[SusieBlue]

My DD will be 9mo next week. She currently has a feed at about 6am and then about every four hours until bedtime, so approximately 4 feeds during the day (she usually has other feeds overnight, but they're less predictable).

I need to go out tomorrow afternoon and unfortunately I can't take her with me. I am wondering whether it would be ok for her to miss her afternoon feed, and I can start moving her to 3 feeds a day? Or whether I should be looking to buy some formula or something to bridge that gap (even though I'm not sure if she'll take it, given she's never had formula before).

DS dropped to 3 feeds a day at about 8 months of age, but that was led by him rather than me.

[meggs1]

It happened very gradually from about 10 months. Some days he'd skip the mid-morning one or the afternoon one if he was too busy to be bothered, other days he'd have those 2 and an extra.

You can buy those individual tetra packs of formula, and have that for the carer to offer in a sippy cup. That way you wont be wasting money on a whole tin. I used that in Fiji when I went on a snorkeling trip. My DS had never had formula before (he had had EBM in a bottle) and was fine with it.

[lucky 2]

I wouldn't bother giving a breast milk substitute (ie formula) as it is only one feed, your baby will be fine (nutritionally) without it.
You might want to consider having the option of expressing whilst you are out as your breasts may become very full.
Your baby might have an extra snack, perhaps some yoghurt and some water instead of the breast feed or whatever you want to be offered.
All the best.