Going back to work when DD is 11 months

[FlopemOut]

DD is 6 months, she's EBF and we've recently started BLW. She's a boob monster and feeds at least every 2 hours and has done since birth. I'm due back at work in 5 months and at the moment I can't see how this is going to work.

I would like to continue feeding her but I can't see how she's going to cope without her boob. Will she cope with a beaker of water during the day or should I be expressing? (I'm really lazy)

I'd like to think about a plan whereby something is very gently and gradually introduced, hence my thinking about it now; rather than getting to her 10 month birthday and giving myself just a few weeks to sort it out.

Ironic isn't it that DS struggled to establish BF and now I'm thinking how can I get my DD to cope without BF!

If anyone has any tips I'd be really grateful to hear them.

Hey Flopem! I bf, blw etc and returned to work when dd was 11 months and all was fine.

You could try expressing but my dd won't drink expressed milk or cows milk from a cup (or bottle for that matter) but is happy with water.

Some days she eats lots of food & drinks lots of water, other days she's less bothered. Then helps me to take my coat off when I get home!

I leave dd with PIL who don't like BLW & didn't feel confident organising dd's meals so I menu plan. It reassures me that dd isn't living on biscuits while I'm at work & takes a bit of stress away for mil.

I worried about dd because she still feeds every couple of hours if we're together but it was all fine. I had read that dc might feed more at night to "catch up" but my dd hasn't.

Hth

Expressing is easy once you get the hang of it so you can build up some stocks in the freezer and then provide bottles for the childminder. With a bit of organisation it can be done, honest.

I knew I was going back to work at 12 months so I started my ds on a lunchtime bottle at about 9 months and he coped fine. Then a 3.30 bottle as well. He still had a boob first thing in the morning, at 6.30pm and last thing at night so I don't think it was too much of a shock.

Also, once your dd is used to a bottle, you can have a well-earned day off without needing to worry.

Good luck.

my ds is 10 months and i'm about to go back to work. I had the same worry as you, but all of a sudden he's dropped down to three feeds a day first thing, last thing and mid afternoon. He wont take any milk in a beaker, bottle or otherwise, but will drink water. I 've done a few afternoons at work and after stressing that he wouldn't take any milk, have concluded that he's fine without it and is getting plenty in his meals. I'm sure yours will stop having as much milk by the time you have to go back to work. She's still very young and only just starting on the weaning. I would definately recommend trying to get her used to using a bottle though as this has proved a problem for us.

Interesting...so some express and some don't. I must admit I'd rather not, as getting two kids out of the house (and myself) in the morning will be difficult enough without having to express too!

So it sounds like it's too early to be thinking about this just yet and see how much she feeds in a couple of months.

Thanks all

to start with, 11m is ages away and she will chaneg a lot
5m ago she was a teeny weeny newborn who barely opened her eyes
Think how far she's come - you have nearly that far to go!

expressing is much easier when done instead of a feed rather than as well (iyswim) - so expressing at work for the next day's milk (as I did) is much easier than trying to build a freezer stock months in advance in addition to feedign.

and remember from 12m she can have cows' milk as a main drink so you only actually need to worry about four weeks.

So action points for now are:
Offer her a beaker of water with every meal so she gets used to drinking form something other than the breast

and, er, that's about it

I wouldn't worry about it quite yet. There is such a big change in milk consumption between 6 and 11 months. Ds2 was still having loads of breast milk and some solids at 6 months but at 12 months is now having a bf at 6.30am and bedtime and has 3-4 oz of cows milk in a bottle mid-morning and mid-afternoon (I know its not recommended until a year but I wasn't going to introduce formula for a few weeks so started cows milk 5 weeks 'early').

In preparation make sure she will drink expressed milk from a cup or beaker so you don't have that stress later on.

I don't work and ds1 is at school but I still wouldn't find time to express every day. Hats off to those who do .