Breast, Bottle and food - how much and when?

[BadgerQueen]

Posted this on the BF/Bottle topic earlier and got no reply. Can anyone advise?

DD is 6months and a bit and we have been weaning for a few weeks now (please don't jump on me for not waiting longer but she was really interested in food). We have also been mixed feeding for a couple of weeks, but I really have no idea how much formula she should be taking. The day goes as follows:

6.30/7 short breast feed or 3oz of formula
7.30 breakfast - baby cereal and mashed banana
11 6oz bottle
12 lunch - veg (1 cube and tablespoon of rice)
2:30/3 3/4oz bottle or short bf
4.30/5 bottle
5.30 Dinner - veg(1 cube and tablespoon of rice) + a couple of tbsp of fruit mush
6:30 breast & bed
10/11 bf

Then there is the night feeding madness, but I won't go into that here. I don't think she is getting very much from the breast feeds and she seems to be using them more for comfort than food, but the bottle amount doesn't seem enough either. BTW she is between 91st and 98th centiles and weighs about 9kg/19lbs and has consistently gained weight on the curve (if that counts for anything). Also do I up food or formula? I am confused.

If you look on the 'puree lovers weaning thread' lots of people there have posted their daily routine, how much milk/bf and food that may help you.

My dd is 25 weeks and her routine has just changed, last couple of days has been

7.00 7oz bottle sometimes only 5oz
8.30 cereal with fruit, dosent take much
10.45 6 oz bottle
11.45 4oz veg mush
14.00 7oz bottle ish
17.00 5 oz veg fruit mush
19.00 9 oz bottle (drains it!)

She is also on 91st centile, before i started weaning she was on 5 9oz bottles a day. Started weaning very slowley at 23 weeks (I know dont shout, she was ready) So this is all bit trial and error at the mo, she wasnt taking much mush but now if I give her milk first then leave a gap of an hour she seems bit more interested in food. All thanks to advice I got on the puree thread!

Sorry I think you are wrong about the breastfeeds "don't think she is getting very much from the breast feeds" unless you genuinely think no milk is being swallowed, has something changed in her bfing? I imagine it would be difficult to tell how much formula to give if you are cutting back on the breastfeeding, but would say that milk continues to be main source of nutrition so give as much breast/formula as she wants? As for the food - have you tried baby led weaning? No measuring a "cube" of this or a "tablespoon" of that. Just hand her anything you happen to be making for yourself (as long as you haven't added any salt etc). It means you just relax about the whole thing - fantastic. (sorry to over-simplify things but having done the whole puree malarkey with DS and then doing baby led weaning with DD - no comparison, BLW rocks!) Also at 6 months my DD was still having night feeds - perfectly normal (though tiring of course) and a wonderful comfort for DD - 6 months is still tiny.

Tellnoone - food is fine we are doing a combination of mush and finger food, but introducing it slowly - sort of a combination of baby led and mush and she loves it which is great. So not really concerned about the food, its just the amounts/frequency of milk at this age, which is the main source of nutrition right? I breast-fed exclusively to 24 weeks and the breast feeds have gone from a very efficient 10 minutes to a few minutes and very soft boobs. With my first I couldn't maintain any kind of supply once the bottle was introduced (9 months that time) and I know people say you can't tell, but I am pretty sure when the supply goes down and confident if dropped the bottle I could get back to big feeds - but don't want to be doing that as have to return to work.
Floury will have a look on other thread fro clues...

If you want to keep bfing and give bottles without reducing supply, have you tried expressing? I know it's a faff but I expressed once a day at work - from both boobs using an electric pump (ameda lactaline) and it was fine, got 2-3oz per boob each time. This was at about 9 months, so at 6 motnhs and with concerns of supply going down maybe you would need to express a couple of times a day (you can buy pump wipes to clean equipment in between). When do you go back to work? I know that I worried lots with DS about getting him on bottles before I started back but his time with DD I simply went to work and left a couple of bottles of expressed milk and she drank them thankfully. You could try expressing and also leave formula to top-up and see how it goes. (I you are interested in buying a pump I will be putting mine on ebay soon )

Do have medela pump - but was a bit traumatised (bleeding nipples - lovely red milk incident ) by using it too early on in a foolish attempt to give a bottle of ebf. Hadn't thought about using it to try and keep bf up - not sure I can cope with more kit and things to clean - will think on tho' - thanks for suggestions.