Will I be ok - in terms of supply - to start mixed feeding at 6.5mths? Expressing is killing me I can't keep it up!

[Caz10]

Will try to keep this brief!

Back to work in 6wks, I could express but only once at lunchtime. If I were to do this, I would end up coming home later (I'm a teacher - hoping to work like fury through lunch hour marking etc in order to be able to leave earlier). I think that I'd really rather get home earlier and actually feed dd myself, than spend time expressing at lunchtime and then have to stay later at the end of the day.

In the run up to me going back we are trying to make an effort to have dd spend some more time with her 2 grannies and DH as they will be sharing childcare. As she is a v frequent feeder and, until recently, complete bottle refusnik I have spent very little time away from her in 6.5mths and I think both of us need to be broken in gently to spending time apart.

So the plan is that over the next 6 weeks I go away for a half day maybe every week or so letting grannies and/or dh get on with it, including a couple of feeds. I'm quite looking forward to this tbh, plan on getting a haircut, doing some clothes shopping etc.

The last time I left dd for a one-off day in at work I left EBM and it took a whole week of once or twice daily pumping sessions to get enough, and that is with a double electric pump .

The thought of expressing enough to do that once a week for the next 6 weeks is truly depressing - I find it very physically draining for some reason, and also hard to fit in the time to do it.

God this is SO not brief, sorry!

Anyway I have finally accepted that she will have to get formula at some point, and now that she's on solids and we've passed the 6mth mark I don't mind SO much.

So what I really am worried about now is - will my supply be ok? Both on these odd days and also when I go back to work? If it suffers, how will I tell?

And finally, please help me not to beat myself up re the formula!!

You might find that your DD goes okay without feeding from you during the day, if you are feeding at either end of the day and especially at night. And especially if she has taken to solids well. Either way, I would imagine your supply will adapt so don;t beat yourself up

thanks, yes i was thinking that, even if I leave formula for her she might end up just having some food and some water?

i could prob bf about 8am then again about 5pm (and other times from 5pm onwards obviously!)

Your supply will be fine - it's very adaptable and can cope with the odd missed feed. When you're back at work, it'll be regular anyway and your supply will reduce appropriately. I went back to work when ds was 6mo and fed him at 7am and 6pm.

As she takes on more solids, as she will do over the next couple of months, she won't want so much milk anyway. Now my ds is 11mo he only has milk early in the morning and in the late afternoon/evening anyway - he's just not interested the rest of the time and would rather stuff his face with solid food!

I'm fairly sure from what I've read about supply (lots & lots in the early days of bfing!) that your supply will be absolutely fine. I think you would be able to feed her before/after work and demand feed on your days off and your supply will just adapt.

If she's pretty established on solids by the time you go back to work and will take water/juice out of a beaker you may not need to give her any formula at all if you don't want to. She could get enough liquid from her food and drinks while you are at work and bf once you are home.

It's just a thought, the downside is she may well bf more in the evening/overnight on the days you are at work but if you're really not keen on giving formula then that may be a way round it.

I used to teach, before kids, are you primary or secondary?

hey caz its only been a week for me but no affect on supply here. ive cut day feeds because im preparing for going back to work, but also because i really wanted and was ready to. ds will not take a bottle and v frequent feeder day and night so id never had a break. its gone really smoothly and he's doing really well with formula and cup. i feed him at 630pm before bed, he wakes 11.30 and 430 for a feed, i put 5oz formula on porridge, then he drinks about 10oz throughout day (formula) from cups and now has yoghurts. supply seems to be doing well, he sometimes needs 1 feed during the day if a cant distract him, but if a manage to hold him off all day i express a little to ease it gradually

Hi Caz!

I think that at 8 months of age your DD will be fine to have a bf from you at 8 then solids and water until 5pm then perhaps a night feed as well. Knowing you from the Dec thread I know your wee one still enjoys her midnight feasts ( ) as well. I remember my nephew was doing similar at 7 mths when my sister went back to work and he made up for missed breastfeeds in the evening and didn't eat any solids from when he saw my sis after home time.

There's no reason to beat yourself up about the formula but likewise there might be no reason for her to drink gallons of it either!

Thanks all

olihan i'm primary, moving from ks1 to ks2 after mat leave, quite scary...and another reason why I don't think I'll have time to fit in expressing at lunchtime, think the workload is going to be pretty manic until i adjust to a new stage, i have no resources or anything...

kelbel yes a break does sound appealing! i LOVE bf-ing and had to work so hard to get it established...but it's wearing and i think even a morning off here and there just now would make me feel a lot better. I think I might feed for longer overall if I start to mix feed, rather than all or nothing, if you know what i mean. Well done you, sounds like it's going really well.

I'm letting dd sook on soggy toast crusts and all sorts, yet hesitating to give her formula, it seems silly!

Oh crossed posts, thanks loucee i appreciate that! yes, midnight feasts indeed! plus 3am, then 5am, then 7am....zzzzzzzz!

I think bf-ing when I come home from work will be a lovely way to relax and cosy up with dd again, would be gutted if my supply dropped and i couldn't

this may sound silly, but how would I know if my supply had been affected??

Hi Caz (waves) I have been back at work 3 weeks now and given up expressing - I really just don't have time in the day - initially I thought I might explode or float away like a hot air ballon my boobs were so big - but as long as I am home for tea time feed and H has managed not to give her a bottle in the eve just tea and water I am fine - my supply seems to have settled into a early morning and tea time feed (and any night feeds neccessary)...I only work 3 days however (Mon Tues and Fri) and though I try to give her a bottle during the day on my days off to keep the routine sometimes I just can't be arsed as BF is so much easier/more convenient/pleasant....was worried might lose my milk if I didn't express but so far so good (she has 2 bottles a day about 5-6oz of formula and 3 small meals)....it actually hasn't been as bad as I expected though am very tired and miss her terribly

Just to add my experience: ds is now 7.5 months and I feed him first thing in the morning and last thing at night. He's on solids/ff the rest of the day and has been for a month, since I went back to work.

Like you, I could never express very much and didn't fancy spending most of my working day trying (and failing) to express.

My supply is fine, and when I want to add the odd extra feed in, that seems fine too. I think it's just in the early weeks, until bf is established, that you have to be careful.

And ff ain't so bad - DS doesn't seem to mind one way or t'other and you're not giving up bf completely, so your lo will get the best of both worlds (well, that's what I tell myself anyway )

Good luck going back to work xx

Yup Caz I love my BF when I get home I can almost feel the hormones relax me Almost as good as a glass of wine
I don't think my supply has been affected am still having milk squirting everywhere, can hear/see swallowing/she seems contented....nights a bit more broken - she has been a sleep througher - but I think she is reverse cycling/comfort feeding/teething/groeth spurting....and if I am completely honest I am quite enjoying my night feeds as am missing her so much in day and DD1 needs sorting as well when I get home so night feeds are just me and baby time
It will be fine I was dreading it but has been ok

(waves madly to the Dec ante-natal crew - thanks you guys!!)

lol macdoodle at floating away! i am scared the nasty yr6s will make me cry and my boobs will involuntarily squirt milk!

maybe i could express every other day to start with just to ease things off?

i am scared re the tiredness too - what with all the marking, prep etc, I really think the pressure of trying to keep up the expressing too might be the straw that breaks this camel's back!!

Oh crossed posts again, thanks sufi! glad it is working out for you! do you bf all weekends?

Those of you who have done it then, did you feed as normal right up until you went back, or did you start to drop daytime feeds a week or so before you went back?

D'OH we are postnatal now!! Tiredness...

I had to go back to work full time, doing shift work (including nights) when DD1 was 14 weeks old. I breastfed her exclusively until she was about 6 months, expressing at work which was NOT easy! (I'm a nurse, you can just imagine can't you - sorry Mr Bloggs, could you just stop bleeding for a few minutes whilst I empty my breasts...)

By 6 months I was knackered, I just couldn't do it any more. So she got breastfed when she was with me, and formula when she wasn't. I continued breastfeeding until she was 9 months, and had no problems with supply. (I only stopped as she went on strike and decided she'd had enough of my boobs).

Hope it works out for you.

I did bf all weekends but gradually cut down and now it's just twice a day, every day (with, like I said, the odd extra feed here and there).

I thought I'd give up bf completely by the time I went back to work but now that I can bf twice a day no problems, it actually has made me want to continue for as long as ds wants to... cos I've got my independence, work and social life back and I still get to have lovely cuddles/bf with DS1 in the mornings and at night.

But yes, I cut down gradually beforehand.

caz, I just want to add another experience of returning to work and bfing... I do shift work which is totally unpredictable, I only know the night before what my hours the next day will be, so it's very hard for me to plan bfing. I've been back 2months now and we're still going strong, I do pump but my supply is ridiculously sensitive. More so than anyone's I know.

If I have an early start (7am) I pump a bit and then dh gives ds a bottle of formula (I don't really get enough out when I'm pumping, it's just to keep the supply up), he then has one bottle of formula at the childminders, I will then bf him before bed and do a dreamfeed at about 10pm.

If I'm on a later shift, I'll bf him in the morning, the childminder will give him formula in the afternoon and dh will give him formula before bed and I'll do the dreamfeed myself.

So you can see, I usually really only get to feed him twice a day but my supply is holding up. On my days off I feed much more, leave him on longer, but bizarrely I'm finding I have much more milk on days when I'm working, probably because I'm distracted by work and it's helping my supply because I'm not fretting about having enough milk. And that brings me to my last point.... milk supply is so much to do with your mindset, you must have discovered that if you're relaxed the milk really flows, so if you tell yourself your milk supply will withstand working it will, simple as that! Be positive, know you can do it, and you will. Good luck

And Caz one last thing if it doesn't work - it really is not the end of the world - you have done wonderfully well to get to 6 months - don't add extra stress to it - just enjoy your baby when you are home - and if those Yr 6's mess with you just let me know -we can squirt them together

Hi Caz!

Just wanted to say that if you did decide to try and express i think it would be much much easier doing it in the middle of the day having not fed for your DD fo a few hours as compared to what you were trying to do before (ie pump between feeds). I am expressing twice a day with one proper BF at lunchtime and now it is a routine i can easily get 6oz in 10mins which would have been unheard of before.

I totally understand your reasons for not wanting to express at work, but just so you know it might be easier than you think if you did want to try that route.

otherwise as everyone else says a feed before you leave in the morning and a feed as soon as you get home will probably do her for the whole day by 8 months.

Best of luck whatever you decide

hello, have read this with interest. i'm going back to work in 2 weeks when ds will be 7mo. he has really taken to solids and is much less keen on bf (prev every 1.5-2hrs in day). no idea if this is because of a few bottles (given by childminder whilst settling him in for short sessions). he seems disatisfied with the breast, it is really upsetting me.

but it has been nice to read the above posts, so maybe i should accept perhaps just a morning and evening feed, it would be better than stopping all together, which i really don't want to do.

caz, i have just bought some lilpadz and wore them at a no children wedding on saturday. away from ds for 8 hrs and didn't leak although boobs like rocks. might help with work?

Just wanted to say thank you so much for all your comments, I am feeling much more positive about this now!

weasle let us know how it goes?

thank you so much again

Coming from a slightly different angle, I'm fully expressing (never got the hang of bf) and my DD is now 6 months old. I've found that my supply doesn't change much whether I express 2 or 4 times a day and sometimes it's even more when it's twice a day.

At the moment it's either gone down or DD is eating more (think it's the latter) but it's not a big change and seems more to do with how much rest I get than anything else. Just thought it might reassure you.

So, it seems we can adapt quite easily to whatever pattern is necessary.