How to wean off bf

[londongirl12]

Hi!
My DS is 7mo, and I ebf. We've been weaning on food since he was 6mo. I go back to work in July, working shift work, 12hr days and nights, so my DP and I decided we should put him on formula as it would be confusing for DS to sometimes b BF and not others.
The HV said because of his age, not to worry about trying to get him onto a bottle, but to give him the formula in a sippy cup, which we have been doing. However he only takes sips from it, and won't drink like he does when feeding. The formula tub says he should have around 600ml a day. At the moment he has about 60ml, along with BF. How can I get him to drink more from the cup, and less from me? He still feeds in the night too.

Watching with interest as this is the same situation we're going to have when I go back to work at 9 months - due to commute and maybe condensing hours, I'll be gone 10+ hours a day.

@lifechangesforever I have loved BF. It was so hard in the beginning due to tongue tie, I was blistered and bleeding!! But once it was fixed, it's been no problem. I'm going to miss being able to go out and not have to worry about taking anything with me, just my boobs

I may be wrong but I read that formula/ebm should only be given in a bottle and only water in a sippy cup.

There is a good teat called calma by medela that is meant to mimic breastfeeding and make transition easier.

No reason milk shouldn't be in a cup but if he will take a bottle he will probably drink a lot more from it.

Lots of babies are fed breast and bottle though and it isn't confusing.

@Bea1985 I wonder what that reason is? 2 different HV have said it to me, so I didn't think twice about it. And I'd read a cup is better to learn to drink from than a spout as it's better for teeth development (he has 4 already).

I am interested in this too since my 7 month old baby only drinks tiny amounts from a 360 cup or sippy cup. I went and asked the health visitor the other day and she said I have to be cruel to be kind, and to only offer the cup. I want to still breastfeed only once or twice a day which makes it harder and more confusing... Also I am going to have to express at first if I almost completely stop otherwise I will get an infection.

I don't know anything about formula either. She told me to make up 2x 9oz bottles a day and feed the baby 3-4 oz at a time. That seems like hardly anything. When I asked her if I am to make up the milk in 2 batches a day she said no, make it up for every feed. A friend of mine exclusively breast feeds but expresses and she produces a litre a day! And I thought the required quantities were greater with formula...

If I have another baby I will combination feed from the beginning. Will hopefully save all this hassle and also allow me to take people up on the offer to baby sit every once in a while!

Hope you get it sorted and hope going back to work is ok for you.

@ChikiTIKI me too, will BF and express for a bottle. Saves all this problem now!

I make up 120ml of water with 4 scoops of formula, and then give him that. It says it's good for 2 hours, so then I just keep making them up. He doesn't get anywhere near finishing it, so at least I'm not wasting loads.

My friend is the same. She can express 10oz in about 10 mins! I can get about 3oz in half hour!

I was in exactly this situation. Ebf'd til DS was 7mo then moved him to formula. Ignored HV's advice and gave it to him in a bottle as, like yours, he wasn't keen on the sippy cup and I couldn't see a problem. Six years later, DS is more-or-less normal...!
(Tbh I kept giving him a bottle (one a day, at bedtime) til he was 2.5 yrs, much to the HV's consternation)

I think what I read was that with sil cups they tend to sip on and off .....and bottles with teats encourage them to do more prolonged rhythmic suckling type behaviour which is more suited to milk feeds.

But then again babies are funny buggers anyway, and all have their preferences! So what works for one may not work for another.

I just bottle fed dd to sleep and observed her deep rhythmic sucking a bit like bf , that seemed to soothe her. She wouldn't drink like that from her water cup.

Maybe worth giving a bottle a try just to see if it encourages a heartier feed.

Also- my dd didn't really like the first Cup I bought her but does like her most basic £1.50 sipping cup from boots. So who knows ! Trial an error I suppose !

My ds is 11 months and I've been cutting back on bf since returning to work 3 weeks ago. He is down to only 3 feeds a day which has made it easier. I dropped his afternoon bf first and he takes 150ml formula in a beaker now , it took a few days of giving bit of beaker and bit of bf before he would drink about 150ml. One week later I replaced his morning feed with a beaker. And now this week he mostly takes beaker at bed. But if I'm around he happily takes a bit of bf as well. But if I'm not here he just had a beaker. I can't decide when to stop the bf completely but as the mix seems to be working I'm not forcing it. My older 2 both chose bottle over breast after a few weeks of doing what I'm doing so I figure he will refuse bf at some point. Good luck. I too would try for a bottle as your baby is younger, the beaker doesn't seem to offer the same level of comfort.

He does like his sippy cup. Whenever I show it to him, he puts both hands out for it and gets all excited!!!

On days I work my 8 month old has breastfeed in the morning, 5oz bottle in the afternoon, breastfeed at bedtime and a 7oz bottle at 11pm.

Sippy cups are better for teeth but bottles are fine til 12 months and I agree that young babies need the comfort.

@MollyDaydream as I'll be doing 12 hour shifts, I'll be gone before he wakes and be home after he's gone to bed. So think I need to only do bottle.
He took a MAM bottle when he was 3 months so we could go out for the night, but haven't needed him to have it since then so didn't continue.(big mistake now I know!!) maybe I'll try the bottle again then.

So I have some bottles from when I used them when he was younger. They're quite a slow flow teat, and I also have a bottle that's a fast flow teat for his age. As he's ebf, do you think I should use the slow flow one as that's what my milk would be like, or persevere with the fast flow one so he gets used to that?

I’m a nurse and am typically out the the house for about 14 hours.

I went back to work when my first son was 10 months old and he simply breast fed from me when I was home and had expressed milk or formula in my absence. We also skipped the bottle stage and just offered it to him in a beaker and in my absence he took it well. We didn’t really try him with it until a week or so before I went back to work and he quickly realised that as mommy wasn’t home the beaker was his only option.

He went to a childminder and he didn’t really drink much whilst there but I didn’t worry too much as he was eating well and he tended to do better with his bedtime beaker of milk. He still tended to wake once in the night too for a feed so I knew he was getting milk then too.

I continued to feed him until he was 2.5 years old and there was never a problem with him switching between beaker and breast. I’m currently on Maternity Leave with baby #2 and plan on doing the same.

I just wanted to share my story to give you reassurance that shift work doesn’t have to be the end of breast feeding if it’s something you enjoy doing.

OP I would try both teats and observe - perhaps start with slow flow and see if he seems frustrated/like he can't suck it out fast enough. Likewise if the fast teat is too fast flow he might pull away.

So your DS will be 9 months when you return to work? I was formula feeding by that age but my DD dropped all day time milk by the time she was 8 months old. She had a bottle when she woke up and before bed but during the day she had 3 meals, an afternoon snack and just drank water from her sippy cup (plus vitamin drops). So if weaning goes well and he’s eating a lot then you might find you’re worrying over nothing and he’ll be ok with a breastfeed first thing and before bed.

I havent had any issues with going from ebf to combination feeding, my supply settled pretty quick. It is handy to still have the option as I found formula a faff when going out or late at night.

Thank you for your feedback.
Although I've enjoyed BF, I feel it's coming to a natural end. I work in emergency services, so I could end up having a busy shift and not being able to pump. So I think it'll be best all round to go onto formula. I feel fine with that, as I feel glad I've kept going for so long.

You're right, I could be worrying about nothing. He's only been eating food for a month. It's going well, although he doesn't eat a lot. But that all could change in 2 months. E still feeds a few times a night, so hopefully with more food over time then that'll reduce. When he does feel (day or night) it's usually only for less than 5 mins, so I can't imagine him taking a bottle feed of 200ml a time (as suggested on the formula instructions).

My dd is 5.5m and will only take 100-130 ml in one go x

So I decided this morning to try a bottle. Used the slower teat one and put him in his highchair as that's where he always gets his food. And he drank 70ml, just like that!!! And it was formula, not even breast milk!! So proud!!!!!!

That's great!

That's great news! I breastfed my baby when we got up this morning then later we went for a long walk for about an hour and a half. I was so thirsty when we got back so though she must be too. Gave her some formula and she seemed to like it! She went for a nap after that :) she didn't drink much volume but happy to try again tomorrow!

@ChikiTIKI I think it's helped as we'd been giving him formula in his sippy cup for a few weeks now, so he's used to the taste. But very surprised he took the bottle straight away! I suppose because he's older, he must have known that he still has to suck, even though it's something different!!!

If you go back to work in July he will be 9 months by then right? You might not actually need to worry much.

I must say I'm confused by the advice that if you want him to take bottles you have to stop BF. I'm on baby 2 and both have done a combination of breast and bottles (expressed milk) from early on when I went back to work.

Having said that, if I was going back to work when baby was 9 months old I'd be inclined to just feed directly AM and PM (and overnight if needed) and have some formula perhaps as a back up if he wants milk in the day. Or even just have him take cereal with formula mixed in and eat yogurt during the day. You could get lucky and not need a bottle at all!