Weaning from BF to formula

T

Tracey Nicole

Banned
hi

i have been BF since my baby was born but with little success as my milk production is low (yes I have tried everything).

we are now at a point where my babe consumes around 60ml from me and the balance from formula (again I did put in the hard work but to no avail).

anyway, the reason for my thread is that I am heading to thailand next week for two weeks and want to wean my little one from me completely then. I would like to do this as I return to work full time when I return.

is there a process that works best for her and me to minimise the emotional and physical pain?

please do write back with strategies to increase my supply as I am still a little sad that it hasnt worked. I just want to know the best way for us to move forward.

thanks.
 
if you want to wean entirely off bfing, my US pediatrician told me to drop a feed every 3 days replacing it with a bottle. I did it and it worked well with not much pain.
 
Hi there... sorry to hear about your situation. I know it can be a very emotional time as well, would you consider just dropping some of the feeds? I am not sure how old your baby is but they get so much comfort from breastfeeding as well that perhaps you could just do a night and morning feed (before you go to work) and also top this feed up with formula (so for example if baby needs approx 5 oz at a particular feed and you are getting around 2 oz from the breast then you top up with 3 oz formula each time). This might make the process of slowing phasing out BF a little easier for both of you. Clearly your little one already takes a bottle so perhaps whoever will care for her during the day can give her the formula feeds then, while you do the breast/formula top up night and early morning feeds. Just thought I would suggest it in case helpful. Take care.
 
Tracey Nicole said:
Please do write back with strategies to increase my supply as I am still a little sad that it hasnt worked.
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Dear Tracy,

When a baby isn't putting on enough weight by breastfeeding alone we need to discover where the problem is.

There are usually four types of problem:

1) baby isn't feeding correctly - this, if not corrected, will have an impact on the mother's supply as not enough milk is removed from her breasts.

2) baby is feeding correctly but not often enough - again this will impact the mother's supply as not enough milk is removed.

3) a true problem of not enough milk - the usual cause of this is a hormonal problem (for example part of your placenta being left in your body after the birth). This is rare but does occur.

4) baby has a medical problem and the feeding problem is a symptom rather than the cause.

Generally the problem is one of the first two. If the baby is still young (less than two weeks) then solving the problem (correcting the latch and feeding more often) will usually solve the problem.

If the baby is older the solution is likely to be harder work. Usually we will suggest:

1) improve the latch - not always easy as baby is used to feeding with a poor latch. Get help with this from a LLL leader or a lactation consultant. If you send me your e-mail address I can send you some photos to help explain the latch - but a face-to-face meeting is really best. Call me on 2548-7636 if you are interested.

2) extra pumping to remove more milk and so make more milk. This will also provide breast milk for a supplement rather than formula. You will need to pump at least eight times a day to increase your supply. Keep pumping for two minutes after you no longer get any milk out. And remember pumping three times for ten minutes is more beneficial than pumping once for 30 minutes.

3) feeding the baby the extra milk without using a bottle. Dr. Jack Newman preferred way to do this is with a lactation aid. When using a lactation aid the baby does deep sucking at the breast and so helps the breast make more milk. If your baby is not drinking correctly at the breast his sucks are unlikely to help your breast make more milk. Again if you are interested in finding out more about this method please contact me.

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
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Hi! I do not mean to hijack this thread but I have some questions reagrding to weaning. My son is almost 13 months and I have been exclusively breastfeeding him since his birth. He eats solids 3 times a day and I breastfeed him 3 times a day.
(after he wakes up in the morning, after he wakes up from nap and before he goes to bed.)

I want to stop breastfeeding soon because I want to try for second baby. However my son does not take any formula. I tried different brands, different bottles and cups but he just does not take forumula. I have not introduce cow's milk yet.

When is the average age to stop breastfeeding?

Can I just stop breastfeeding even though he does not take any formula? (Then introduce cow's milk?)

I just want to know what ohter mum did for weaning.

Thanks!

Sucellia
 
One very popular method of weaning an older baby is the "don't offer - don't refuse" method. As your baby grows older he easily gets distracted with other stuff and will forget about breastfeeding for long periods.

Often the going to sleep feeds are the last ones to go - either just before nap time or just before bed.

The more slowly you can wean is better for both your baby and your body.

Remember that as long as your baby is getting some breast milk, even if it is only one feed every two or three days, he will still be getting the benefits of being a breastfed baby. The immune factors in the milk concentrate and the quality of milk is reduced. So that the amount of immune factor the baby gets stays about the same.

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
Hi, Sarah

Thank you for your reply. It seems like my son is not so bothered if I do not breastfeed him. For example, I sometime do not breastfeed him when we go out (for his after nap BF) but he never gets cranky. As well, my husband had to babysit him when I am going out at night, my husband try to give him a bottle of formula but he just does not drink any of it and go to sleep without any fuss.

So I guess I can start drop the BF one by one. But I have one last question. Do I need to give him a formula or cows milk?
It seems like the most of my mum friends are still giving formula few times a day (they are few months to 6 months older than my son).

I am just afraid my son might not get enough nutrition or missing out something because I stop BF and not giving formula (because he does not take any).

Thanks!

Sucellia
 
Dear Tracy Nicole and Sucellia

When I was weaning, all the health professionals advised me to drop one feed as well every three days (or better, drop one feed a week). Basically, the slower you can do this, the more comfortable you will feel. Drop the last feed of the day last, so that you go to bed the most comfortable. Tracy Nicole - I also had a friend that was heading back to work, but she didn't want to really drop breast feeding all together. She is successfully breast feeding her son first in the morning, and last at the end of the day. He has formula during the day with his carer. She finds this still best for her and bubs, so I think this can work as well.

Sucillia, Not sure if this helps but I had major issues weaning my six month old from breast to bottle. When I finally did, I used some of the following techniques:
1) combination of breast and fomula in the bottle (say 75% breast milk and 25% formula, and then gradually increase the formula)
2) I am not sure if you can get them here in HK, but in Australia I used a Nuk bottle, these are aparently as close to the shape of a nipple as you can get;
3) I also tried a number of different formulas but it was the Nan HA that worked for me, as I was told it tastes closer to breast milk than others;
4) I read something that said talk to them before you give them the bottle, tell them what you are doing. The key is to keep the bottle in their mouth, even if they are carrying on. If they really don't want it, they will sook, similar to when they are young and don't want to go to bed. Try and pretend to ignore them. After 5 weeks of trying to give my girl various formulas and bottles at every feed, this technique worked for me. I put the bottle in her mouth, she sooked and sooked, and I left it in there, and pretended to watch TV, not her. After 5 minutes she began drinking, and for the first time, she drank 200 mls.

Some people say 'just don't give them the breast at all and soon they will take the milk'. I would not recommend this as you don't want to dehydrate bubs, just try and be firm.

I am not a health professional, but I did think that you can give full cream cows milk from 12 months. I could be wrong.

Anyway, hope this helps, good luck to you both!
 
Sucellia said:
I am just afraid my son might not get enough nutrition or missing out something because I stop BF and not giving formula (because he does not take any).
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Dear Sucellia,

Once your baby is 12 months old it is fine to give cow's milk - so you don't need to worry about formula at all.

Also remember that there is nothing in milk that can't be got from other foods. So if you son doesn't like milk it is fine not to give it. Indeed there is a school of thought that believes children who are allergic or have some other problem with milk will refuse to drink it - so it may be that insisting that a child who doesn't like milk drink it is not a good idea.

Milk is a very convenient food as it has lots of nutrition in it but as I said you can get everything in milk from other sources.

I think that the Milk Marketing Boards around the world have done a brilliant job with their advertising. Everyone seems to think that milk is an essential food (even the doctors). But in fact it isn't. I believe that the quantities some older babies drink is much too high. When you compare the amount a breastfeed child drinks with formula fed babies it is clear to me that many formula fed babies are drinking too much milk.

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
Dear Sucellia, do you have to stop breastfeeding to become pregnant again? I heard some moms can get pregnant even while breastfeeding?
 
Hi, noc

Actually, quite few of my mum friends got pregnant while they were still breastfeeding the 1st one.

I want to stop breastfeeding because of 2 reasons.

1. My son is 13 months now and start losing interest in BF.
(Sometime I do not BF him, but it does not bother him at all.)
So I feel like it might be a good timing to start the process of stop BF.

2. Yes, I want to try for No.2!

So I am not thinking to stop BF only for trying to get pregnant.

Sucellia
 
Hi, LLL_Sara and Ausiemum

Thanks for your reply and information.
I decided NOT to give him follow-on formula and introduce cow's milk after the Melamine issue is settled (I know many of the milks are safe but just feeling overwhelmed with all the news and information and I want to be careful with milk related products at this moment.) Mean time, I will continue
to BF him twice a day (morning and night) but drop aftenoon BF.

Anyway, thanks again!

Sucellia
 
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