Switching from breastfeeding to formula - practical advice

[sarahlou31]

My DD is almost 3 months old and I've been exclusively breastfeeding her. I always planned to breastfeed for about 3 months and I definitely feel I want to stop now for various reasons so am going to start moving her onto formula soon.

I'm just after some practical advice on how to do this. I've done lots of internet searching for guidance but it all seems to be posts about reasons why people are stopping/guilt etc. I can't seem to find much on the best way to go about it.

I know I'm best to do it gradually - one bottle a day to start with etc. But how do I know when to give her a bottle? She breastfeeds on demand and the frequency really varies day by day. I think she tends to feed little and often. So I'm not sure what quantity to put in a bottle. The guidance on the formula says 6oz 5 times a day but I'm pretty sure she won't take 6oz at once! Should I feed her on demand to start with or should I try to space the feeds out every so many hours?

To get her used to a bottle I've been giving her some expressed milk the last few weeks once a day and some days she takes it fine and other days she fusses about it. I've worked out she's fussing about it as she's not that hungry but even when she's not that hungry she'll still latch on to my breast as I think she likes it for the comfort but that'll be different with a bottle I guess. Do you find bottles still comfort them or do they simply satisfy their hunger? DD often calms down when she's upset by having a feed and I don't know if that'll be different when she's bottle fed. She will not take a dummy so that's not an option - she's made herself sick when I've tried to give her a dummy so I guess I'm wondering how I'll be able to comfort her the same.

Any advice would be much appreciated. If others have changed at 3 months how did your babies find it?

Thanks

It's been a while since my two were on formula but I remember DS being little and often which was a nightmare making up bottles. I have recently babysat for a friend and she had a great contraption that dished out the right amount of water at the right temp which made making up the bottle really easy and quick.

I think that machine is the tommee tippee perfect prep.

Definitely take the feeds down as gradually as you can, maybe even over a couple of weeks so you don't end up engorged. We switched to formula at 3 months too and I started by offering her 5oz every three hours or so, and making note of when she wanted it and when she didn't. The bottles are good for 2 hours after they've been made so she might prefer to keep going back for a bit at first while her tummy gets used to it. Try and get her to drink room temperature milk too if you can, so much easier!

We were in a similar position to you OP, moving to fully ff at 3 mths. What we did was to introduce a bedtime bottle first. As it keeps them fuller for longer then theoretically you should benefit from more sleep

We then subbed about a bottle a week (or whenever I felt I could get away with adding another, spreading the bottles to reduce engorgement. Be prepared for more leaking and feeling full at each sub time, but after a few days your supply adjusts and you know you're ready to add another.

I second the perfect prep machine. If you're only doing a bottle a day then doing it traditionally is fine, but it's a godsend when you're doing them regularly, baby is screaming for a feed and you don't have to be mega organised. It's regularly half price on amazon tho so be patient and don't pay full whack!

Definitely get the perfect prep. It's so easy, especially in the middle of the night when the brain isn't firing properly! It's also got a good resale price once you've finished with it.
I spent 3 months transitioning DD onto formula from 6mo. I could have done it more quickly but there were certain feeds it was more convenient to keep as boob for a while, and as you said it comforts them. I found I could drop 2 feeds a day in a week (I did this a couple of times) provided they were 12hrs (ish) apart to avoid engorgement, but otherwise went for one a week as it became convenient.
We had a bit of a job getting her to take a dummy around the 3mo mark too, but it's worth trying a few different brands as they're all different shapes. Also we found she preferred the smaller size until around 6mo, and would only then take the larger size in a different brand again! Fuss-pot!
They will find the bottle comforting eventually, certainly mine did but in a bit more of a quiet down-time kinda way. When DD has her bottle she's there for the milk but finds it relaxing, when she was BF she was definitely equally there for the comfort sucking!