in September 2024 Babies 🇬🇧

Breast milk to formula transition

Hello- I need help! My 6 month old daughter had the last of my breast milk today and we switched her over to formula, I don’t think it’s going well 😩 She was only having 130ml BM in a bottle at a time and most of the time she would drink it half way through and then have more later when she felt like it as I have always fed her on demand. Now switching to formula I only made her about the same amount that she would usually have in a bottle ( bear in mind this is the 5-8 weeks guide 👀) and I’ve had to throw bits away as it went over the hour mark. There were times she would have the milk and then realise halfway through the feed and refuse to take the bottle or her dummy as I think she just lost trust in me. I feel awful! I’ve given her a larger bottle tonight to have before bed ( the 4 month guide ) Do I go up to her expected amount tomorrow and hope and pray she starts taking the full about or do I only up it one guide at a time? 🙈 I’m so stressed out as I don’t want her to be underfed, even tho I know that if she’s hungry she’ll drink it. How long will it take for her to get used to it and when will she have a whole bottle in a feed like other babies or have I already messed up but feeding on demand up till now 😩 Any advice or personal experiences will really help as I know it’s only been the first day but I’m really stressed for some reason.

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Are you able to pump any more milk? It’s easier to slowly transition feeds over to formula starting with 1 more bottle swap per day x

Mine absolutely hated it!! I felt so guilty to start with! Originally we were advised to change it slowly but then it was so bad they said to try cold Turkey and after a few days she was so much better! So I guess it’s a bit of trial and error 🥹 but you got this mama!!

@Maisie I have completely dried up, we initially started giving her 1 formula feed a day and then 2 months ago, but she started having really bad stomach pain and dr advised to start at 6 months again with lactalose 2 times a day. But then I completely lost my supply shortly after and had her in my frozen stash until now. It’s so distressing having a baby out of their norm 🙄 Hopefully in a couple of days this should get easier xx

I know it’s so awful when you see so many other babies who seem to be so much more ‘normal’ and straightforward but I promise you it’s not all like that! We’ve had so many struggles with colic and CMPA and immaturity but it will get better and I know that! But try not to get yourself down about it!! Feel free to pop me a message if you ever want to chat ❤️

Just to mention that you don’t know how many calories your breastmilk contains. It could be a large amount of milk but minimum calories or the other way around or something else. Just go by her appetite. If she wants food, she will have food. Unless there’s some brain issue, babies want food, there’s no mental complexity to it. So eventually she will have formula. Don’t pressure her as it can result in bottle aversion

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