Expressing milk for a one year old baby – how much how often?

[pidge]

I would be really interested to hear experiences from anyone who has continued breastfeeding their baby after returning to work, as everyone I know has switched to formula or mixed feeding.

I am still completely breastfeeding my 11 month old daughter, she feeds four times a day at about 7, 11, 3 and 7. When I?m at work 3 days a week I just express at the 11 and 3 o?clock feeds and (with some help from my freezer supply) I get enough milk to provide for the nursery. I?ve been building up my freezer supply by fitting in an extra expressing session at 10pm, but have just celebrated her 11 month birthday by giving that up.

Really what I?d like to get is a picture of what?s ahead of me. I have no intention of giving up breastfeeding yet, but I?d love to think that I might be able to cut down to expressing once a day at work, and I imagine that after a year my daughter might need less milk. At the moment I?m supplying 12-15oz, as well as feeding her morning and evening. And she eats three hearty meals as well.

Has anyone else expressed at work after the first year?

Thanks

Well, I can't help from the point of view of expressing after age one (I only did that earlier on) but I believe you get the benefits of breastfeeding even if it's not exclusive breastfeeding after the age of one. You could give your dd other drinks during the day now, like water, dilute juice and ordinary cows milk (unless she is allergic to milk). If she's eating hearty meals she wouldn't - I would have thought - need so many breastfeeds. She can also drink from a cup now so you won't need bottles at all. You could then breastfeed her morning and evening and still give her all the benefits of breast milk. At this stage you don't need to use formula at all - ever! I gave my ds cows milk from the age of one but still b/fed morning and evening for a couple more months. He took to it straight away and he's extremely healthy.

Pidge, You seem to be managing to express loads. I think your DD should be getting plenty, perhaps you could start to cut back on the daytime feeds now - she can have cow's milk instead(if not allergic) from 12mths. I chose to give DD follow-on milk, since it has iron added, and cows milk obviously hasn't. (she won't always eat red meat -taking after her mum, althogh we are not completely veggie!)

my DD is 12 mths , and I have been back at work 3 days/week since she was 6 mths old. I expressed milk up to DD being 9 months old, then just fed her am/pm on work days and on demand the other 4 days. She is eating more and drinking water during the day, and I have started to give her follow - on milk in addition to her b/f in the morning.
The routine generally goes
6.30 am b/f for 10 minutes, then top-up with formula about 7am ish (4oz)

breakfast - 8-9ish usually porridge, weetabix or toast and fruit.

11am (if I am home) b/f and sleep

12-12.30 lunch

6pm b/f or formula (depends how busy I am!)

7.30 - 8pm b/f before bed

I haven't expressed for ages now, though I do worry if my supply is drying up - boobs are rapidly heading south now!!

How do you cope with your DD teeth now? mine often gives me a nip, and even just the teeth rubbing makes me sore sometimes!

oops - she does have tea too - missed that out - no I don't starve her all afternoon!

Thanks DebL and Aloha - that kind of confirms what I was suspecting, i.e. that I could really be cutting back the breastfeeds now. And that would take the pressure off producing quite so much milk when I'm at work.

I should also have mentioned that because I have eczema, asthma, hayfever, nut allergies etc I was advised not to give my daughter any cowsmilk at all until 12 months. So I'm just thinking about introducing it in her food in the next couple of months, but probably not as a main drink. So far (fingers crossed) no sign of allergies at all and only tiny patches of dry skin on her. I like to think the breastfeeding helped with that!

As for teeth - dd had them at 5 months! She's nipped me a couple of times and I just took her straight off and firmly said no. Nowadays after every feed I have four teeth marks where her top teeth rest on my skin, but I seem to have toughened up to cope!

Pidge, I expressed at work up until a month after DS turned one. I expressed only once a day - took too much time out otherwise. However never got as much as you seem to be expressing. However DS never drank much from a bottle, only 1 oz at a time, and didn't like frozen BM, so most of the time what I expressed went down the drain! Eventually I gave up, fed in the morning and evening for the 3 days while I was at work, and fed normally the rest of the time. I think I was down to 3 feeds a day by Xmas, but then went on a big o/s trip, DS was on the boob constantly, and since then it has been pretty much on demand when I am at home, but no milk when I am not there - so from about 13mths, DS has had just water and food when I am at work. If you ask around your friends who are still bottlefeeding, you may find they have gone to just a morning and evening bottle by one year - can't remember exactly when my friends did it, but it was around about that time. Does your baby drink water? DS drinks loads, including before and after a BF.

At the age of one year I did not express at all and just breastfed when I was at home, which could be quite often depending on what babies wanted to do. When I was away, my children got juice, water or cows milk. Only one child really liked cows milk - the rest preferred juice. I personally did not want to use follow-on milk because I don't think it is necessary and I had never given formula at all. Follow-on milk only appeared when restrictions on the advertisement of formula came into force. It can be advertised because it is not a breastmilk substitute. I am not saying not to use it, just it is not necessary.