When to reduce milk?

[Ray24924]

Hello,
I have a 8.5mo son and I am going back to work the week he turns 11mo.

He is currently breastfed and well in the process of weaning but im a bit unsure of when to reduce milk especially with me going back to work.

His current feeding is:

7am breastfeed (15mins)
7.45am breakfast (usually slice of toast/pancake/muffin), some puree fruit and some handheld fruit
11am breastfeed (10mins)
11.45 lunch usually puree veg and handheld veg (e.g chunky puree butternut squash and a cucumber stick) portion of meat/fish, puree fruit and handheld fruit (e.g. chunky puree berries and a chunk of melon), and sometimes a melty stick
4pm breastfeed (10mins)
5pm dinner usually same as lunch
7pm breastfeed before bed (20 mins)

I will ge going back to work from 11-6 so ideally need to drop his lunch and dinner breastfeeds. Ive tried pumping but my milk has went down considerably since hes only been feeding for 10 mins instead of previously up to an hour 🙈

Do you think dropping the lunch feed for this month then the dinner feed as well the following month would work okay? would it be normal for a 11 month old to only have 2 milks and 3 full meals? He has such a big appetite and loves his food so I would obviously bulk his meals up a bit more to have bigger portions and he does still have a feed during the night too around 1am (sleeping is another issue for another day lol).

Thank you in advance x

II was just led by my baby and she breastfed whenever she wanted. She still ate great. It naturally reduces over time but may increase again when he’s teething etc. when you’re out at work, he’ll just drink more water and eat more food probably. Your boobs will be a little uncomfortable at first but will soon adjust to the slightly uneven feeding schedule. I never consciously dropped feeds etc and it didn’t matter when I went back to work. Even now, she’s almost 2 and she might feed loads on a non work day.

If you’ve already got it down to 4 feeds a day I wouldn’t worry too much about going back to work at 11 months, they will change so much by then.

Will you be away from them 11 till 6 or are those your working hours? What time will you drop them off and pick them up?

I got so stressed about all of this, but as others have said a lot can change in just a few weeks; it will all work itself out. For me, I cut down on daytime feeds slowly on a don't offer/don't refuse basis, but not until a month before return. I started back only 2/3 days a week so did a wake up feed, expressed at lunchtime on my workdays, and then fed on pick up and to sleep at night. Expressing didn't collect lots but reassured me that I wasn't going to get uncomfortable. I didn't bother providing nursery with milk for the few weeks before 1 and they were ok with that as he's a good eater.
I dropped the expressing around first birthday, and he stopped wanting the feed on pickup after a few weeks too, so we have stuck with first and last thing for a while now.