Breastfeeding help! Have meeting out of town - 4 days away from baby!?

My son is 5 months old and exclusively breastfed. I have a last minute legal conference to go to with my boss. I have no extra back-up and will leave tomorrow afternoon. Will my baby take the formula for 4 days while I'm away? I only work part-time and pump with the Medela Pump In Style while away from him. Can I pump while gone and still have a successful breastfeeding relationship when I return? I am able to take many breaks at the conference to go back to my room to pump. How often should I pump? Please any advice would be helpful.

Oh, what kind of formula should I buy??

My baby is 5.5 months old and I just had to go away for 4 days due to a court case. Fortunately, I knew I had to go so I had some milk stored. However, it turned out that I did not testify on the day they said I would and I had to stay 3 additional days. In that time, the baby ran out of milk! Of course this freaked me out! I called baby's doctor and he told me to use Similac... Can't remember which one it was but the bottle is blue and silver.
Your baby will be ok with formula. I know it makes you feel horrible but he will survive.
Now, you are going to be uncomfortable! Get some nursing pads! If you are flying, you will most likely leak on the plane (I DID BIGTIME!). I don't know if it was the change in altitude or just the fact that I was so distraught leaving my son! Either way, some nursing pads in my bra would have been a nice thing! You will have to pump and pump a lot. I pumped and froze my breastmilk then carried a little cooler with some icepacks back with me on the plane (just be sure you don't fill each bag of milk with more then 4oz or they won't let you take it on the plane). If you don't want to do that you will have to pump and dump. I pumped 6 times a day (every 4 hours). I think I only skipped 1 time when I was asleep. When I got back, all my son wanted to do was nurse! No sooner did he see me then he had his head up my shirt (literally!). I felt like I nursed him for 3 straight days afterwards! And truthfully, it was about every 2 hours (like he was a newborn!) that he wanted to nurse for about 45 minutes. I of course let him! My milk was back up to par after that! It had decreased slightly while I was away.
So, yes, you will be able to continue a good nursing relationship when you return!
My advice is to RELAX! Pump as much as you can before you go. You can only do what you can do at this point! I know it feels awful to formula feed the baby!!! TRUST ME, I CRIED AND CRIED the day my mom had to give him the formula!! I promise, your baby will be ok! Just keep pumping... Don't worry if your supply decreased in a day or two, baby will help build it back up as soon as you get back. If you are giving baby solids, skip them when you get back and just breastfeed to help it build back up. Give yourself a break! You are an awesome mommy! There are too many people out there that don't give what thier baby eats half the thought that you are giving your baby! Keep some nipple butter on hand so that they don't get sore while pumping so much! All will work itself out!
Very best wishes to you and your baby!

at the very minimum you have to pump as often as your baby is feeding. If you can, you should even pump more often because pumping is not efficient at emptying your breasts as your baby and because of this,( your milk will lessen somewhat ).

Your baby may protest a little bit at the taste of formula, but will son take it when he gets hungry - what other choice is there?

When you return, your baby will have no trouble going back to breastfeeding. Babies love the taste of breastmilk more than formula.

PS - is this the first time he'll be on formula? If so, you may want 2 small cans of different formula.

I weaned my son from breastfeeding at 11 1/2 months. And being a stickler, my hubby said we should give him formula for 2 weeks until he was 12 months old and then we could give him cow's milk. Well, my son didn't like similac but liked Nestle Good start (brands in the U.S.).

Can you take him with you? Can someone watch him while you are at the conference? If he stays home, make sure you leave enough milk. Formula. Whatever he is drinking. Similac made my kids very fussy, so much iron. They liked Nestle good start when I had to use it.