My baby is 6 mths now, needs to have the occasional bottle - formula or EBM?

[TheBlonde]

My baby is 6 mths now, needs to have the occasional bottle - formula or EBM?

She is currently on a few spoons of solids and breast milk
I have not been expressing so there is no stash of EBM. She is going to need to take approx 1 feed a week when I am not there

Do I need to faff around and express?
Downsides of some formula at this point?

i get the feeling you don't want to express, but want permission to give formula occasionally, am i right?

formula is not a poison to your baby, nor is made by the devil. you have done a wonderful thing bf your baby so far (pat on your back)

permission granted to give the odd bottle of formula when it suits you.

now lets wait and see who comes along to try and talk you out of it.

Not after permission just after any reasons to get expressing

I will express if there is some benefit to the baby

maybe you could try neither and see if she will go an extra few hours with no milk until you get back? they often do if you're not around to remind them. you might need to buy those ready made cartons of formula milk cos a tin should only be opened for a month (or did i just imagine that bit? seem to remember that anyway). can't think of any especially awful downside to the odd bottle except perhaps she won't like to take a bottle either of formula or ebm?

Early on I found expressing easy enough but by about 6 months I couldn't get more than an ounce at a time. You might find the decision is made for you. Also if it's only once a week you could use normal cows milk as it won't be her 'main drink' just one a day occasionally.

I've ended up giving him formula on the basis that:

• my ability to express seems to have declined hugely over the last month or so
• I'm not going to be able to express when I go back to work in a few weeks so he's going to have to have formula at some point. On balance I'd rather get him used to it before he starts nursery proper.

If it's just one feed a week, then you will have to get those ready-made cartons as someone else said as the powder is supposed to be used within one month once you open it (and one box of Aptimil powder makes 26 feeds)

I made the decision not to express after 6 months. Although I did a lot of it, I found it hard and wasn't sad to see the back of the pump.

My reasoning was that since ds was only having the very occasional bottle he might as well have formula as a "convenience food" much as I give him the odd jar of "convenience" baby food when we are out.

I keep a couple of cartons of readymade stuff as we don't use it frequently enough to buy powder.

I really can't imagine that one bottle of formula a week is going to have any effect on her in the slightest.

I personally wouldn't 'faff around and express' for one bottle a week.

I personally wouldn't give formula, mainly because it is so highly processed and I don't really like to give dds anything like that if possible.
can I ask why he needs one feed a week? can he just have water and you feed him more often during the day to make up the volume, or what about cow's milk?
expressing is a bit of faff but I never used to mind it, though tbh my dds never much liked the taste of cow's milk and in fact used to lob the cup across the room neither of them drink cow's milk now.

I say its your choice but from my experience expressing enough for a feed took lots of effort. You would still need to sterilise the pump or a bottle whatever, so the easiest option for me would be a carton of formula. Especially if its only 1 feed per week.
Congratulations on bf for this long, I lasted 5 weeks before topping up with formula.

harpsichordcarrier - she needs one feed as I'm going to be out one evening a week and leaving home about 6pm before her final feed