Can I leave my 7 month for 2 days and a night without sabotaging BF?

[skidaddle]

Well the title says it all really. I have to go away for two whole days and a night so no BF at all in that time and I am worried it will disrupt BF.

DS is on solid food now but still has loads of BFs during the day. He also often has EBM from DH but has never had formula and I really don't want him to.

I have a stash of EBM in the freezer and I will take my pump and express 2-3 times a day if I get a chance (will be at a conference so might be difficult).

Will this be OK? He won't get addicted to bottles in my absence will he? Forget how to BF? Am I being ridiculous and over-emotional? OK I'm sure the answer to that last question is yes but I can't bear the thought of stopping BF now

Assuming he is a good age, I can't imagine he will be affected at all, in terms of then preferring a bottle.
Probably most important is to make sure you do get the chance to express, so your supply isn't affected when you return. I would imagine 2 days is enough to start signalling to your body that you may not need as much?
Sorry not much more help x

You will be fine. I left ds1 for 2 nights at 5 months old when he was still fully bf, left a freezer full of ebm and took my pump with me (heartbreaking to put all that ebm down the sink though) and he didn't miss a beat. He had been having a bottle of ebm most days from about 6 weeks old, so he was used to that, but he was equally happy to swap back to my boobs when I came home.

Should be fine - I was away from DS for 1.5 days at about that age. Watch out for your boobs hurting tho - I got quite uncomfortable even with pumping cos it's not half as efficient as a LO suckling. Take breast pads as you're going to be at a work thing.

As other posters have said, you'll be fine. Express when you'd feed normally, and before going to bed. I found I was very uncomfortable in the morning but dd was absolutely fine and fell upon me like a ravenous horde when I was reunited with her. We did have a bit of a hiccup a couple of days later when she went on a nursing strike (she was 8 months) which I'm sure was related, but we got through it and she was just finee.

No problem at all. IME (and I expressed 5 days a week for a year, started doing overnights away from 6 months, and expressed when away from 14-23 months, so theres quite a lot) as long as you have a really good express in the morning and evening, and do what you can in the day )if the conference is where you will be staying, slope off in the lunch break and pump, otherwise hand express a bit down the loo / into a bottle everytime you go to the loo) it'll be fine, especially for a short amount of time like that.

DS was always exceedingly pleased to see the num nums when I came back from a trip and it never affected our bfing relationship.

oh thanks all, that is so reassuring. I assume I won't have to express as many times a day as I feed him as i sometimes feed him 10+ times a day, although most are just short snacks. I was thinking 3 or 4 times a day would do it?

I agree wilbur it will kill me to pour my precious EBM down the sink but needs must

snickersnack - so pleased to hear your DD fell upon you enthusiatically on your return - i think that is my biggest worry - that he will turn his nose up at me and look around for a bottle!

thanks again, good old MN