going back to work introducing formula and weaning, HELP

[clarabelle1]

I have a 4 month old daughter who up till recently has been generally contented. For 2 weeks I have been giving formula milk once a day and intend to increase in preperation for when I go back to work in March. Started solids a week ago on suggestion from health visitor. My little girl in the last few days has been extremely irritable and has longer periods of crying. My instinct tells me her tummy hurts, she is definitely doing less dirty nappies then when I solely breastfed. What can I do feeling guilty and tired.

4 months is early for solids and I'm not sure why your health visitor would recommend it. It is only January your baby will be very different in March and you could keep Bfing if you want morning and night, with water and solids during the day. Either give the solids or the formula a miss for a while, it's too complicated to seperate cause and effect if you do too much at once.

Also my informal survey of babies I know suggests that they all get a bit "funny" at 4 months whatever. My ds was exclusively bfed and went funny, a friend introduced solids very early (3.5 months) and formula fed and her kid went funny too.

when i went from breast to bottle with my ds, i found that he also had probs going to the loo, my hv told me to do him a bottle of 1oz real orange juice and 4oz of water, and it worked.
it was also the same when he started on solids.

how many meals a day is she having?

I had this problem with both DS and DD when they started mixed feeding, solids and in DS's case (I'm still bfing DD morning and night) formula/solids only. Part of the problem is that I think it takes a while for their bodies to adjust. Personally I would stop the solids temporarily, continue with the one bottle of formula and try to give water/watered down juice from a cup. I found it very stressful preparing DS and to a lesser degree DD for when I went back to work so do understand how you are feeling.

thanks for all the advice, we had a much better day today. My daughter was happy feeding and her bowel movements were more frequent, which I think was the problem. She has boied water every day which I think helps. Keeping an eye and will definitely not push the solids. It was suggested because she was hungry all the time and showing all the signs indicated. Because she has been so good I think it was a shock and worry for me more.