Going back to work/weaning/breast feeding "What ifs".... Sorry, bit long but would like advice pleeaase!

[MrsHarry]

I'm maybe thinking worse case scenario but I want to be prepared. I'm going back to work full time in the New Year, DD then 7 months will be with childminder for 3 days and DH/MIL 2 days. I have just started introducing tastes of food in preparation for BLW but she isn't very interested!.

Apart from the solids I want to continue only BFing for as long as poss.
I will try to express in day but my work schedule could make it difficult to guarantee doing it every day.

My question is: if DD doesn't always have an EBM bottle in the day, and if she is not eating loads of solids to begin with, can we get by with me feeding her early am, late afternoon, evening and as much as necessary thru the night?
She already feeds quite a lot thru the night and I don't want her to be hungry. I also want to avoid people telling me to put her on baby rice/purees if she doesn't seem to be getting a lot.

I know this could all depend on how hungry she gets, but I don't really know what is the minimum amount of milkfeeds she should be getting.
Any ideas please?

TBH I think early morning till late afternoon is quite a long time for a 7 month old baby to go without milk.

Many aren't great at drinking water out of a cup at this stage, and don't eat much either.

Could you start expressing now and freezing it? EBM keeps for 3 months in the freezer and a stash could tide you over on the days you don't manage to express.

I'd have thought by about 9 months she's be ok without milk during the day, so it's only a few weeks we're talking about here.

Mine was fine at 8 months without any milk in the day (just juice or water) and carried on b/feeding for 30 mths even though i was f/t at work.

I went in a lunchtime to feed her for the first month and as i said, by 8 months she could go through.

Yes,I would start expressing now.

agree with jojay that it might be an idea to try expressing now to get a stash built up
my dd is also blw and eats bugger all tbh, shes 8 months, I wouldn't like to rely on her having essentially nothing all day - bit hard on the childminders if nothing else!! but I'm sure milk wise she will be fine and make up for it at night. my auntie always says this is what she did, and she went back to work at 4 months

Yes, I suppose expressing now is the way forward.

Moondog, at 8 mths was yours having solids throughout the day? If so, how much?

Yes she was.
Don't know really as it was at nursery but she had breakfast of Weetabix or porridge and something similar in the evening.

I didnt have the choice. My DS2 didn't want bottle. He would eat solids and water during the day, but not massive amounts. I gave him the first bf on the way home from nursery around 4:30 and then fed on demand through to 5 when I had to go to work. He really opted his intake throughout the night which was hard, but I co-slept and just let him help himself. That's how we did it and I bf until 27 months when he got far too busy for that sort of thing.

Wow FairyMum, that sounds impressive.I hope I can keep going that long!

Morocco, can I ask how much milk yours has during the day if not eating very much of solids?
When you talk about making up the milk supply at night do you mean without having much solids in day, or relying on having a fairly good amount of solids?

well, having been stricter with ds1 and ds2 routine wise, dd is demand fed which seems to mean still feeds constantly. this is pure laziness on my part as at the slightest whinge I still offer the boob and she never says no. she is a hefty child .

Thinking back to ds1 and ds2, they were on maybe 3 or 4 milk feeds at 8 months, probably nearer 3 than 4 and also 3 meals a day which they actually ate a fair bit of. So morning milk then breakfast then lunch then mid afternoon milk then tea then bedtime milk. none at night. but that would mean #something# every few hours. i know with dd that if I started with morning milk, then no breakfast to speak of, she would be very whingey going through til late afternoon on the scraps of food she manages to put away. not much fun for the childminder! but . . . I am sure she would just feed as much as she needed to get enough nutrition when i was around, so I would expect more and longer feeds morning and night time.

sorry, that is a right ramble. i'm trying to say, don't worry, she will get as much milk as she needs, but also it could be a bit unrealistic to expect her to last all day if she's also not eating much in the way of solids. you're only looking at a few months of this as a problem so if you express for example 20 bottles that would last a whole month at one feed a day supplement

Thanks for the feedback.
I suppose realistically I couldn't contemplate her going a long time in the day without milk as she's used to feeding pretty much on demand as the mo, and I'm sure she's not going to change a huge amount in 4 weeks, not just to fit in with my going back to work!!
I took advice and started expressing today...already got 5 ozs frozen
I'm just hoping that as time goes on she slowly starts to build up the amount of solids she has.
Trying broccoli tomorrow....