Stopping expressing and introducing a formula feed in the evening - how badly will it affect my supply?

[lovely74]

My little boy is 5 months old and breastfed. I express twice a day (morning and around 11pm)producing between 100-200ml altogether. My DH feeds him EBM at bedtime (around 8.30) then one more feed before midnight. Sometimes he has more than what I have expressed that day, sometimes less. DS has always had an EBM feed as we had a nightmare BF in the first couple of months and it helped physically and psychologically, and still does. When he reaches 6 months I want to stop regular expressing, and replace the evening feed with formula BUT continue BF for all the other feeds. How much is this likely to impact on my supply? Obviously I'll produce less but should this matter as formula will replace this so the extra won't be needed. Please no guilt about inroducing formula - I NEVER thought I'd get this for with BF and certainly never planned to carry on after 6 months but here we are and it's still going strong. He also wakes a lot in the night but I don't expect the FF to have any impact on this at all. I'm just thoroughly sick of daily expressing, stressing when I'll find the time in the morning when I'd rather be playing with my son, and staying up late to do it when what I need is some early nights. I;ll still do the odd session when it fits in.

Sorry this is so long!

Lovely, I am in nearly the exact position, for what it's worth I don't think anyone can say how it'll affect supply because everyone is responds differently. If formula is right for you and your family then I say don't give it another thought and just go for it. Hopefully supply will continue to meet demand.
I think we're both bloody great for getting this far!

from what i understand it, a ff a day will impact on supply. it might make him sleep longer at night and therefore you won't be feeding him when he would normaly need it in the night. this could affect it as night feeds are quite good at keeping up supply due to the hormones. a ff a day will also impact on his gut ph, but as he is almost 6 months this may not be an issue (gut closure happens around six months). breastmlk has something in it which coats the inside of the baby's gut. immunoglobulin or something like that. ff can interfere with this protection (I THINK! might want to research that yourself though!). however, there are people that do it successfully for quite a while. there are also people who do it and it is a bit of a spiral - one bottle becomes two, etc etc... it really depends on how you would feel if it did have a significant impact on supply.

i'm really not an expert, just someone interested in bfing and a bfing mum (ds is your son's age) so please don't take my word as given. i am sure an expert will be along soon anyway.

well done for getting this far too

Should be fine by 6 months. I'm sure breasts are meant to cope with a gradual drop in demand as babies start solids etc, it doesn't generally just dry up when you drop one feed so by this stage I think the same would apply for dropping a feed for formula. If he wasn't already having a bottle it might be a risk that he would develop a preference for the bottle but it sounds like you already combine both without a problem.

Not an expert either by the way, just have a 7 month old who is feeding a lot less than 2 months ago without any supply problems.

Hi, I have a 13 week old (DS2), and have introduced a formula feed at 10pm from 7 weeks.
I did it after 3 weeks of trying to express with pitifull results, and deciding that this was the worst of both worlds... And because I wanted my DS to be able to take a bottle should I ever want to leave him.
Anyway... I have no problems with all other feeds being BF; and we have had a couple of fretty nights where he fed every hour or so, and maybe this was a bit more drawn out because of impact the bottle, but I can't really say it's had any major impact.