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Hi everyone. I have a nearly 6 month old who just last week had to go cold turkey off breastmilk onto formula as I had to have emergency surgery. My first child was breastfed until 10 months so I really don't know what I'm doing. He started a small amount of solids about a week before he started formula. Before the surgery we were in a good sleep, feed wake routine but as he can go slightly longer between feeds now we're all over the shop as he can't stay awake long enough to make the sleep, feed wake thing work. Does that matter at this age? I've looked at the sample schedules on the site which were pretty much what we were doing before surgery, but they don't really differentiate between bottle and breastfed babies which I am finding are very different. Can anyone share their experience and routines of formula feeding at this age? Thankyou!

Miriam

Thankyou so much for that. It helps a lot. It is somewhat close to what we've been doing the last 2 days except Jacob goes to bed about 6:30 after a feed as I just can't keep him up any longer. Haven't quite worked out whether to do a dreamfeed about 9:30 (which I used to do breastfeeding) or just wait and see when he wakes during the night for a feed. I've been feeding him overnight too and it's reassuring to know that your little one feeds overnight too as most of my friends have bubs who have slept through from very early on. I actually don't mind feeding him at night if he's hungry. Thanks again!

Weaning has certainly been different to doing it the first time when I could reduce feeds gradually which is what I'd recommend if you can plan ahead for your surgery. Although I went from about 6-7 feeds a day to zero, I'd been so sick for 2 weeks, my milk supply was down anyway. I certainly have had to express for comfort for the week after and have had lots of sore lumps to massage out to prevent mastitis, but am now feeling more comfortable, although still leak overnight. If you're going to be in hospital for a few days, I'd suggest taking a breastpump and breastpads (as mine was emergency surgery, I had to manually express before and after surgery and leaked absolutely everywhere before my husband could bring in the pump and pads. With my first child I had terrible engorgement when my milk came in and used cabbage leaves with some effect but I wouldn't think you'd need to use them in weaning process, especially if you can reduced BFs gradually. I also had the problem where Jacob was a total bottle refuser until I just wasn't around and he just had no other option. Does Lucas take a bottle even of breastmilk at the moment? If so, I would think that you could do a nice transition even from now of gradually reducing number of breastfeeds and increasing number of formula feeds. The only other issue which we are having is that I think because Jacob only just started solids before I got sick and then had to go from total breastmilk to total formula overnight, his little body seems to be taking a while to learn how to process it all and he is getting lots of wind and waking lots more at night with tummy grumbles and such. I'm assuming this will sort itself out with time.

Let me know how you go though with your weaning. I found it really sad and emotional having to wean (especially as the choice was taken away from me) as there's something special about feeding life into your little one hey. Good luck!

Miriam