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Working Moms
Ready2006
member
Anyone travel regularly for work and BF?
Ready2006
member
in Working Moms
I posted yesterday on 0-3 asking if and how I should intro formula before I go back. I travel a couple times a month, domestically and internationally. The responses were basically "don't".
I love BFing and I'd prefer to stick with it exclusively because it's going so well, but I feel like that's not really fair to LO. What if there's a growth spurt while I'm away and he needs more than is frozen? What if our power goes out (this does happen ~once a year here, with winter storms, etc).
Would you just give formula in a true emergency and hope it went well? Would you intro it and give it regularly (though infrequently) to make sure there's a type that sits well with him?
Another benefit is a bottle of formula would give me another opportunity to pump and freeze. Right now he eats pretty often, so this is hard to do. I go back October 25, and have less than 15 oz frozen.
Anyways, whatever your "plan", I'd love to hear it. I'm open and looking for advice!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Anyone travel regularly for work and BF?
How long are your trips? I'm guessing more than just a day/overnight especially for the international ones.
I probably would introduce formula just in case. You have a pretty low freezer stash, I'd also work on building that up but I wouldn't want the first time you have to use formula to be while you are away on business without ever having tried it in the past. You can get those single serve pouches so that an entire can won't go bad.....I used to have those in the house 'just in case', even though I had a TON of milk frozen for my trips. Like you said, you never know when a flight will get canceled, or a grow spurt will hit, etc.
I nursed my kids for over a year each, but it's not a bad thing to be prepared for any and all options you may need.
I don't think there is anything wrong with planning for an "emergency." That being said, I travel for work and BF for a year, so it's totally possible. The only issue might be if you go on long trips that your home supply would run out. In that instance, sure, why not supplement. You don't have another choice.
When is your first trip and how long?
Around the time i returned to work (3 months) I started supplementing with formula. First it was one bottle around 11, then another around 3pm. I travel locally by car daily so there was no place I could comfortably and discreetly pump. I continued to breastfeed morning, dinner time and bedtime and my nanny gave her two bottles. After serveral months I dropped the dinner breast feed and continued morning and night until she was one and weaned off the bottle.
If I had to travel overnight, I brought my pump for bf times.
Supplementing was awesome for me. It allowed me too bf much longer than I thought i could with a high impact job and schedule.
While I don't travel regularly (meaning weekly), I have traveled a number of times while I was BF. All the times I successfully got my milk back home - including from Mexico.
My suggestion would be to work on your stash. For day to day servings - serve what you pump that next day in that quanity. Add in pumping sessions to build your freezer stash. At your baby's age, I suggest the best time to do this is before your first morning feeding (e.g. not middle of the night - 2 AM) but before your 5 or 6 or 7 AM feeding. This generally is when you are the fullest. You can ABSOLUTELY pump and then nurse - this will actually help increase your milk production. Then what you pump should immediately go into your freezer stash for when you are away. If your baby is going to bed say at 7 PM and sleeping for a chunk of time, the other suggeston is to add a pumping session before you go to bed. I did this before a Mexico trip as I wanted to make sure my freezer stash was sufficient. Even if you only get 1 or 2 ounces, you can keep it fresh and add together 2 different pumping days to get 3 or 4 ounces for a "full" bottle.
I think the key is NOT to over feed. BF babies do not continually increase intake like FF babies do for the entire first year. I never fed my kids 8 oz of BM - EVER, not even 7. At most, they might have had a 5 or 5/12 oz bottle and only 1 bottle would be that big. The others would be in the 3 - 4oz range during a work day - and this is not unusual - but common.
I travel pretty frequently for work and have managed to keep up for 5 months, although I have had to add an extra pumping session a couple of times. I add a morning pumping session on my way to work when my freezer supply gets low to build it back up. The life-saver for me has been my hands-free pumping bra and a car adapter. It allows me to safely pump during my long commute without having to carve out extra time. I just get all setup before I turn the car on and I'm good to go.
I don't really understand why you would intro formula just before you go on a trip. If he doesn't like it then will that change your trip plans? If not, I'm not sure what difference it makes. Get a couple of different kinds of formula to have on hand in an emergency and keep on nursing, IMO.
I understand that giving a bottle of formula allows you to pump for that feeding but why replace a nursing session with formula just so you can replace a future formula feeding with breastmilk? Seems like it's extra work for a pumping session.
Good luck! I still feel like it is a lot to figure out but am becoming more relaxed all the time.