combination feeding

[Obo81]

Hi,
My baby is 8 weeks old and ebf.

I would like to introduce a couple of formula feeds into my day/night so I have a little more freedom and for my own sanity!

She is fine taking the bottle luckily, but I am not sure which feeds are best to change from breast to formula.

Any ideas? And any side effects I need to think about?

Thanks

[DarlingCoffee]

My son is breast and formula fed. I find that using formula in the evening gives me a chance to have a rest and get some sleep so my husband can feed him also. It's been going well so far for us although I'm trying to be conscientious about keeping the breastfeeding going so I keep my milk supply up. Hope this helps.

[Obo81]

Thanks!

What time at night do you give formula feeds ? Is it more than one feeds?

Also.. Do you find that your breasts are really full and sore in the morning?!

Sorry personal question! Am just worried about getting a mastitis.

[DarlingCoffee]

Yes, we do more than one feed anything up to three feeds at night with formula (think our boy is going through a growth spurt!)

I make sure I feed first thing early morning so anytime he wakes from 2am onwards and that way I don't get that tight feeling like I might explode

[Obo81]

Great. Silly question but from what time do you consider night time?

[NickyEds]

I mix fed dd, she was bf all feeds except for one ff at bedtime apart from the very odd occasion when she had one at another time (this only happened twice I think!). We started giving it when she was around 4/5 weeks old and used to give it at 10 ish, when we went to bed. It meant that if I wanted to I could get an early night and dp give the feed and also I could to out and have a drink if I wanted. Up to 6 months she would more or less sleep on me all evening u after then we wanted to actually put her to bed so we shifted the ff to 7.30, which meant that I could put ds to bed too. It really worked well for us.

The only (but important to me) downside was that when my dd started to wean she dropped bf really quickly so by 8 months she wouldn't take any milk at all except for the bedtime ff. So bf finished sooner than I would have liked. I do think that my dd is unusual in dropping all day time milk so quickly though and overall mix feeding was definitely worth it for me, I've known just too many mums who have bf much longer than they wanted because of bottke/f refusal, needing bf to sleep, having to be the one to put the baby to bed etc.

[DarlingCoffee]

I go to bed at 9am so that's when we would formula feed if he needed it although usually we would try to give him a bottle about 10.30 like the poster above. I just need my sleep!

[DarlingCoffee]

That should be 9pm!!