Breastfeeding and Supplementing

This post is the exact reason I logged on here today.  I am having the same issues this poster was.  My milk supply is dropping.  Baby is 10.5 months old and already recieving some formula at daycare since my supply plumetted last week but I am going to stop pumping today.  I had to feed him the rest of the breastmilk I had saved yesterday because he was hungry even with solids and nursing.  I'll continue to nurse him right now, if only for comfort but he needs a supplement I don't feel comfortable relying on cow's milk for his nutrition just yet.

I'm really curious about how much formula a normal 10 month old would be drinking?  His breastmilk intake at daycare has stayed steady at 4 ounces, 3 times a day since he was 4 months old.  But I understand that breastmilk changes as the baby gets older and most while most breastfed babies don't increase their actual intake, formula fed babies do.  So, I am TOTALLY clueless how much I should start giving him.

Any advice?

Hey.  I don't know if I have the exact answer you're looking for, but I can tell you what happend for Mia and I.  She is 13 months now and still nursing but only getting a couple ounces a day of breast milk.  It's mainly comfort nursing and deffinately not meeting her nutritional needs.  She is eating a much bigger variety of foods now and so I am no longer supplementing with formula.  I now have her on enriched soy milk and a daily infants vitamin drop.  Turns out she doesn't tolerate milk well.  After almost three months of diahrea and diaper rashes, 4 different formulas and cows milk we finally switched to soy and everything is fine now.

What I finally found out from all the various sources I polled (doctor, naturopath, pharmacist, midwife, other mothers, LLL) is that at 10 month of age in addition to solids a formula fed baby would be drinking about 20 oz of formula a day.  So when Mia was 10 month I started by estimating how much breast milk she was getting and subtracting that amount from the formula.  If your little one is getting 12 ounces of breast milk than 8 ounces of formula would make up the difference.  I also found that the wider the variety of solids they are eating the less formula you may need to supplement with.  If you choose to go straight to cows milk, which I was told was perfectly fine anytime after 11 months, than you may want to make sure your little one has a daily vitamin drop.  Just to make sure you've covered all the basic nutritional needs.  And watch for signs of the cows milk or formula upsetting their tummy.  Constant diahrea and diaper rashes are a sign that they aren't tolerating the diatary change well.  Your little one may tolerate cheese and yogurt fine but still have trouble with straight milk or with formula. 

Sorry, don't know if that was very helpful or not.  Good luck with your supplementing.  Also you may not need an infants formula, you could maybe go straight to stage 2/toddler formula.  Breast fed babies that have never been supplemented before sometimes really dislike the taste of formula.  Toddler formula comes in vanilla flavor that may make it more paletable to your little one.

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