Combining brest milk and formula?

Love2love

Anyone any experience of this?

I'm not sure how exactly it works? Obviously the hospital will start me off breastfeeding, do I introduce formula when I leave the hospital?

I formula fed my son who is 3 now and I am very upset with myself for not even entertaining the idea of breastfeeding when I had him. However, I do like the convenience of formula. I am aware that expressing can mean the child could be bottlefed but I want to be able to get up and go as much as possible for my son.

My next appointment with the hospital isn't until March and I will be 29 weeks pregnant then but this is something I want to decide now to prepare myself for. I have only had my initial appointment which was 3 weeks ago but I forgot to ask!! (pregnancy brain :rolleyes:)

Moonbeam

The hospital suggested it as an option for me because I had a very hungry baby,I found breast feeding during the day and a bottle before sleep at night worked very well.
I found there is a lot more freedom with breastfeeding and a lot less stuff to do but it is also harder.

Das Kitty

No personal experience here but a poster on here a couple of weeks ago tried this (half and half I think) and found that her breastmilk slowed down and dried up. I would have thought that you'd produce the right amount for what was being demanded but that wasn't her experience.

I'm going to try exclusive breastfeeding for the first month or so then expressing as well so my husband can do some feeding.

cbyrd

i'm currently breastfeeding and then i give him a bottle at night he's 22 days old and he will feed for most of the evening when all the good tv shows are on!! then at 11 he has a 6oz bottle (since last night was 4 oz up to that)then he gets the hiccups about 20mins later and i give him a top up for about 10 mins and he goes into his moses basket and sleeps ALL NIGHT!!! i can't believe it and i still have loads of milk, although the leaking in the mornings is funny... i started doing this at 13 days old cos it was getting mad how much he was feeding i was up all night some nights. After the morning feed he goes down again for another 3 and a half hours...! I find he's much more settled since he started the bottle.. i'm using the aptamil no. 1.;) hope it helps..

Chesty LaRue

I am 33wks pregnant with no 2. My son is 7yrs old and I breastfed him exclusively for 6mths. However, this was not by choice as I had intended on giving him a supplement bottle every now and then but he had other ideas. He wouldnt entertain the bottle at all...not even with expressed milk, he just wanted the boob! He fed constantly and toward the end he was waking every hour for a feed. I was shattered, couldnt hand him over to Daddy (or anyone) for a feed and not surprisingly sleep deprevation got the better of me and I was diagnosed with PND:(. This time round I am bottle feeding. I am not trying to put anyone off breastfeeding especially as I didnt suffer any difficulties actually feeding, he was great at latching on, fantastic feeder and I didnt get sore or cracked nipples it was just the sheer demand and not been able to get a break day or night. But what I would advise is to introduce the bottle early rather than later, (the hospital staff will tell you about nipple confusion, letting your milk build up etc..etc..etc..) but from my experience and from friends experiences the sooner you introduce the teat the less time they have to become too attached to the boob. Again, this is only my opinion but whatever you choose I hope it works out. 7wks and counting!:)

llester

Love2love wrote: »

Anyone any experience of this?

I'm not sure how exactly it works? Obviously the hospital will start me off breastfeeding, do I introduce formula when I leave the hospital?

I formula fed my son who is 3 now and I am very upset with myself for not even entertaining the idea of breastfeeding when I had him. However, I do like the convenience of formula. I am aware that expressing can mean the child could be bottlefed but I want to be able to get up and go as much as possible for my son.

My next appointment with the hospital isn't until March and I will be 29 weeks pregnant then but this is something I want to decide now to prepare myself for. I have only had my initial appointment which was 3 weeks ago but I forgot to ask!! (pregnancy brain :rolleyes:)

apparently, you're not supposed to mix breast with bottle because it confuses the sucking action of the child or something? But I breastfed and formula fed my fella for the first few weeks, then just left it at formula

hacked

llester wrote: »

apparently, you're not supposed to mix breast with bottle because it confuses the sucking action of the child or something? But I breastfed and formula fed my fella for the first few weeks, then just left it at formula

They talked about that in the ante natal classes the other day. Apparently it's actually good to get the baby used to the teat, so some babies who are exclusively breast fed have difficulty switching to bottles at a certain age.

They advised breast feeding during the day, and at the same time every day...namely before bed...giving the baby a bottle. This way they baby doesn't get confused between the two as there is a strict regime and baby can differentiate.

The plus to this is also what everyone else has said...baby wakes up less during the night.

Alternatively you can express the milk you give in the bottle in the evenings..it doesn't have to be forumla!! (for those that would like to exclusively breastfeed)

fi1979

That sounds like a good idea alright. I had heard about the confusion too, but thought there must defo be a way around that. I'm planning on doing BF, but have a pump bought, as hubby is soooo not getting away by saying "I don't have the equipment", plus I think its a good way for him to bond with Junior too.;)

crazy cat lady

I'm currently breast and bottle feeding. The baby didn't have a bottle at all for the first 3 weeks, but she certainly knew what to do when I did give her one and she still knows what way to suck when she gets the boobie too!

She can be a bit of a messer when I give her a bottle and she wants the boob, but she soon takes it when she realises thats all she's getting!

Its great now cos daddy can feed her too so Sundays are now my day for a sleep-on, starting this sunday! Can't wait

aniascor

Ideally you should breastfeed exclusively for the first few weeks because it ensures you establish a good milk supply. I introduced a formula bottle feed for one of the feeds at six weeks and it works well for us to combine in this way.

llester

hacked wrote: »

They talked about that in the ante natal classes the other day. Apparently it's actually good to get the baby used to the teat, so some babies who are exclusively breast fed have difficulty switching to bottles at a certain age.

They advised breast feeding during the day, and at the same time every day...namely before bed...giving the baby a bottle. This way they baby doesn't get confused between the two as there is a strict regime and baby can differentiate.

The plus to this is also what everyone else has said...baby wakes up less during the night.

Alternatively you can express the milk you give in the bottle in the evenings..it doesn't have to be forumla!! (for those that would like to exclusively breastfeed)

I was told in the hospital that expressing the milk can leave the breasts engorged so was advised against it. Luckily I had enough cop to ignore that and because my son wouldn't/couldn't latch on properly I hired a pump when I got home and expressed. My thinking was best get any breast milk into him any way I can

Khannie

So we tried introducing some formula there the other day (she's 5 and a half weeks now) and she took the teet alright but puked *everywhere*. If anyone has tips on introducing forumla in conjunction with breastfeeding I'm all ears. The night time feeds are taking their toll on both of us at this stage (I've discovered that I'm crap at dealing with interrupted sleep ) and I remember from our last that when she switched to formula she started sleeping through the night.

Das Kitty

Khannie wrote: »

So we tried introducing some formula there the other day (she's 5 and a half weeks now) and she took the teet alright but puked *everywhere*. If anyone has tips on introducing forumla in conjunction with breastfeeding I'm all ears. The night time feeds are taking their toll on both of us at this stage (I've discovered that I'm crap at dealing with interrupted sleep ) and I remember from our last that when she switched to formula she started sleeping through the night.

Same thing happened here with his first bottle of expressed milk. They guzzle the bottles when used to the breast. We found burping every 30ml did the trick.

Dunno about sleeping through the night, all babies are different. I have Mike in the spare room so he can function enough to look after the house and do his work. Can't wait till we get into a bit of a routine, I miss my hubby.

crazy cat lady

I got projectile vomit when I first gave a bottle too. I felt like the worst mammy in the world.

What teats do you have? A newborn teat with a slower flow might help with the puking.

Definatley wind quite regularly to begin with, and just give the babs breaks. I also found that changing the nappy half way thru the feed meant that she had time to digest some of the feed before moving on.

Khannie

Das Kitty wrote: »

I have Mike in the spare room so he can function enough to look after the house and do his work. Can't wait till we get into a bit of a routine, I miss my hubby.

Was in the spare room for a while myself but found it too lonely and caved. I'll probably take one or two more nights in there though. I'm really seriously tired at the moment.

crazy cat lady wrote: »

What teats do you have? A newborn teat with a slower flow might help with the puking.

We have the size 1 tommy tippee ones.

crazy cat lady wrote: »

I also found that changing the nappy half way thru the feed meant that she had time to digest some of the feed before moving on.

That sounds like a good idea alright. Thanks.

bogtotty

When introducing formula, the best way is to try to use expressed breastmilk and add half an ounce of formula to it, increasing the amount of formula over a week or so. Sometimes it isn't the bottle that the baby rejects but the taste of the formula. By slowly increasing the ratio of formula to breastmilk you allow the baby to get used to the taste gradually.

In order to avoid problems with supply, it is usually recommended to breastfeed only for the first three weeks and then begin expressing/introducing formula.

And there's very little difference in how much sleep breastfed v formula fed babies get. In fact recent studies suggest that breastfeeding mums get more sleep than formula feeding ones. At the moment my little man is teething so no one in the whole village is getting any sleep, but boob is the one thing that can knock him out!