Do you think working irregular hours is compatible with breast feeding?

[chinook]

Dd is 10.5 months and I return to work in a few weeks time. I will only be working 10 days a month but the hours are completely irregular. On working days I will be able to do morning or evening feeds, but not both. I will also have one or two nights away but can always express these feeds. Does anyone know if my supply will be affected too much by the irregular feeding to carry on breast feeding? Dd still feeds several times a night so this may help to keep my supply up? Anyone out there had any experience of this?

[Cappuccino]

I worked three days a week from when dd was about the same age

so three days she'd not see me at all during the day

I started expressing but I've never been very good at it so I stopped. She's never complained on the days that I do see her; she has milk to drink at other times

she still feeds a couple of times a day and she's 2 now

if that's any help

[NotQuiteCockney]

At 10.5 months, assuming bf has been going well, and you did a good batch of exclusive or near-exclusive bf, your supply should really be rock solid. Lots of people are only doing a feed or two per 24 hours at this age, and their supply keeps up fine.

At this age, I'd offer cow's milk if you want to offer an alternative, and you're not expressing enough, given that it's only for 10 days per month, and probably not that many feeds anyway.

[chinook]

Thanks very much for the reassurances. Was really hoping to be able to continue bf for a while yet. The thought of returning to work, starting dd in a nursery and stopping bf all at once was horrifying. Thanks again