Milk options when returning to work

[weepingwillow22]

I have an 8 month old who is wholly breastfed plus lots of solids. He has never taken a bottle (I have tried a few times) but is happy to sip a small amount of water from a cup with his meals.

I will be returning to work in a couple of months and LO will go to a childminder. I am wondering how I should prepare for this in relation to feeding.

Should I try again with a bottle or would it be ok if he has all his liquids sipped from a cup? I am not sure how much he will get this way. He is having a lot of solids but how much milk does a 10 month old need? I will carry on breastfeeding him morning and evening but have no idea of how much milk he is getting.

Also I am not keen on expressing so at 10 months should I start him on formula during the day, cows milk or just water. Also I am a bit clueless at formula, do I use a follow on milk at this age?

Mine went to creche about this age and we're both breastfed bottle refusers. I breastfed them in morning, and sent them with a sippy cup to have water. They didn't drink much initially but soon adapted. I wouldn't start on bottle at that age, you'll just have to wean them off it again soon enough. The only thing is they can reverse cycle for a while initially and feed overnight again to make up for missed feeds, but they do get over this.

Google Dr Jack Newman he's a Canadian Paediatrician who has some info about breastfeeding mums returning to work on his website that might be useful.

A lot changes in two months, for one. I'd talk with the childminder though, their experience and what they are used to doing will help. Cant remember what my teens were like at ten months lol, but the eldest started with a childminder at seven months, who tried out a few bottles and teats then told me, get some of these.

Thanks all. Mylittlepony, interesting you mention reverse cycling. I made another post about night weaning here. Do you think I would be better holding off night weaning for now? Ideally in two months time I would like to just breastfeed in the morning and evening. Is this possible?
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/breast_and_bottle_feeding/3942228-Night-weaning-an-8-month-old

You might well find your baby will adjust so that all breastfeeds are when you are home and daytime with the childminder is water. It’s quite normal for them to do that.

I'm really not likely to help with night weaning, my first fed overnight right through to 18months-ish when she weaned herself completely from the breast ( I thought I'd done a brilliant job of weaning her until I tried to wean my son and realised she actually did it herself...). I'm still feeding my second -hes nearly 2- before he goes to bed and occasionally when he wakes at night teething / upset etc. I want to wean him completely but my god he throws a good tantrum when I try to distract from the before bed feed so at the moment I'm taking the easy route and continuing....
The only thing is my creche did say not to make any other really big changes in their lives around the time they start creche; that the upheaval of creche is enough and they need the safety of the normal routine outside of that. So I'd probably night wean right now if you really want to or leave it until he's been in creche a little while and is settled.

2 of mine never took a bottle, they just fed morning and evening (and during the night) when I returned to work. They would drink water from a sippy cup at childcare. But they were a bit older , 10-11 months when I returned to work.

In a couple of months your baby will be 10 months. At that age mine drank first thing in the morning, before bed and once during the night. During the day he ate food. If you have a 9-5 job you might find it's not an issue anymore in 2 months' time.