Will 11 month be OK with 2 BF morning and evening 2 days a week while at nursery?

[notasausage]

DD will go to nursery when she's 3 weeks away from 12 months. I've never got on well with expressing and would rather not give formula. Will she be OK (and will my supply be OK) if I feed her morning and evening only on the 2 days she's at nursery and have her drink water with regular meals/snacks, but go back to 3-4 feeds on the other days if she wants? Or should/could she have cows milk at nursery - I know the advice is 12 months for cows milk but she's been having it in cerial and sauce since 6 months with no probs.

I had the same dilema at 10mths. I asked the HV about giving cow's milk a little early (same - DD had it for breakfast everyday anyway) but HV said not until 12 months.

So I sent a carton of formula to nursery for lunch-time (DD had it in a straw-cup or tommy tippy so as not to use bottles) and BF morning and night. Then switched to cow's milk at 12 mths.

The only difficulty we had was that she liked the formula more than cow's milk at first! So I had to mix it half and half to get her used to the cow's milk but it didn't take long.

You might find that your milk supply dwindles during the day once you start doing this, so you might need enough supplies for the non-nursery days, too.

you should be absolutely fine, and so will your DD. You may find she'll want more feeds when you are home though. I stopped expressing for daytime feeds when my DS was 11months 1 week (I'd had enough after 6 months of it). Supply has remained fine. No problems with engorgement when I am working, and enough to keep DS happy when I am at home.

DS refuses cows milk as a drink though, and will only take water. Not sure if this is a coincidence, but he has started waking in the night for feeds, too often for my liking.

it's only 2 days a week for 3 weeks (so, what, 12 cups in total?) so personally I would have nursery offer her cows' milk from the start - it won't be her 'main' drink as she'll still be bf most of the time.

agree re avoiding bottles though

I think at 11 months it's not a big deal for so few days and few feeds.

Try just using an open cup with formula or cows milk.

Infact, I would suggest offering cows milk because my second daughter (who was BF for over 9 months) loved formula and we didn't get her to give it up until 18months. And it is a pain making up formula.

There is no need for her to have any milk at all while at the nursery. I was at work when my children were this age. They had dilute juice (no teeth problems) to drink with meals and I breastfed normally on days off.

Milk supply will be fine. Cow's milk is not necessary to drink when breastfeeding stops as long as baby gets enough milk in other foods.

Personally I would (and did) offer cow's milk. There's nothing "wrong" with cow's milk before 12 months per se, it just doesn't have the extra vitamins etc that are present in bm and replicated in formula so they don't recommend it as a "main drink" before 12 months. It doesn have more vitamins etc than water though.

Sorry, it DOES have more vitamins than water.

I agree that with only 3 weeks to go and only 2 days per week, probably be fine to offer cow's milk. Mine was 10 mths, so I went with formula for the 2 mths, but 3 weeks is neither here nor there.

Your DD might not like it as a drink to start with, so the amount she takes might be minimal anyway.

notasausage - meant to say that your first plan if fine. Baby will still get enough milk from you on the days she is at nursery, included with milk she has in foods. Therte really is no need to start cow's milk as drink in itself at all.

DS went to nursery 3 days a week at just over 11 months, and it was fine (well it wasn't, but nothing to do with the milk!). I also fed him as soon as we got home as well as morning and bed time - would that be an option, so 3 feeds a day? Weekends he went back to feeding on demand, much much more than 3x a day and supply was fine (but he was probably also feeding once or twice in the night too). I also told them to give cows milk if necessary, but I think they wouldn't before 12 months so he had only water and food. Mum and MIL looked after him one day each and gave cows milk I think.