a way that DS adapts ok? he has been fine with expressed BM out of a bottle so am hoping that he will be fine with bottle of aptimil. Am going to try him with some baby rice next week as he he will be 6 months. is changing at this time therefore a good or a bad time?
Regardig makig up the feeds, mum thought i coudl make them up in advance for the day but the tub said to use feeds within one hour. what does everyone else do abotu this? if i put them in the fridge, assume i need to wait until they have cooled down.... and then heat them up again when i need them? is this ok? what about if going out for the day? i can take bottle of hot water but where would i store the formula powder? or is it more advisable to take the bottles ready made and just keep them cold?
Any advice much appreciated!

It only takes seconds to make up the feeds, the trouble is having the water at the right temperature. I get the water to the right temperature (usually by cooling boiling water in the bottle in a pan filled with ice and water, or mixing refrigerated mineral water with a little freshly boiled water) before adding the formula so the formula's added at the last minute therefore is 'freshest'.

When going out I use cartons and take scissors a sterilised bottle in a plastic sandwich bag, but my friend had this really nifty little bottle that kept the water and powder separate until she wanted to mix them.

I also gave baby rice at 6 months and my baby loved it. I used the Boots own brand organic. But my closest branch didn't sell it, so I bought Hipp, which she hated, because it came in bigger flakes. I just thought I'd tell you that, because whichever one your baby prefers, it seems that all baby rices are not the same, and she may like one and not another. The Boots one is a very fine powder.

I have been gradually introducing formula instead of BF since DS was 5mo, he is now 8 months old (and I'm still feeding him nmyself for 2 of his feeds). The transfer over was quite successful...every 2 or 3 weeks I would transfer a feed from BF to formula. The first couple of days after the swic=tch my boobs would be a bit sore, but when we were 50:50 BF/formula, future switches were less painful. I made sure that I didn't move 2 consecutive feeds over though. I also use Aptimil.

I sterilise bottles and fill them with boiling water the previous night, then make up each bottle with powder at the time of each feed. I usually stand it in a jug of hot water to warm it up a bit, but DS isn't that fussy (tho he was to start with - it had to be really warm).

You can buy milk powder containers from Mothercare and many other baby shops, that are sectionned off and take powders for 3 feeds.

Before I started formula feeding it sounded a real clat (sp?), but it's actually very easy!

Good luck

Hi icecreamlady!

The best way of switching from bf to formula is doing it really gradually in my opinion. My baby books seemed to imply that dropping a breast feed every 2 to 3 days (and possibly relacing it with formula) was gradual but i thought that sounded far too quick and did what Jazzb did - dropping a feed every 2 weeks or so. I had no problems at all with my boobs and dd was fine with it. She was about 9 months at the time. I contined to bf first thing in the morning until she was about 17months at which point she self-weaned. She has just turned 2.

I also used Aptamil and found it fine. It was a toss up between that and Hipp Organic but didn't know anyone using the latter so went for Aptamil First or what ever the blue one is called. (Got new packaging now i notice!). Friends seemed to rate it.

Good luck!

I have always ff for various reasons and offer following advice. Cartons are fantastic as I found out when I had to run into Sainsburys and buy one and a pair of scissors as emergency measure when out one day. You can actually get disposable bottles but found milk ran all over ds's face (maybe too young for these at 8 weeks). Its also worth thinking about how to heat up if you need to (we had to stop in layby and use car heater once - we all got v sweaty). You can buy a bottle heater that plugs into car cigarette lighter or flask with long cover to put bottle in and then water from flask. When its hot I also give some cool boiled water to prevent constipation. Also you have to use freshly boiled water to avoid high sodium content. I admit, sometimes I make up a couple of bottles and put them in the fridge to use a bit later. The advice not to do this is fairly recent but not suggesting its not valid just sometimes difficult to do everything advised.

I think I read that mineral water wasn't a good idea due to the higher mineral content.

Hope this is helpful.

Yike! I use mineral water every time I haven't left the kettle to cool! Must try to do that less.