From breast to Formula

[EmyLou]

I am wanting to go from breast to formula for my 1 month old, do i do it gradually? whats the best way to go and also what formula do you all recommend?

Will my milk dry up naturally?

Em

[Bambaloo]

Hi EmyLou

I would firstly give your baby a bottle of formula to see if it will take it.

You can buy stick packs of formula which I would do so you don't waste money on a whole tin on a formula that doesn't suit.

Babies react to formula differently. With my daughter I first tried her on Nan HA which a friend recommended as they used that but it didnt agree with my DD. She ended up on S26AR as she had reflux.

My son has the occasional formula bottle and has S26 Gold Alpha Pro.

It is really trial & error.

As for milk - I was expressing with my daughter so I dropped to expressing (yours may be feeding?) to one a day and it went away with no pain after 3 days. Other than this you can obtain a script from your GP for medication to dry it up.

Good luck!

[Shakey]

I would probably ween bub onto the formula, give him/her 1 bottle to start with, then 2 the next day, 3 the day after, and then full days worth the next, this will help bub get used to the formula, and also help you not get too engorged from stopping suddenly

bub might get a bit constipated with the change, you can give bub a bit of water during the day to help that, and coloxyl drops can help as well, also don't think that the formula isn't agreeing with bub without doing a weeks trial, takes about that long for their system to get used to it, and if nothing is better by then, try another one (I found Nan HA worked well for my DD, but S26 gold worked well for my DS, its all trial and error to find one that works)

as for your milk supply, you can express a little each day, but only when your engorged, just to relieve the pain, over a few days it will settle down, also cold cabbage leaves work well, and there is also a tablet you can get from your GP to dry up your milk

[Little_P]

I weaned my son cold turkey but he was 6 mths and didnt take well to a bottle. If I had a choice I would have done it slowly. I would also suggest dropping one feed at a time. Probably one later in the day/night as your milk will be more plentiful in the morning and you can have relief from bub feeding then. I would prob drop one every 2-3 days. The slower you take it the easier it will be on your breasts and if you are in no rush, look after yourself.

Re formula, the AR ones tend to be expensive and aren't really needed unless bub has reflux. My son had reflux but is fine on normal formula. We use Karicare as recommended by a few ppl who went breast to bottle. I have heard good things about the Heinz nuture one too. (cheaper as well). get the formula from a discount chemist - I find its about $5 cheaper than the supermarket and chemist.

All the best.

[Miranda1976]

Yep, do it one feed at a time over a couple of weeks, otherwise you'll end up with mastitis like I did! When I weaned my 3 month old from breast to bottle I pretty much went cold-turkey and got mastitis... yuck. It's a mistake to think that your boobs will stop making milk if you stop taking milk out... this is true, but it's a sure-fire path to painful engorgement and mastitis. Best way to do it is slowly and gradually your boobs will definitely stop making milk. Just dont let them get engorged too often... express little bits of milk off to get rid of the engorgement.