Switching from nursing to formula

[mc13]

E and A will be 5 months next week and EBF so far. I think I want to start weaning them off the boob and onto bottles/ formula because I'm exhausted from being a milk machine all day since they rarely tandem nurse anymore and would love to have some help taking over feedings.

Anyone do this? I'm ok with still nursing at night and mornings for a while so can I just stop during the day, offer a bottle, and pump if I get uncomfortable? Any tips are appreciated. Thanks!

[schmella]

So you're looking at weaning except for am & pm, which a lot of people do. You'll want to drop one feeding at a time. I EPd so I just started spacing my pumping sessions farther and farther apart until the two at the end of the day merged into one, of that makes sense? And then did the same with the 2nd and 3rd sessions- I just kept pushing them together and spacing the others apart until I was pumping am, noon, and pm. Then reduced the amount of time I was pumping at noon until I could eliminate it. Slow weaning reduces the likelihood of clogs, mastitis, etc. I think @feegan did a slightly different process. I would say it's probably easier to wean using the pump only because you have complete control

[mc13]

Thank you schmella and @feegan! From my google searches it sounds like I'll should do similarly what you did and just replace 1 feeding every couple of days with a bottle of formula. I'm so scared of getting mastitis so maybe I'll just have to really spread it out.

[schmella]

Jan 19, 2017 14:12:54 GMT -5 mc13 said:

Thank you schmella and @feegan! From my google searches it sounds like I'll should do similarly what you did and just replace 1 feeding every couple of days with a bottle of formula. I'm so scared of getting mastitis so maybe I'll just have to really spread it out.

I think it's easy to overlook the fact that feeding 2 means it will take longer to wean.

When you are ready to be done, sudafed really helped me

[jd]

I EPed, so slightly different, but I'm at the tail end of weaning at just over 4 months of feeding them breastmilk exclusively. I did what PPs did with spacing out pumping times and gradually reducing the amount of time during each session. I got mastitis too early on and it really sucked, so I was careful with weaning. Right now, my twins are on a combination of frozen breast milk and formula, which has also made the transition to full formula easier.

My advice would be to pump so you can control based on comfort, and take it slowly. I gradually reduced pumping over the course of about 6 weeks.