Want to start mix feeding - what is best way to avoid reduced supply?

[amijee]

Hi there

I am due to return to work soon and need to:

1. introduce my dd2 to the bottle

1. reduce my supply in the day as I do not wish to express at work

I am not sure whether to stop all breast feeding during work hrs and express off any engorgement or just start with one feed a day and build up from there.

I want to continue with morning, evening and night breast feeds so I am keen that I do not do anything to jeopardise my milk supply.

DD2 is 4 mths old and I breast fed ds1 until he was 13 mths.

Thanks in advance for your help x x x

I didn't have any issues at all. I worked part time and I carried on breastfeeding as normal on my non-working days and on my working days, just am and pm.

I didn't get engorged, or express. But I think I was lucky, TBH

With ds I went back to work at 5 months - cut back one daytime feed a week over the 3 weeks before I returned. I had a bit of engorgement but not unmanageable. I still did the morning, teatime and night feeds and continued these for another 2 months but stopped bf after then as supply had definitely dropped and ds was getting frustrated. Good luck

You shouyld have no trouble doing those feeds at all. Your breasts will adjust to what you do. If they are fed-on 3 times a day, they will make enough milk for 3 times a day!!!

It's a really good idea to keep up these feeds for immunity purpises. Did you know that breastmilk gets more concentrated as you reduce the amount of feeds, and so baby gets just as much immunity from 3 feeds a day as it does from 8 feeds a day!! Plus you get instant immunity to all the bugs that are around. If you catch a cold, those antibodies will be straight into your breastmilk and into baby, so he will either not get it at all or a lot less severe. AMAZING STUFF!!!!!!

thanks for your help - just got to get her on to the bottle now!!

I'm sure Tiktok will be able to advise further, and I'm sorry to say it, but I think you will be running a very high risk of jeopardising your supply by cutting down to only 2-3 feeds at just four months. Many women won't be able to maintain that under 12 months from what I understand. I obviously don't know your particular circumstances but expressing at work would help maintain your supply for longer and you could use the milk to reduce the number of formula feeds you'd have to give.

Sadly breast milk doesn't get 'more concentrated' the less feeds you do, that's why there's so much focus on feeding on demand and feeding for as long as possible - immunity and other benefits build up from the number of feeds, not vice versa.

there is somebody on my postnatal board who went back to work at 4mo and is (i think) still bf - our babies are nearly around 8mo. i'll post a link to this on our board and see if she has any advice

When are you returning to work? I know plenty of mums whose babies went into childcare at 9 months and had no need for bottles and formula. Obviously a bit different if you are going back in 6 weeks though, I appreciate that.

I would be very concerned that your DD will prefer the bottle and potentially reject the breastfeeds that you would like to continue with. Slow flow teats could help avoid that.

Hi amijee, I'm the one from HQ's post-natal board. As she says DD is nearly 8 months and I've been back at work since she was 3.5 months and I'm still BFing. Last week she started having formula for one feed a day during the week when she is with the CM.

Continuing to BF was very important to me, so I expressed twice a day at work until DD was 6 months old. Then I cut down to once a day and after that it only took two months to run down my (quite considerable) store of frozen EBM.

I would definitely try to get advice from tiktok or another expert before stopping feeding during the day at 4 months. At weekends I can feed DD myself with no problem, even though I've cut down to just one expressing a day during the week now, but even at this stage I would not be comfortable letting my supply dwindle during the day.

Why are you so reluctant to express at work? Don't you think your work will be supportive? I was lucky that another woman (a very assertive one) had insisted on a room being made available to us with a fridge and a lock on the door. You might find that you have more support than you imagine, as chances are good you'll have colleagues doing the same thing. You just might not realise until you ask.