Need to wean soon - looking for advice on best approach and support as feeling guilty

:cry: My daughter is four months old and we have had lots and lots of feeding issues - such that now she is being feed expressed breast exclusively (she has a poor suck and was not able to get enough to eat off the breast). when the decision was made to just express and stop feeding on breast I felt somewhat guilty and a bit sad - but it was more important that she got enough to eat.

My dilema now is that I will have to change her to formula soon as we would really like the opportunity to try for a brother or sister for her. We will be going with IVF and hence I will need to be off domperidone (which I am on three times a day for breast milk supplies) and stop breast feeding so that my normal cycle comes back as quickly as possible (have not yet had a period since DD was born) - we will be having a frozen embryo transfer to start with. Again I feel guilty about stopping giving her breast milk as I know it is the best possible thing for her for as long as possible, but I also think it would be very nice for her to have a brother or sister - I turn 39 next month so feel we have very little time to try for another one.

So I am wondering what is best approach. I was thinking that perhaps I should cut down one domperidone tablet a week and start to swap one of her EBM bottles a day for formula and gradually replace more over the next month. What do others think? Would love to hear any others experience and if anyone has been in a similar situation of having to stop breast feeding to undertake IVF.

I do have some frozen EBM as well - but find that when thawed it tastes different than fresh EBM and DD has refused the frozen stuff in the past - so not sure if that is going to be very useful

Step 1 is to get some formula and see what bub thinks!
Initially either try mixing part EBM and part formula, or giving her a small formula bottle and a small EBM bottle. And then ramp up from there.
Keep the domperidone at the same level at the moment - express when you give her the FF anyway at first until you are sure that she's OK with the formula.
Good luck!

I think a slow approach is definately best, to both reduce the likelihood of blockages or problems for you, and to give your DD time to adjust.
In regards to the specifics (including med dosage) you could try calling the ABA - they can give you some good advice to help with the adjustment.

One question - can you do a natural FET cycle? If so, it may not be necessary to wean completely.

ETA - forgot to say Good luck!

Firstly I want to give you a huge congratulations to getting as far as you have, it is alot of work Exclusively Expressing, so kudos to you, well done :clap:

I was on Motilium for 12 months and to come off it you have to wean slowly, reduce it by just one pill a day per week, with the frozen EBM what temperature are you giving it to her, I found that DD would only take it at room temperature, and it is a bit different and some bubs just won't take it, but you may be able to use it mixed with the formula as you wean her over. I would do it slowly as her tummy won't be used to the formula.

So mixing 1/3 F with 2/3 EBM, That way it gives her tummy time to get used to it as well.

DD had top ups of F and for her we found the basic S26 Step 1 was the best, don't bother with any of the "gold" stuff as it is a waste of money (as her Paed said) and numerous other people :D There is also no point in going up to Step 2 when bubs is 6 months, it is just marketing and money making and they don't need the addatives.

I HTH's a little bit, welldone and good luck with your next IVF!

Kmn - thanks so much for the advice - will give it a shot

marcellus - thanks for that - we can do a natural cycle FET I think - it is just that have no period yet so was thinking it might happen quicker if I stopped all together - but maybe just coming of domperidone and reducing no of times I express would do the trick? Have appt with fertility specialist in couple of weeks so will see what he thinks

Beema - like the advise of combining EBM with formula and thanks for all the information - that is an enormous help. Will try the frozen milk at room temperature and yes adding it to the formula will probably solve the problem. many many thanks you have helped so much

:grouphug:

No worries :hug: also after you get to one D per day, then do alternate days, one day, miss the next, just to finish :D I was on 6-8 a day :o so it took me a long time to wean :D

Your FS will probably tell you that you MUST stop breastfeeding. I've read some research that says otherwise, however, if you are able to do a natural cycle. But.. yeah... there's no telling when your cycles will resume - and that does have to happen before you can start.

Maybe try a gradual cut back, dropping the meds along the way, and see what happens in the coming weeks. Good luck, anyway!