Breastfeeding in day / formula at night?

[Kty8901]

My daughter is 6.5 months old and has been waking every sleep cycle or every 2 hours for months now! In a fit of desperation I decided to try and wean her off the breast at night and instead offer a bottle of formula once in the night and water for other wakings. This has worked very well! My question is, is it ok to do this and just breastfeed very frequently (every 1-2 hours) in the day to make sure she’s getting enough?

I know there’s more to breastfeeding than calories but I just couldn’t carry on with the sleep deprivation..tried to ride it out for ages and things just weren’t getting better. At the same time I don’t want to stop breastfeeding completely until at last 1 year. Will skipping night feeds from the breast cause my milk to dry up or will it just adjust to only daytime feeds?

My baby is four months old and has been combi fed for the last couple of months. She's mainly breastfed but has a bottle of formula before bed and sometimes if we're out in the day. I felt guilty about giving her formula at first but fine with it now - she's still getting all the benefits of breast milk but has a good long sleep at night too. My supply is still good, has adjusted really well so there's still plenty in the day but I'm not waking up engorged. You have to do what's best for you both!

No personal experience but I know someone who successfully combi fed until 2yo like this. Formula at bedtime, water at night and bf all day. So I do know it can work.

Whilst its impossible to say for certain as there is so much variation between individuals it is likely that by 6.5 months that your supply will be pretty robust and likely to adapt.
If you had been wanting to do this at 6 weeks rather than 6 months I would have suggested that it wasnt a good idea if you wanted to continue breastfeeding longer term. But 6 months is a different kettle of fish.
Its still not a risk free strategy as some mums supply is more sensitive than others, and prolactin levels are higher at night so night feeds do promote a good supply. Plus I think that some babies do still need milk at night and others don't- it depends on so many factors.
If you think its working better for you now, then why not continue, but keep a careful eye on baby's nappues to ensure adequate output, and on her growth. Presumably you've started or are about to start solids as well, so you have another string to your bow when it comes to nutrition too now. If there's any signs that she's not getting enough milk, or she starts to reject the breast in favour of bottles, you can probably reverse your decision if needed (assuming you want to continue breastfeeding of course, which is obviously entirely your personal decision.)
Both mums and babies are so individual that its really hard to know what is going to work sometimes, so I think all you can do is try what you tbink is best, monitor the results and change things accordingly. Good luck with everything.

I breastfed all my 5 sons for at least a year each . From around 2:3 months I gave them formula at midday for the simple reason we only had four months paid maternity leave then and I needed to get them used to a bottle for the child minder. This seemed to work well and meant I had plenty of milk at teatime and bedtime to snuggle and breastfeed them then . Also if I did need to leave them for whatever reason they would take a bottle and I think it's nice for GP and Dads to give them a bottle. Hope this helps x