anyone weaned from BF to FF??

[ljo1984]

hiya ive been breast feeding imogen since birth and finally reached my 6 month goal on monday and now want to start weaning onto formula, or at least combi feed for a while. i was thinking of starting with the feeds after her meals, and once she has dropped them the ones between meals and occasional bed time feed, and will BF mornings and if she wakes in night for a while longer i think. firstly what have others experiences been? im worried she wont like it and refuse it (having only had BM for 6 month) she takes a bottle of EBM no problem so latching to bottles is fine, and i dont want to be expressing all the time and it will be difficult to get it done at work all the time as im a nurse on a very busy and very understaffed ward! also i dont know how much to give her! i know she'll only take what she wants, on a night she'll currently take 5 oz of expressed milk if i give her a bottle. should i start around this amount and increase/decrease as needed?

 

[bluey]

I'll tell you my experience for what it's worth. I exclusively BF Thomas for the first 4 and a half months. He took bottles of EBM with no problems when needed. We started the transition to formula (although a full switch wasn't my intention at the beginning) by giving him a bottle of formula as his second to last feed of the day. Over a few weeks I then started giving him a bottle of formula if we were going out and about as he had become increasingly difficult to BF in public (VERY distractable!!!).

The freedom that FF'ing out & about gave us, meant we went out more often and so the number of bottles he had per day increased and for a while we were pretty much 50/50. I used to BF first thing in the morning, last thing at night, and during the night if he woke.

I made the final switch to all FF last week and he has been absolutely fine with it (better than me probably as I still have wobbly moments where I wonder if I should have tried to carry on longer!).

From the very first bottle I just made up the amount it recommended on the side of the box and offered that to him. He has taken the same amount each feed since, although as you may have seen in my earlier thread I was seeking some reassurance that I wasn't overfeeding him!

Hope this is of some help and good luck with your own switch over!

 

[ljo1984]

im worried about how i'll feel too but i really want to start sooner rather than later, and thats why im still wanting to feed her at least in the morning and most nights (unless we go out and were off on holiday end of aug so dont want to be getting my boobs out in resturants if shes ready haha) and especially in the night cause i cant be bothered getting up to make a bottle etc when i can just stick her on the boob and shes back off tosleep ha ha. probably when shes sleeping through properly i'll maybe make a full change to FF. glad to hear he took to it well though and i know what you mean about feeding in public, ive got a nosey one which is making it less noticable now!!! ha ha.

 

[tinkerz23]

I BF my LO for 12 weeks. She was taking a bottle of formula at night from early on because I wanted her to be accustomed to the taste of it when I went back to work. At first I couldn't wait to give up BF, but as the time came closer, I realized how much I would actually miss it! I decided to try combination feeding as well. I intended on BF'ing in the morning and at night, and FF during the day. I started weaning her slowly by replacing her second feed of the day with FF, and replacing the next one every 3 to 4 days. Ultimately she decided she didn't want to BF anymore as she was more satisified with the bottle apparently. I do miss it sometimes and wish I hadn't stopped. But on the other hand I enjoy the freedom of FF. I still bond with LO even though she is FF, but there is just something about BF that I miss!

 

[ljo1984]

i know im scared of missing that special something!! hopefully she'll be happy to combi feed! plus im replacing the feeds between her meals which she should eventually drop, then i can carry on feeding her but she will have to have a FF if im working as i wont get home till after 8 (although she doesnt go to bed till half 9-10 so you never know). but i'll just take it as it comes, she's had a bottle yesterday and 1 today which she took 5 oz between breakfast and lunch, no problems (i actually felt ok about it, i though id be in tears ha ha) so once my milk production slows down i'll give her one between lunch and dinner aswell. ive got her on aptamil and i had a little taste, i didnt like it but she didnt seem to mind despite it tasting noting like BM ha ha. so proud of her.

 

[Vix79]

My lo is 7 months and around 6 months I started to switch (very slowly!). I dropped the bedtime feed first as she was very unsettled and after a week or so dropped her mid-late morning feed. I breastfeed for her night feed, first thing and afternoon feed. Sometimes she'll slip an extra breastfeed in before her tea. She doesn't feed after meals now.

Each time I've dropped a feed I've felt really emotional for a few days (think the hormones kick in) and have the awful guilty feeling, but have been fine after that. Not sure how I'll feel when we eventually move over fully though - hopefully ok as we're weaning so gradually!

I plan to drop the afternoon feed next and just keep the night and morning feed - like you I can't face night feeds on the bottle after being used to just popping her on the boob and settling her back to sleep! I'm hoping she will drop the night feed herself and therefore I think the morning one will be the last to go.

I'm back at work in Sept and want her on formula for day feeds, although I think she may merge the late morning and afternoon feeds as she only has 2-4 oz in the morning. I know a lot of fully ff babies are only on 3 bottles a day at this age. Combi-feeding is working quite well for us and has given that bit of extra freedom for me!

 

[MrsRabbit]

DD took bottles of either expressed milk or formula well and nursed -- she really didn't care so at four months when we decided to wean I made the switch cold turkey to only formula. It kind of hurt my feelings she didn't care as long as she was fed but I'm glad it was easy for her.