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Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

EBF and needing to switch to FF

3 replies

Scout19075 · 08/04/2010 21:56

DS (23 weeks) is EBF and I'm planning on continuing this until he's at least 26 weeks (perhaps a bit longer as we will be going to the States for 2 weeks and don't want to disrupt his milk just before we go or while we're away). Anyway, because of a medical condition, I need to wean him from breast milk to formula feed so that I can start some treatments in a few months time. I'm sad about having to give up BF as I'm very proud of doing it and have enjoyed the bond my DS and I have had because of it. However, because of the treatments I need to make sure that he's completely off and not looking for breast as once I start the treatments I can't feed him (the medicine would poison him).

So... I have two questions, really. What is the best way to go about switching from EBF to FF? Is it possible to go slowly and gently for both of us? AND, should I/can I skip the bottle and go directly to a cup? And if I go directly to a cup, can I go to a spouty cup or will that cause confusion?

Oh, I should add that currently DS has a bottle 3x-4x a day for his reflux medicine but when he's finished it spits it out and goes rooting for my breast for milk. Am worried that a bottle of formula will add more confusion in the mix.

Any thoughts/suggestions gratefully accepted!

OP posts:
Libramum · 09/04/2010 15:14

I have found dropping one feed a week has worked well. DS seemed to accept that different feeds came from different places! I've also just introduced a spouty cup (DS is 6 months). He can't get much milk at the moment though and I would find it hard to give him an entire feed from one.

Good luck with the switch and your treatements afterward.

mrsflux · 11/04/2010 10:10

i wanted to switch to FF quite early on but felt sad about it so started to EBF first.
ds took to ebf bottles quite well and then once a bottle was no longer an issue i started to switch to FF.
we started FF at bed time and dh did it. i got a break - lush!
we then switched one feed for FF every few days. it took me 6 weeks to give up completely but could ahve done it sooner i think.

Scout19075 · 20/04/2010 16:26

Sorry, meant to come back and say thank you for the advice, but RL got in the way. DS will be 6 mos next week, so am feeling very proud of myself for making it, still a bit sad about weaning but feeling more comfortable with the process.

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