Returning to work

[lemur]

Hello,

I am going back to work FT when my DD is 28 weeks old (she is 16 weeks now). DD going into full time nursery (9am -6pm ). She is totally BF at the moment, but given my job, I need to have weaned her by the time I go back (although I will try to BF at night). Any suggestions as to how/what I should do? MIL says baby rice(?) now and then solids, also trying to get DD to drink expressed milk from a bottle so that she will get the gist in nursery. Its not working yet!
Any tips most welcome, cheers.

Try the tommy tippee bottles, with nuby teats (the bobbly ones) as these tend to go down better with BF babies.
You can go baby rice etc from 17 weeks, although advice has recently changed to waiting until 6mths, although my hv said, 17 weeks is still fine for puree foods, just make sure you give lumps if you wait until the 6mth mark! I'd start with a spoonful of something at breakfast, Hipp and Boots both do nice tasting babyrice/porridges for the 4mth old babies.

Lemur - I am in the same boat as you, going back to work when ds3 is 31 weeks (he'll be at nursery 3 days and with MIL one day). Perservere with the EBM for now but also try a cup (doidy cups - open/slanted cups are good). Don't worry too much, you have 12 weeks! If you are dropping feeds for formula, do it slowly and drop maybe one a week over 4 weeks.

I would say wait until 6 months for weaning because otherwise you could be wasting your time -your dd may not digest the food before then or be put right off the whole idea or develop allergies, better to wait until she is developmentally ready. MILs can be a bit out of date, however well meaning! Remember also that nursery should partner you in the whole process. Hopefully they should be offering you up to 4 'settlement' visits to get you both used to it. They should follow your lead with weaning and support whatever stage you're at - even if it's only tiny tastes.

Hope this helps

Thanks guys, that advice is really helpful. Will try the nuby teats as DD properly hates the avent ones, and try a cup. Sounds as though I should hold off on the rice for a bit - the nursery say they do help with weaning so at least I will have some help with it if I leave it a bit!

hello lemur,
my daughter also hated the avent teats (too pointy!) but liked the nuby ones.

however, if they don't work you could try weird blue teats designed to help you transition (woh, can't believe i just used 'transition' as a verb) to those sippy cups (gad, now i've used 'sippy' as if it's a real word. i think being a mum is rotting my brain).

you get them in Boots and they cost absolutely nothing, like 50p, so they are worth a shot. i was recommended them by a friend whose child just would not drink from a bottle. they had tried everything, ordered stuff from the States, even bought the ginormous boob bottles and nothing worked until they tried the cheapie things from Boots.

basically they are made of quite rigid blue plastic with a cross cut into them and when the child chews/sucks on the bottle the cross opens and the milk comes out. we are now at the weaning stage (6 months, doing Baby-Led and it's going great guns) and i am using the blue ones to encourage her to try water, it's proving successful, i'm glad to report.
good luck

aitch71, thank you for that, will send DP on the hunt tomorrow for some of those. And then I will open a shop selling avent equipment!