Baby due to start daycare - various concerns re BFing

[jumpjockey]

DD is 10 months and next month starts at nursery 2 days a week. She's currently feeding morning and night and then two or three times during the day - lunchtime, and often to help her get off for a nap .

So, the issues - getting her to nap without boob is for a different area of MN...!

Her daytime feeds; I've had no real success with expressing - a couple of ounces max after a lot of effort - so am not especially optimistic about getting enough to provide for her lunchtime drink. But at the same time I'm not especially keen on her having formula, simply because she hasn't had any before and the upheaval of starting nursery will be enough without having to get used to milk from a different source. Is there any way to try and boost the amount expressed? I could certainly pop to the first aid room at work to keep the boobs used to being 'used' at lunchtime.

Generally keeping it going - if there are fewer feeds, will the supply gradually lessen as there's less demand? I don't want her to be weaned before she wants to simply because the boobs can't adapt to missing that feed.

bump

I'm in exactly the same position as you. Don't have any magic answers though I'm afraid. I think that cow's milk as a drink is fine from 12 months so my best plan at the moment is to try to stretch her out so she has 4 feeds a day at 6 am, 8 am, 6 pm and 8 pm, with milk or water in between.

Not an ideal situation, although I'm sure it won't harm her at 11 months. I thought I might try her on a bottle of lunch time formula if necessary as tbh at this stage I feel that my reluctance to give her one bottle a day is more about me than it is about her (still don't want to though!)

It's been a long time, as it was dd1 and she's 11 but...

dd1 went into daycare at 5 months old (with hindsight I can't believe I sent her there so young, but I has to finish my post grad degree). She had started on solids (that was the advice then) but her only drink was breastmilk. I did manage to express enough for her, but she refused to drink from the bottle and would normally go most of the day with only an tiny amount of milk. She made up for it by having a big feed as soon as she saw me (I collected her mid afternoon) and then having extra feeds in the evening and at night (she'd previously slept through).

By about 8 or 9 months she was drinking breastmilk from a sippy cup, but again not much, only few oz per day.

I went on to breastfeed her until she self weaned at 13 months (I was delighted as she thought biting was funny!). I did stop expressing after Christmas when she was approx. 8 months as it was a bit of a nightmare at work (had to book the conference room every day and questions were asked) and it all seemed a bit pointless as dd wasn't really drinking it much anyway!

I went back to work when my dd was 11 months too. She was having similar bm feeds to your dd and absolutely refused to take a bottle. I work 2 days too, and on the days I am at work, dd goes from 7:30am - 5pm without milk and it really isn't a problem. She has water to drink and has been offered cows milk in a sippy cup but doesn't really go for it. On the days I don't work, dd breastfeeds at around 3pm (she's 12months now) and might have a bit in the morning too if she wants it.

I was worried about the routine being different on different days and that making it harder for her when I wasn't there, but she is fine and just knows that if I'm there she can bf and if I'm not then she drinks more water. I had one practice about a week before I went back to work, where I didn't give her any milk during the day and was reassured to see that she could go the day without (a busy, fun day with no time for a bit of boredom snacking).

I'm sure your dd will be fine, unless you work a seriously long day or something. If so you could express and offer it in a sippy cup but a couple of days with some cowsmilk to drink would be fine as breastmilk would still be her main drink (over the day and over the week).

Hiya - DS at 10 mo used to have a morning bottle with childminder (have to concede I couldn't have expressed enough, particularly as I'm back at work full time so it was formula). At about 11 mo he dropped his daytime milk feeds and had a breastfeed at 6am, 5pm and 8pm.

I strongly recommend talking to one of the BFing helplines about increasing the amount you express. They were really helpful with me about going back to work. I used the NCT one but have heard good things about all of them.

Given that your little girl will only be in daycare for two days per week, you might well find that your breasts just work out what they need to do. I found that I could do all the daytime weekend feeds and still not be uncomfortable during the week. God knows how it works but it seems to. I would recommend some good breastpads etc for the first couple of weeks.

Don't be at the BF to sleep thing, DS is 15mo and we still do it. It takes 5 minutes for him to fall soundly asleep nowadays so I'm not in a hurry to change it, despite being worried about it being the wrong thing to do for ages.

Anyway, DS started nursery at 6mo and refused to take any bottles of EBM from the nursery staff for months. I was worried of course but, as others have said, he just made up for it when we got home. Your supply will be maintained because DD will either have EBM in a bottle or get it direct from the source when you're together. My supply only really fell off recently when we night weaned DS and DH took over a couple of bedtimes.

As for expressing, if you are away from DD and therefore v full, you might find you get a better yield than you're currently getting anyway. Also, it gets easier to express with repetition.

I wasn't mad keen on DS having formula either (after all that bloody effort with the BF!) but when he turned 1, funny enough was happy for him to have cows milk instead of EBM. Maybe I'm just lazy though: after BF all the sterilising involved in expressing just felt like a pain in the arse!

I went back when DD was six months and, although I could express a fair bit when I was at work, she never took a bottle of the stuff! She would sip some expressed milk from a doidy cup but her carers ended up mixing milk in solids. She also fed more in the mornings and evenings to make up for it, I think.

Anyway, by the time she was 10/11 months she was pretty much just having BF in the mornings and evenings.

If it's only two days you're in work, then you'll probably be able to carry on as you are on the other five days. Your body will adjust, even if you have to nip to the first aid room to express a bit for comfort. And DD will be ok.

And don't worry about the naps - my DD would only nap after feeds with me, but soon got into a routine at nursery.

Good luck with the return to work.

Hairymelons - our children sound very similar!

Fed DD until 18 months, but after she turned one was happy to let her have cows' milk in the day at nursery and BF in the mornings and evenings and at weekends. It all sort of worked itself out (thanks largely to great advice from MN). And I'm sure it will for you too, OP.

At nearly 3, DD happily goes to sleep herself, even though for the first half of her life she was fed to sleep. So worry not on that score - just carry on doing what's working for you.

Thanks all, v reassuring to hear it can be done! I'm sure the nursery people will be able to persuade her to sleep, it's their job after all! And she will be close enough to the age that cow's milk is ok that if she wants that at lunchtime it will be fine.