How often does a baby breastfeed 9-12months?

[Dfjackson]

Hi everyone
I am trying to future plan my return to work which will be around 9-12 months. Baby is currently 4 months. I will be working shifts so sometimes not here at evenings/early mornings etc so may need to pump to get a supply of milk if baby will even take a bottle in the future.
How often do babies breastfeed around 9-12 months in your experience?
Thanks!xx

All three of mine were different but they all pretty much lost interest by 12 months and were on three meals a day and a cup. Between nine months and a year, they dropped day time feeds and just had the breast in the evening.

Think both of mine had about 3 feeds a day, in the daytime. My first still had 1 or 2 feeds at night as well though. (2nd was weaned off the nighttime feeds around that time.)

Sounds like there’s isn’t any typical pattern and just what baby wants!
I work shifts so worried about my return to work as some mornings/evenings I won’t be here.
Going to explore bottles and expressing maybe? Would love for her to stay on the breast for as long as she wants really

I returned to work when DS was 7 months old and I do shift work which was all over the place for 3 months. We still breastfeed now at 18 months. I would essentially feed on demand when home, express when I could, and if he needed a bottle of formula because the expressed milk ran out then so be it. By 12 months he would just have water if I wasn't home, never much liked the stage 2 formula or cows milk, and would perhaps have a longer feed to make up for it. I would say he was feeding 4 or 5 times a day (he stopped wanting night feeds from around 5 months) at 9-12 months.

At 18 months he only feeds once a day unless unwell, and this is usually first thing as my shifts are now mostly evening/overnight.
I would just see how it goes for you without worrying too much, you can't really plan it this far ahead and you will know nearer the time what will work best for you.

Thanks so much it’s nice to hear from another shift worker
When did you express if you don’t mind me asking? My baby hasn’t had a bottle yet so think I need to make a start introducing that to her soon. Did baby adapt well sometimes bottle sometimes breast? And also did your milk supply adapt ok?
Thanks so much again

@Dfjackson Well sometimes I would be finishing at 12am or 2am so would express then, or if I was starting earlier than DS was awake I would do it then. Other times I would just do it in between feeds if I needed some extra.
I only ever leaked through at work once, although in the early days my reusable breast pads would be wet. My supply settled down after a few months as DS was having fewer feeds so I was less full if I had been on long shift but it was so established by 7 months there was no worry of there not being enough because of missing feeds.

We used bottles occasionally from birth as DS has a lip tie and would have expressed milk when I just couldn't face a feed because of the pain in the beginning. But if you have issues with bottle refusal then by 9-12 months a cup (open, sippy, or 360) should be fine for milk while you're gone.