In a bit of a pickle---starting at nursery and I breast feed

[willowstar]

Hello

After a torrid start to breast feeding i have breast fed my daughter this far, she is 9 months old. I LOVE it and am very very proud of us both for managing it -

Now...I seem to exist on a different planet from other mums I talk to, only one of whom still breast feeds, so I dn't know who to ask advice from... but here is my ?problem? Not sure if it is a problem or not really.

My daughter will be starting nursery in August when I very reluctantly have to start back at work. She will be there up to 2 and half days a week, long hours.

At the moment I breast feed on demand and feed her to sleep. I sometimes don't have to feed her to sleep but I have to cuddle her if not feed so pretty similar. We co-sleep so I usually just lie down with her.

Anyway...I can't really express, I even hired a hospital pump last week and gave it a bash but got little out becauase I am feeding my daughter (I managed when she was in hospital and had a nursing strike).

So my two worries are: what to feed her when she is in nursery? and how will they get her to sleep?

She is going through a not eating solids phase (BLW) so right now she is very reliant on my milk for her nutrients. I am LOATH to give her formula. I gave her a couple of sips of cows milk yesterday and she liked it and for some reason this feels more 'natural' than formula as a substitute, but would water be OK?

I am perfectly happy with the way we are at home, just worried how she will cope at nursery. any advice?

So will she be 11 months when she goes to nursery?

DS was always breastfed, and went to nursery (3 days a week) from 5.5 months. I was able to express, but hated it. When he was 10.5 months, the health visitor said it was fine for him to have normal whole cow's milk at nursery - by that stage he was only having one feed during the day, and on those days he was still breastfed morning and night. So out of 21 feeds a week, 18 of them were still breastmilk, and 3 were cow's milk - by that age that was fine.

So I think it should be fine for your daughter to have cow's milk at nursery by that age, and breastfed at home. I know what you mean about formula - I felt that by that point, we'd got so far without it that I really didn't want to start (DS is now 20 months, stopped breastfeeding at 15 months but he never had formula).

As far as sleep is concerned, I wouldn't worry too much - DS has always had completely different nap routines at nursery to at home with no problems. The first few days might be difficult but I expect she'll settle in pretty quickly.

Firstly, she'll adapt to nursery probably better than you will, unless she is in a deep phase of separation anxiety which could be a factor at that age (10-11 months, right?

Second, if you've tried some cow's milk already and no reaction arose, it's probably ok at 11 months. After a couple of months of nursery my son had given up milk during the day and was glugging water with solid foods. On non-nursery days he still asks for milk at random points during the day, quite often to go off to sleep. Routines are good but developing new (non-bf) ways to go off for a nap will also be a useful skill, even if learned out of necessity.

So, don't worry. She'll work it out. A few days of not eating much because she's waiting for you to come back won't hurt. Mainly, from my experience you have to give off confident happy vibes when you hand her over to the care of the nursery, she'll take her cue from you to decide how happy she is about it. If you're teary on the first morning, you have to make yourself kiss and wave byebye cheerily and not string it out, then turn your back, get out of sight and have a good blub.