Transition from boob to bottle....help

[tinkerbell13]

I'm breastfeeding my lo and when he's 6 months I'm looking to make the transition from boob to bottle and I'm a little worried about making this transition so looking for advice from those who have been there....

My questions / worries are as follows:

1. My lo regularly falls asleep whilst feeding and definitely comfort sucks so I'm concerned about how he will cope when he can no longer do this - how did anyone else handle this? Did you have trouble getting lo to sleep?

2. Does anyone just breastfeed at night for comfort then ff in day?

3. I'm concerned about mastitis when I stop so wondering if I should drop one feed each week and do it slowly? How did anyone else do this?

4. When switching to formula which one should we go for, can we use the first type formula or does it need to be a follow on one? We did combination feeding for a few weeks at the start and used aptamil but stopped ff as it was making him really constipated. Can anyone recommend another formula that has worked for them and not caused constipation (I appreciate what worked for your lo may not work for mine)

Thank you in advanced for any advice...X x x

 

[Dotty_woman]

I had to switch to formula in preparation for going back to work. I chose Hipp Organic as my son had been ok on that. Violet had virtually never been constipated and has always managed to go herself without any assistance. From that point of view I'd definitely recommend it. If you've been exclusively breastfeeding, I'd try with the stage 1 milk first and see how your LO gets on. If you plan to switch completely to bottle, I found dropping 1 breastfeed every couple of weeks and replacing it with a bottle meant it wasn't a massive shock to the system so I didn't get engorged boobs. Hope that helps! x

 

[rachaell]

Does your lo already take a bottle or dummy easily?
I was breastfeeding until 6 months and then started to reduce. Started by giving bedtime bottle of formula and then all other breastfeeds and then once boobs adjusted dropped another feed when I was ready. You will probably feel engorged after each one is dropped so its nice to have a gap between dropping them to readjust. I found it fine until I had to drop the last feed and I found this quite uncomfy. I had to feed every few days for a bit just to feel comfortable and then it eventually passed.

To answer your actual questions properly;

1. My lo had a dummy so didn't really comfort suck on me a lot.
2. You could breastfeed just at night if you want to, by the end I was just breastfeeding at night for ease.
3. As above I found it easier to do it slowly. If in to much discomfort just slow it down again.
4. I used aptimal with no problems, maybe now your lo is a bit older he won't be quite as sensitive?

Xx

 

[MrsTS]

Hi,

Just thought I would add my 2p on your first point.

I am exclusively bf my wee girl (9 weeks). I have to go back to work next week and so had introduced bottles of expressed milk at 3 weeks. She took the bottles fine (avent) but at 7 weeks stopped taking them. I was really worried about going back to work and tried everything to get her to take them again. Had a little luck with the avent natural but she was still fussy. Googled the problem and found bottles called playtex, think they're American (sorry I'm not sure if you're allowed to link on here...I don't want to seem like Im advertising them!!) but they were amazing. The latex teats apparently mimic he nipple and allow the baby to drink as fast/slow as they want. I was sceptical but gave it a go and it definitely worked. And about your point-my girl is a real comfort feeder, esp in the evenings. She never fell asleep with the avent bottles but does with the playtex ones. It's really nice when she can falls asleep in her daddy's arms

Hope that helps a bit. (And just so you know the latex teats fit the avent natural bottles...although I must say the playtex anticolic ones are great-my wee one doesn't even need burped after the bottle as they trap all the gas in the top).

 

[Pumpkin9]

Hey I breastfed till 3 months so my little one was not quite as aware of things but though I'd chip in

1) I use a dummy for naps and sleeps. Sometimes he fell asleep while drinking from the bottle but most of the time he was awake and put in his cot, dummy in and he went to sleep. Never had an issue with this way, although I was struggling with boob milk supply so might be why!

2) I know people that have done it that way and have combi fed so you can do whatever you feel comfortable with

3) this was my biggest worry. As previously suggested dropping a feed and then letting your body adjust is the better way of doing it. I sort of went cold turkey (but then supply issues meant I wasn't producing as much as I should have anyway) and it was pretty uncomfortable at times, I just waited until I couldn't bear it anymore and then did a boob feed and that seemed to work quite well for me. Definitely boob feed if you are feeling uncomfortable but leave it as long as you can or express a little .

4) we went for aptamil but I've heard great things about hipp. I think c&g and aptamil are basically the same. We were lucky that the first one he tried he was ok with

 

[mellie_88]

Is there no way you can express at all? Its just he'll probably except bottles a lot easier if its the milk he's used to.

If you do use formula then you can use first milk still. Follow on milk is not needed, first milk can provide everything. Basically formula companies love follow on milk so much because its their way of getting round the law on advertising formula.

Definitely drop feeds slowly, don't just suddenly go down to none. Your supply needs to adjust itself slowly.

As your lo is 6 months it may be worth skipping bottles altogether and going straight to a cup of some sort.

 

[tinkerbell13]

Thank you all for your advice. Has really helped. Mellie - I'd never thought about skipping bottles and going straight to cup. That'd be much better as to be honest I've had slight problems with his taking bottles. Dotty Woman - thank you I will defo look at hipp organic. MrsTS - will defo look at those bottles. I'd thought about expressing but I did it a lot at the start as lo couldn't latch and I found it so exhausting.

 

[Wilson28]

id, express for a little time and pop it into a bottle so he gets used to the bottle. is it because of work you are wanting to go onto bottles if you dont mind me asking? xx

 

[tinkerbell13]

Hi Wilson, as per my message to you I was hoping to breastfeed for a year or so and may still do so.... I'm just finding it quite hard going at the moment and thought if I stop breastfeeding at 6 months ish hubby can at least give me a break and do some bottles. No, I'm having a full year off so won't be returning to work until September. In regards to expressing when I think about it I may as well just continue breastfeeding as I did express initially when lo wasn't latching and I found this very exhausting also. To be honest since I posted this thread I've been thinking more and more about it and I think it may just be easier to continue until Weaning is established then reevaluate. I can't help but think he is going to be upset by losing the comfort of the boob lol.

 

[Wilson28]

Hi hunni,

i felt the exact same as you, i just felt like i needed a break, my body felt rubbish, however i found when they do reach 6 months and they start to slowly wean, you find they drop bf down to about 3 feeds in 24hrs.
I had to go back to work at 6 months old as i came off work early due to a heart condition and panic attacks, but as many dont know you get an extra break to express...yep that was me expressing at work lol.

i gave myself 6 months, then a year, then 2 yrs and now i can start to see the transition he is making to coming off and sleeping at night etc...

i always say if you are in doubt then dont stop, as alot of my ladies feel regret when they stop to soon and its something you have to live with as it never leaves you, however if you totally feel ready then slowly wean him onto formula.

everyone is different, i found by asking other it influenced what i really felt, and i used to cry with feeling i was taking something off my baby he really loved.

good luck with what u decide, and im always happy to help xx

 

[tinkerbell13]

Thank you Wilson. Another worry I have is that my lo is now sleeping through the night, well loosely, he mostly does 6/7 hours straight then wakes up for a feed then does another 4 hours so really happy with this and worried that if I do stop breastfeeding this will really affect his night time sleeping. That's exactly it with me I worry that I will regret stopping bf as we had a real challenge at the start with tongue tie so he couldn't latch so did expressing and topped up with ff (I was told I had to top up by hospital but wished I'd have researched or questioned this as I now regret doing this as there was really no need) and from this i managed to drop ff and exclusively bf so after overcoming all these challenges and really working hard at it it seems such a shame to stop but like I said I'm exhausted I guess it's weighing that against the benefits if continuing feeding I.e getting the Sleep at night and obviously benefits for lo. Are you a bf peer supporter? I feel the same when talking to people I feel like people think I should stop at 6 months as this is the 'norm'! (That's just the feeling I get)

 

[Jajis]

When I had my son I assumed that I would stop at six months (because I assumed that's what people did). We also had a pretty tough start to our breastfeeding journey (sounds very similar to yours), and I think that is partly why I decided to carry on in the end - seemed daft to stop once it was finally working brilliantly! I then thought I'd carry on until I went back to work just after he turned one, but actually we ended up carrying on then too (he had cows milk the days he was at nursery, and nursed when he was at home first thing in the morning and last thing before bed). He's still going at 2.5 years and it's still a massive source of comfort to him, and calms him down better than anything else!

I briefly tried to night wean our son when he was about a year old, but always ended up nursing him, and after a few days I decided it was actually less tiring just letting him feed whenever he wanted because it always sent him straight back to sleep!

Is there anything else your partner could do in terms of helping out so that you don't feel like it's such hard going? When I was exhausted and finding it tough going my partner used to do more of the cooking and washing up etc., and he also does bath time with our son, and makes sure that he spent time playing with him so that I could go and have nice relaxing baths etc. Sometimes he'd even get up at the weekend and take our son to do the weekly shop without me so that I could have a rest (sadly he stopped doing this when our son turned into a crazy toddler who liked to climb out of supermarket trolleys ).

Whatever you decide to do, good luck and

 

[Mummybexee]

Don't regret topping up with FF - you did what was best at the time . Some of the most adamant breast feeders have used formula at some point.

Good luck whatever you choose

 

[Wilson28]

Ill pm you hunni xx

 

[Pumpkin9]

Tinkerbell,

Just do what's right for you Hun. I don't think there's any one size fits all with things anyway. Perhaps talk to your partner and see if there's is anything else he can do for you.

If you want to continue to bf go for it, weaning definitely changes milk consumption slowly but surely anyway and ff doesn't necessarily improve sleep or feelings of exhaustion anyway.