Preparing baby to go to childminder - mealtimes

[Granadilla]

My baby is just over 7 months old. I'm going back to work in a month and he will be going to a childminder from 8ish-5.30ish.

Right now he is exclusively breastfed and feeds on demand. We don't have a routine but will usually have 4 sittings between 8 and 5.30pm. He refuses to drink from a bottle or a sippy cup. We are baby led weaning and I offer him breakfast, lunch and dinner. He is enthusiastic about food but not much is swallowed yet.

I don't know how to start preparing him for the childminder and was looking for some guidance and experiences.

Should I stop offering breastmilk in the day and give a bottle/cup instead? How can I do this if he won't take a bottle/cup? Or should I be trying to drop some of the day feeds? If so, again, how?

I suspect I won't be able to keep up breastfeeding once I return to work, so should I get him used to formula now?

Thank you

Hiya, just doing the same with DD(6mths) in prep for nursery.

I had been offering her a bottle every day for a month Nd she never took it, but did go from screaming the place down to tolerating it in her mouth. I took some advice from a nanny last week and she advised stop giving Dd breast in the day and offer only bottle and solids, set a routing for same times each day.

To my surprise DD took bottle that afternoon (coincidence, picking up on my confidence, who knows) and all is progressing well now.

Good luck

Would it work if someone else could offer the milk in a bottle/cup instead of you? Sorry, I know nothing about breastfeeding (mine were ff; I struggled too much with bf ) but thought I read somewhere that they're more likely to take the bottle from another person; if they can smell your milk they want the real deal .

When I was getting my dc to attend nursery I tried really hard to get them into a routine of eating more solid meals during the day (but I weaned from puree and introduced another meal every few days until they were taking 3-4 meals a day) and offering milk in a sippy cup. I don't remember weaning either of them off the bottle and onto the cup - I think I just gave it to them when they were taking plenty of solid food and threw the bottles away so it was either a cup or nothing.

Thanks for the replies.

Morello, that gives me hope. Have you noticed any change to sleeping patterns by weaning of breastmilk in the day? My son is getting better at sleeping at night and I also fear this will be put back by introducing a bottle - I had read that if babies don't get the intimacy they require in the day, they may wake up more in the night for it.

I think you just have to try different things. Look at what is a fixed thing, ie he won't have access to your breasts during the day in a month's time. That IS going to happen and can't change, so play around with different ideas eg other people giving him cups etc. Don't know about the waking for intimacy thing but the obvious way to combat it would be to not breastfeed at night either. I mix fed and so not the greatest advocate for BF and you may not be ready to stop but maybe someone who has been more in your position may be able to give more specific advice on this. It may be that you do "lose" some of the steps forward on the sleeping temporarily while you deal with this transition.

I've done this twice. Returned to work at 6m with DS and 8.5m with dd. Both ebf bottle refusers. I would have loved to continue an evening bf but there were days i wouldn't get home in time and didn't want to think of them screaming for a feed so i stopped bf. Couldn't express much ever despite good supply so switched to formula. So here's my tips fwiw!

Don't bother with a bottle. Use a tt sippy free flow cup. Bottle is just another thing to wean off.
Persist. Don't go backwards. Start with dropping 1 feed, late morning easiest to start, and if he won't take the cup make him wait til the next feed time. If feeding on demand wait at least 3 hours.

See an ounce as success. Both mine went through 2-3 weeks of v little daytime intake with big evening bf. I also night weaned at the same time so only water in a cup offered overnight, setting later time each night for bf, so feed at 7pm hen decided on nothing til say 2am, then after a few days nothing til 4am etc.

If you're struggling, as you will, try a doidy cup, perhaps try different formula - DS loved aptimil, dd wouldn't touch it but loved hipp. Weird. Or soon it in. A teaspoon is 5ml so 12 spoonful is 2oz and it doesn't take long.

By 7/9 months respectively both mine were independently drinking from a cup with little mess. Ride it out, they'll get there.

Oh and personally, while i think its great to give babies independent food, i do think blw doesn't suit all babies when taken to the extreme. I gave both dc finger food along with lumpy purees. No way would they have got enough calories without waiting several months. I don't believe there is one right way and the evidence for blw is actually pretty weak. Not saying its wrong but your cm May find a combo of btw and bottle refusing rather difficult. They can get a lot of liquid from fruit and leg purees.

Hth

Please give one of the bfing helplines a call. The BFC should be able to advise on how to reduce your risk of mastitis and get him to take something when you're not there.

Have you got the phone numbers?