Whole milk, formula, or a combo of both?

[jessmke]

I go back to work in a month and I hope to continue breastfeeding when I am with my daughter, but we need to give her an alternative for the afternoons/evenings I am at work. My shifts are 2 pm - midnight, so my OH will be putting her to bed 4 nights a week. We are thinking about giving her whole milk during the afternoon, but then a bottle of formula at bedtime to *hopefully* help her sleep better (she is currently up 4-6 times a night), or at least get her to sleep until I get home around 12:30/1 am so my OH doesn't have to get up with her since he needs to be up at 5:45 am for work. We are doing BLW with her solids and while she is mostly good at eating full meals, she goes on spurts where she isn't really interested in her food, so I am worried that she won't be getting proper nutrition if we just give her whole milk. What would you do in my situation? Just milk, just formula, or a combo of the two where she gets formula at bedtime?

Also how much do we give her? I have absolutely no idea how much she drinks when she is breastfeeding so I wouldn't even know how much to give her in a bottle.

 

[claireybell]

If shes quite fussy with food & doesnt really eat alot you could just carry on giving her Formula or a follow on milk to make sure shes still getting all her nutrients etc.

My sister with my nephew used a 'nighttime' formula milk after 6 months to help him sleep through (Google it) but i guess it depends on why shes waking in the night? Hunger, is she cold or warm enough or just wanting comfort :-/ Put the max amount in the bottle or at least 8oz id say, anything she doesnt want she'll just leave

 

[MindUtopia]

If she already will gladly take formula and you don't want to change too much all at once, I would maybe carry on with the formula until you settle into your new routine and then move to cow's milk. If she is exclusively breastfed now and doesn't usually have formula, I'd go straight to cow's milk. There's nothing magical about formula for toddlers. It's important to use, if you aren't BF, for babies because pure milk is too salty and not a good substitute for breastmilk for young babies. For a toddler, milk actually is more calorie and nutrient dense in some cases than formula, even though formula has added nutrients. Neither one is going to make much difference in whether she wakes at night, unless she refuses one and won't drink it at all. Formula also has a higher sugar content, which isn't ideal. In the long run, cow's milk is also cheaper and easier to prepare. If you're concerned about nutrients, you can always add in a vitamin supplement, which is recommended for most breastfed babies anyway from 6 months. My daughter was formula fed at that age, but we switched to cow's milk at 12 months. It was so much better, cheaper, less of a hassle, and she actually increased her milk intake just because it didn't taste as gross as formula (this was important because she's small and didn't always eat much food, like your daughter). We also offered a vitamin supplement from about 10 months just because she dropped down to 3 feeds a day anyway, which really wasn't much. That worked for us. I didn't see the need to pay a lot of money for something that was a hassle to make that she didn't really like that much anyway.

This guide from Which? is really good in comparing the nutritional values of formula vs. cow's milk.

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/for...g-the-right-formula-milk/toddler-formula-milk

 

[jessmke]

Thank you so much for the info! She is exclusively breastfed and has never had formula or cow/goat milk before (we typically drink whole goat milk at our house), so maybe I should try introducing a bit of milk into her diet now to get her used to it. I don't know why I thought formula would be better for her nutritionally. My mom and my MIL have both been on us basically since DD was born to give her formula at bedtime to help her sleep better. I never thought it would make much difference but my OH wants to try it now, I think he is a bit worried about having to get up with her 2 or 3 times before I get home from work, and then having to go work a 12 hr shift. Maybe as a compromise I will suggest we try it for a few nights and if it doesn't work then we will just switch her to whole milk at bedtime. She has her 1 yr appointment next month so I will ask about vitamin supplements. She takes vitamin D but thats it at the moment.

 

[crownest]

Thank you so much for the info! She is exclusively breastfed and has never had formula or cow/goat milk before (we typically drink whole goat milk at our house), so maybe I should try introducing a bit of milk into her diet now to get her used to it. I don't know why I thought formula would be better for her nutritionally. My mom and my MIL have both been on us basically since DD was born to give her formula at bedtime to help her sleep better. I never thought it would make much difference but my OH wants to try it now, I think he is a bit worried about having to get up with her 2 or 3 times before I get home from work, and then having to go work a 12 hr shift. Maybe as a compromise I will suggest we try it for a few nights and if it doesn't work then we will just switch her to whole milk at bedtime. She has her 1 yr appointment next month so I will ask about vitamin supplements. She takes vitamin D but thats it at the moment.

I started my DS on a bottle of formula a month ago as everyone said it would help him sleep it didn't work but he really enjoys it.