cutting down to two feeds a day -- does it work?

[Lorien]

My ds is 6 months and I want to cut down on breast feeding so that he just gets a morning feed and a night feed (and the rest on formula). Any advice on whether this would work? I'm worried that my milk might just dry up totally. And on that point, later in the year I'll be away from ds for 8 days. Is that too long a break, or can I pick up again with the morning and night feeds when we are reunited? Any experience or advice greatly received.
Thanks, Lorien

lorien, I know of lots of people who have managed this with little bother. However, it didn't work out for me - I found that once I was giving ds regular bottles of formula through the day, my supply went down quite rapidly and ds didn't seem to find breast feeds satisfying, so I stopped completely. I sometimes wonder if I could have prevented this, but at the time it didn't seem worth the bother.

I think you'll just have to try and see. If you are very keen to carry on breastfeeding (more keen than you are to cut it down), I would suggest cutting down the day time feeds fairly gradually, and possibly also expressing during the day to keep your supply up, if that is possible. If the reason for cutting back is because you're going back to work, I'd suggest perhaps also continuing daytime breastfeeds when you can, at weekends for example.

These suggestions aren't based on experience, however - they're just ideas that I thought with hindsight might have helped me to keep things going, if I had really wanted to.
Hopefully you'll be one of the ones who seem to be able to carry on almost indefinitely with one or two feeds a day!

I was one of the ones that elliott mentions. I mix fed successfully for several months. I went back to work when DS was 15 weeks. I used to feed him early evening (6), bedtime (10), and early morning (6) - all times approximate - and whatever I ended up doing through the night. He had 3 bottles during the day. As he went onto solids we gradually cut out one of the bottles and one of the evening feeds.

To get to this position, I introduced one bottle at a time. My worst thing was getting DS to take a bottle. Although I only worked 3 days a week - I kept to the 3 bottles every day. It worked really well for me but as Elliott says it might not for everyone.

As for the going away - I would worry see about how things go and worry about it nearer the time. The only thing I would suggest is that in order to keep up your supply, prevent excessive leakage you will need to express while you are away. Depending on how practical it is to keep the milk, you could just express it away in the shower.

Just my experience but HTH.

I also mixed fed very sucessfully from early on. It was only one bottle a day to start with until I went back to work and cut down to 2 feeds a day. I would start slowly, perhaps introducing a bottle once a day. If he won't take it, could someone else feed him?

I used to do lunchtime with a bottle (breast at around 10 am and again at 3 pm) I didn't express, but I agree you may have to a bit if you get too uncomfortable. Your milk supply shouldn't dry up if you cut down gradually. When I went back to work I was quite engorged by the time I got home, but this settled down after a few days.

If you are away, do express otherwise a break of 8 days may well make things sore for you and mean you can't start again.

I did mixed feeding from 3 weeks (long story - ds lost lots of weight, didn't put any on, had mw and me worried......), but this worked really well, and I only stopped breast feeding at 13 months. My advice would be to be really determined about the feeds he gets - make sure they're really good ones, and don't let him demand the bottle at those feeds. As for the 8 days, that may be too long, but you could express during those days.

I am successfully mix-feeding my 6 month old dd. I give her a breastfeed in the morning before work at about 7.30am and she has 3 bottles of formula during the day at around 11am/3pm/6pm. We are blessed with an angel baby who sleeps through the night from 6.30pm-6.30am and so I haven't had to feed during the night. I have not experienced any problems and since being back at work I am really enjoying our special time together.

How much later in the year will you be going away? You may find that your ds cuts down on his feeds himself and so you won't have to make the decision yourself. If you are still breastfeeding then I would echo what others have said and express - if only to avoid soreness spoiling your trip.

Lorien, just to echo what others have said in that it can work very successfully. I went to just the morning and night feed at around 6 months with ds, but had already introduced him to a bottle with expressed milk that he successfully took. He had no problem going to formula, as long as he was fed it didn't seem to matter what it was or from what!
As for going away, can you express when you are away? I went away for 3 nights when ds was 7 months and expressed morning and night. A bit of a waste of milk, but kept my supply going. Again there was no problem with ds going back to the breast. I'm sure 8 days would be fine, but you may want to express if only to stop the discomfort.

Another success story - I fed morning and night from 5 months, am now feeding mornings only (10m). I was away for 3 days, tried to hand express in the bath once but it didn't work and when I came back was fine. Only problem was that by the morning of the third day my jackets wouldn't do up over my huge boobs, and breast pads were an absolute must.

Thanks for all the encouragement. I'll try cutting down to 2 breastfeeds and hopefully, that will work fine ( I normally have quite a strong milk supply)
As for the 8 days apart, I'm encouraged that some of you managed to continue after a break, and the expressing in the shower option might be just the thing. Anyway, I'll give it a try!!!

Lorien

I cant comment on cutting down to 2 feeds at this age as I am still feeding ds (14months) 3 times a day.
However, when dd was 5 months I left her for 6 days (preplanned, paid and booked holiday with my Gran from before I was even pg with dd). I sucessfully expressed for the whole time I was away and went back to full time breastfeeding when I got back. For a couple of days she needed a top up of ebm after the breast until my supply got back up (as it did fall off a bit with expressing) but it was OK after that and I went on to feed her until she was 13 months.
All the best.