How do you feed EBF baby after returning to work?

[EvelynSalt]

This might be a dumb question but, when I return to work when LO is 11 months old, how do I make sure she's fed enough?

I have KIT days coming up too and I'm confused about whether to just cut down her feeds or try formula from a cup? She won't take a bottle.

She is breastfed and has approx 6 feeds per day. Plus two small solid meals.

First time mum obviously, help!

You could try pumping, but solid food becomes more important at this age

She may take a bottle / cup if you're not around

Following as I've been wondering this too!

I went back when my EBF baby was 10 months - he just ate a lot more solid food. He refused milk in a cup, he preferred solids and then extra milk evenings and weekends.

She will eat more solids. Try giving cows milk in a cup. No point starting formula at 11 months. 6 feeds a day is a lot, she will probably reduce to 2-3 (morning and evening).

Work on increasing her food intake.

You can try pumped milk or formula in a cup or bottle (she may well take a bottle from whoever is looking after even if she won't from you). It's also fine to leave it and let her just eat solid food during the day and have a big feed morning and night.

Basically, trial and error to work out what works for both of you. But nutritionally, she doesn't need six milk feeds a day at nearly one. She'll be fine with less.

I would already get her used to 3 solid meals plus 2 snacks. Cut down on milk feeds now so it’s easier for her to transition.

When I had to leave dd, I just pumped and she had breastmilk from a cup. She didn’t care for bottles.

They take more milk in the morning and when you pick them up, and otherwise they just eat more food. You don’t have to introduce formula. You can increase the number of meals and give more snacks.
It stops being an acute need and becomes much more of a bonding thing.

Her solid food intake sounds quite low, you need to up that. She'll still BF morning and evenings I presume.

Sorry, I should have been clearer - she's only 8 months at the moment so still not quite ready to cut down milk so much.
But this advice is excellent, thank you. I like the idea of big feeds morning and night - we will do some practice runs of this and upping her solids when I start my
KIT days.

You can continue to BF mornings and evenings if you want. I did so till age 2 and age 3 respectively with mine, so don’t rush to wean unless you want to. Plus she will naturally start eating more food in the day.

Following with interest! My baby is 10m and refuses a bottle, I go back to work when he’s 1. He hasn’t taken to solids well due to some issues with textures that we have been referred for.

I have signed up to a return to work/ continuing breastfeeding workshop by Lucy Webber who is a lactation consultant. If you look her up on Instagram her page has some very helpful tips on how to continue feeding when returning to work (if you want to continue feeding).

For my 2 it worked as follows (for a full day in nursery). Feed in the morning (maybe 2 or 3 depending on waking time! Be warned they make wake earlier to compensate for time with you.). In work I'd pump - it wasn't a lot - but it went into nursery the next day and my kids took it from a sippy cup rather than a bottle. To be honest it was comfort for them rather than really needing the nutrition. Reconnection feed as soon as we got home (expect to need to do this before anything else) and then bed time feed and maybe through the night if cosleeping. My son never drank cows milk but my daughter did and so she had access to that also in nursery. For work I had an opaque sandwich box, expressed into a bag and kept the bag in the sandwich box in the fridge. Had a few spare bags in the freezer if needed. It'll be fine - they'll be fine with food and water/milk while you're not there.

At that age she'll probably be able to bf 1st morning & in evening. Will be having solids & start offering water in a sippy cup during the day. Have looked after had lots of ebf babies & this is what generally happens, sometimes mum does a quick feed before leaving mine at pick up time- nursery or childminder should be able to support this.

She will be really, really different in terms of how she eats at 11 months rather than 8. I know it seems really soon but remember she'll be nearly 50% older than she is right now.

DD would never take a bottle and at that age wasn't interested in cows milk. She would sip a little water though so she wasn't thirsty during the day. She just made up for it when she wasn't at nursery. It was the first thing she wanted when I picked her up each day!

Try not to worry about it. You will both find a rhythm that works.

My DD went to nursery at 10.5 months and I bf her in the mornings, massive feedings in the evenings (didn't pump during daytime) and once at night. My body got used to it quite quickly.

They eat way more at nursery than you'd think. Herd mentality maybe.

DS2 had BM in the morning and as soon as he came home from nursery. I never bothered expressing milk to give to nursery.

You could start using a haakaa now rather than spending too much on an electric pump that barely gets used. You could freeze whatever you produce, you might be surprised how quickly it builds up. I went back to work on dc1 at 11 months and had 200ml of expressed milk left behind each day. It was barely touched, DC quickly realised that it was better to wait for the real thing and filled up on solids/ water from a sippy cup during the day. This was with family childcare rather than nursery

Plan how many feeds you want to be on by 11 months, and then divide your time up to drop feeds one by one until you reach that target. Obviously you also need to pay attention to your child's needs, so if what you do isn't working, you will hear about it!

I decided to stop BFing on his birthday.

By 11 months we dropped down to one feed at bedtime.

10 months we had bedtime and breakfast.

9 months was breakfast, lunch and bedtime.

So you get the idea. Cut out one feed, then have a period of adjustment before you remove the next feed.

This isn't going to work for everyone. My child got on really well with solids and ate everything that wafted near him, so calories and weight were never an issue. You can take the lead with weaning, but you also need to listen to your child to make sure that your plan is going to fit with the tiny tyrant in your house 😜

100% this. My little one went to nursery to settle in from not quite ten months. She refused all expressed milk. Nursery told me to stop bothering as it wasn’t worth the hassle for me!

She fed in the mornings and evenings and ate brilliantly at nursery - and she still does at 20 months. I expressed a little bit at work when I felt uncomfortable but not routinely. I don’t at all now.

Hardly anyone says it, so I will - well done you for keeping going. It’s not always easy but it is worth it.

On site nursery ( or near by) so you can pop in at lunchtime to feed the baby. That’s what I did with both of mine.

I went back when baby was 10 months. She just adjusted and had more water/ solids when I wasn't there. My boobs adjusted fine and I'm still feeding her at 14 months!

I breastfed until 2.5 years. I did a feed in the mornings before work, as soon as I got home and then at bedtime. Gradually the morning feed stopped as breakfast was enough on its own.

I did initially plan to pump but after a few days it was too much of a faff so I gave up! He was 12 months when I went back to work so could manage without it during the day.

8 months to 11 months is a huge difference.

At 8 months, DS1 was still pretty much feeding every 2-4 hours round the clock

At 11 months (which is when I went back to work too) he was having 2-3 feeds during the day and maybe 1 overnight.

There was a lightbulb month with solids at roughly 10 months when food became less about teaching how to eat and more about consuming a decent number of calories. Milk intake subsequently dropped.

For the first few weeks I was back to work he fed more in the evening/overnight/on days off

It had settled by a month or so in and he didn’t feed overnight at all by 13 months.