Im confused! What next after exclusively BF for 7 months??

[rollercoaster1]

hi there - Im a first time mum and my 7 month old DS is just starting to show interest in food now, though I started weaning just before he turned 6 mths. Im offering the usual purees and a bit of finger food but with no great success just yet. Not too worried, Im sure he'll eat when he's ready. What I dont get is what Im supposed to replace breast milk with when I go back to work in a few months. Hes never taken a bottle and when I tried around 4mths it was a disaster. He now drinks a little water from a tommy tipee and looks like he'll manage on his own before long. Do mums who have breast fed move babies onto formula when they have to go back to work or continue expressing and get the baby to drink from a cup? Im sure there are lots of BF babies who wont take bottles this far down the line. If anyone has any advice or experience on this Id be really interested as theres loads of info on purees and BLW but cant find anything that telss you what to do about phasing out the breast milk and what to use instead. Cheers!!

hi, you might get more responses on the breast and bottle feeding thread. But as far as I understand, your LO still needs about 20 oz. of breast milk or formula a day until he is around one year (when he can switch to cows milk). If he won't take it from a bottle, a cup is absolutely fine.

You could either express or use formula, it's up to you. You will find that as your DS eats more, he will likely breastfeed less. My now 9-month DS was a champion feeder (14 times a day was not unusual) but has now settled back to 4-5 feeds in 24 hours. He was also a bit slow on the weaning front, but around 8 months it all kicked in and he now loves both his purees and finger foods.

I reckon by the time I go back to work in about 2 months, I will give him breast feeds in the morning and night, and he can have formula (or even cows milk at that point) twice a day at nursery. (he has always taken bottles though, so don't have that problem).

btw, you can also add milk (breast milk, formula or cows milk) to your DS' food, which can help to make sure he gets enough.

I carried on with the breast milk until ds was 1, then gave him cow's milk. He was weaned earlier then babies are now, all this changed a few years ago. Ds is 10.

My dd is 6m and we are weaning - slowly. I did try to switch her onto a formula bottle a little while ago in prep for going back to work when she is 1 but she won't take the bottle at all so we are practising with water and formula in a tippee cup as extras to get her used to the taste and hopefully, she'll take more than a few sips by then! If they don't drink enough at nursery, they tend to make it up with you at night

Hi - I have a 7 mth old too, similar experience to yourself, although he's v keen on solids...

Sorry if you've already tried this but have you tried someone else giving him a bottle? My DS was really not keen on bottles at all, but i'm going back to work in a month so I was starting to get worried. Fortunately I had a week of working two weeks ago. My parents were looking after him and, with not having me there and having tried a couple of different bottle types I THINK we've cracked it. (that's bound to have jinxed it ) He will now take EBM from a bottle from anyone, including me, but it doesn't seem to have affected his feeding otherwise.

FWIW we found the Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature with a size 2 teat to be the best bottles for us (promise I'm not on their payroll!) I wish I'd borrowed a couple of bottle types from friends as i've wasted a lot of money on bottles I'll never use...

thanks everyone for your replies and support! Gruffalo, did get hubbie to try feeding DS with bottle - different times of day and different bottles but to no avail so Im thinking skip the whole bottle thing altogether now as we are making ok headway with a cup - though more of the water goes down his front than in the mouth at the moment, still a lot easier than an hour of screaming to get him to take 2oz from a bottle! Chandellina thanks for v helpful reply too - helps to know what other mums are doing in same situation. I am happy to continue to BF until he's one though guessing I will need to phase in some formula or cows milk a month or so before I go back to work or Ill have huge engorged boobs squirting like waterpistols!!