Breast to bottle

[Florena49]

A bit of a dilemma here. Im due back at work at the end of august and wondering how to go about doing mixed feeding. atm Oz is exclusively BReastfed, when he was younger he would take a bottle with expressed milk if I ever needed to be out for long without him, the other day he was with dad whilst i was at work for a few hours, he totally refused the bottle. So DH ended ip giving him solids first and then i fed him when i got back. The idea would be to breastfeed first thing in the morning and before BT all other feeds would be bottle and hopefully formula. How best to introduce the bottle and formula?
Os will be 10 months at the end of august, i assume its too early to cut out the milk feeds during the day and replace with solids?

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

What does your work day look like? Full time or part time? I guess what you do kind of depends on that really (ie if you get home early enough to do an afternoon feed in addition to wake up and bedtime feed & nf if he has any). If he does need a formula feed at daycare what about trying either a straw cup or open cup? DD3 is finally learning to use one with a straw (no valve so free flow) at daycare and I think they move pretty quickly to an open cup. Here I just discovered that between 9-12 months they can start moving on to whole milk as well!

[KookyK]

Hugh is 10 months and refused a bottle a few months back when we tried. I've done two separate days back at work this month and he has accepted a bottle but drank v little. 2-3oz of breastmilk last time 8am-3pm, and 3oz of formula over two bottles today from 8-5. He was desperate for boob when I got in today.

Last time he just cluster fed hourly from 3.30-6.30 bedtime (and then STTN for the first/only time - so I guess he fared ok!). I'd like him to take more but at least he has recently started eating more food, drinks water and my days are only
Mon and fri so he doesn't have to have too many days of little milk. He also has 2 NFs still so he'll be ok!

[Florena49]

Well im back at work full time for the first month and my mum will be staying with us and she will have Oskar.  Yes this is what happened he refused bottle and when i got home he pretty much attacked me, which tells me that solids is not enough for him yet and he needs his milk for now. Ill try the straw cup see if he is more interested in that.
I still feed him twice at night, but he is teething now and trying to crawl and just turned from back to tummy, so our nights have been so disturbed it is easier to just feed him to settle him.

[KookyK]

Florena are you me?! My LO has just learnt to crawl too - everything the same! Let me m kw how you get on. I think ill get a straw cup too. Or perhaps try cup feeding as I recall he was quite good at that recently when we tried with water.

[Florena49]

Kooky, i know nothing about formula, any advice? Does it matter which one? Are u still on 4 feeds a day?

[KookyK]

I'm on about 1000 feeds a day! Well about 9 altho some Are quite quick. I only gave my parents formula for him today as itd take me ages to express breast milk for him and hes always on the go - never Time to express. Last time I left him he had just had an ear infection and didnt feed so I pumped a load that day to use when j worked the next week. I think he preferred breast milk.

[*Ali*]

Check out the FAQs such as this one on the Bottle Feeding board for help with choosing formula "What types of formula are available to me?" UK only

[KookyK]

Thanks Ali

I tried a doidy cup yday but he wanted to play and put his hands init!!

Have ordered a NUK bottle off amazon to try as the latex teat seems to have converted some bottle refusers!

Have seen mimijumi bottles which have good reviews but are v expensive - £14-17 so will hold off and try straw cup and NUK bottle first.

[Florena49]

Im back with some more formula questions.
Im back at work in a months time, Os is 9 moths now. I will kepl the morning feed and the one before bed. The rest will be formula feeds. How best to introduce these formula feeds, just replace the lunch time and late afternoon one with formula? Or do it gradually and replace just one for now?

Im also a little confused about what formula is available. Should i just go for the first milk formula?

[KookyK]

I don't think there's much between them. Diff babies seem to get on with diff formulas.

DS still only take max 2-3oz all day whilst I'm at work. I'm off now for the summer. Then he'll be one so might switch to cows milk and see if he likes that. He likes the medela bottle best but isn't that keen.

[*Ali*]

I'd start by swapping one feed and giving him a week or two (if you have that time of course) and the swap the other. Formula is much harder to digest so his tummy may need a while to get used to it.

[Florena49]

Thank you Ali, any advice on the formula, i mean there are so many options, follow on milk or first? Does it matter much which one to go for?

[*Ali*]

Sorry, I know nothing about formula but there are some FAQs on the bottle feeding forum that might be helpful .
"What types of formula are available to me?" UK only
"What types of formula are available to me?"   US/Canada only
Formula Feeding 101