Formula or cows milk for bf 11mo baby?

[Hadeda]

I am back at work, been back about 7 weeks. I express at work but, like so many people, get a measly amount out. We are also incredibly busy and I often just don't get to go down and express during the day.

DD is nearly 11 months (will be 11 months next weekend). She has 4 - 5 feeds a day, but only one of these is during working hours. (Yes, we do have sleep issues too!! )

I am rapidly getting to the point where I just can't provide enough milk for her day feeds. So I'm looking at stopping expressing as I am really struggling to manage to express while at work and it doesn't provide a full feed.

But if I do this should I give her formula or, given it's only one feed per day, is cows milk ok? She has never had formula so I have no idea what she'd like. But TBH, she's such a glutton I expect she'd happily have whatever I bought - so I am questioning this more from the perspective of whether cows milk is nutritionally ok for one feed per day (out of 4 or 5 feeds, and 3 solid meals) or whether she would be better off with formula.

Thanks in advance for any help!

For one feed a day cows milk is fine at 11 months. In a month she would be able to have cows milk for all her milk feeds. Just make sure it's the full fat (blue top). It's great that you're still giving her bm for most feeds and one cup of cows milk while you're at work won't make a difference.

I had exactly the same problem expressing during day so gave Aptamil (closer to breast milk in flavour and consistency than SMA which is powdery in texture) from 7 months one feed a day until DD turned 11 months (now 11 1/2 months),when I discovered it contained taurine like in Red Bull!. Now switched to cows milk (still warmed) and she takes it fine. Some paediatricians say cows milk can be given from nine months, but 12 months onwards for all feeds. If your DD refuses try adding small amount of water as cows milk has more salt in it and is more creamy, did this at first then built up to all cows milk (full fat). If creates a lot of gas she could be having a problem breaking down the proteins in the milk so warm milk to just under boiling (like for hot chocolate) then cool back down and try again. My DD does not have this problem luckily, but both DH and I do and we can take milk warmed in this way more easily (I vomit up cold milk).

Hello I have a similar situation with my bf 9.5 month old. I'm going back to work in 2 weeks. Like you he has plenty of feeds after work hours (sleep issues, yes we have those too!!). So I'm going to let him have cows milk during the day. At the moment he's still bf at least twice during the time I'll be out at work. I'm hoping that when I'm not around he will adjust. So far he hasn't been very interested in beakers, whether they contain formula or cows milk...

If its only one feed a day cows milk ok, but might be worth discussing with GP/HV as breast babies can have low iron and vit D especially if they are still breastfed at 11 months and both iron and vit d added to formula. My nephew was breastfed until 18 months and had medical issues because of low iron and vit d.

If her diet is high in iron then ignore what i just said although I struggled to get my DD onto cows milk (from formula) age 1 - formula is sweeter I think.

Thanks for all these messages. I've decided to give DD a go on the cows milk for this week. She has it in cereal etc already and actually had it a few times in the past few weeks when she was clearly starving but what I'd pumped wasn't enough.
Bit of a shame still, especially since I had to kick up a massive stink at work to get a room I could express in.

about the taurine!! Funnily enough, when I was thinking about formula I was planning to try aptamil first as one of my NCT friends said it was the closest to BM.

CoonRapids - good luck with going back to work, hope both you and your DS settle into it soon! My DD1 was't very keen on beakers either and I spent loads of money on all sorts of different cups. Once she got to nursery though she seemed to get the hang of it with the normal sippy cup, I think joining in with everyone else made the difference.