feeding-can you combine breast and bottle?

[runningviks]

My DD is now 5 weeks old and up to this point I've breast fed exclusively. Unfortunately I'm not the sort of person who can breast feed in public-I'm too self conscious and therefore my life revolves around those every 3 hour feeds. This means that if I want to go out, I always have to be home in time to feed. Is it possible to give the occasional bottle, to allow us to stay out a bit longer sometimes? If I could replace the midday feed with a bottle every now and again, it would make such a difference to my life and my mental state, giving us more freedom. Would missing a feed make a difference to my milk supply? Help!

[slim22]

1 bottle every few days is not the end of the world. But be cautious, you might find it so convenient that you would end up doing it more and more.......

there are parent rooms pretty much everywhere nowadays....

[SuperGrrrl]

quite easy- and if you express milk, it won't affect your milk supply.

[mishymoo]

I mixed-fed my DS from around 6 weeks. I used to express my milk into a bottle and if we were out he would have that. I was the same as you about not being comfortable breast feeding in public.

[zuzkah]

agree with supergrl
Ive been expressing since my ds was 5 weeks. Its also nice for your partner cos he can enjoy feeding his dd. Now I express every evening and have a bottle ready in the fridge just in case...

[foodfiend]

We started giving dd occasional bottles at about 5/6 weeks (sometimes expressed, but I was never very good at it, so it was sometimes formula) and this presented us with no problems. It was just once a week or so. This isn't the case for everyone though, and I think slim's right - if you find bf in public difficult then you may find yourself using bottles more and more. Which is fine of course if that's what you want to do.

I did find public bf challenging to begin with, as the first few weeks of feeding were horribly messy, with milk, tears and wailing baby in all directions and I did feel a bit of a public exhibition. It does get easier though: I ended up bf in parks, cafes, pubs, museums, trains etc quite happily, and honestly, people hardly ever even notice, let alone mind. You may find that with time it becomes easier, though of course everyone feels differently.

[gemmummy]

hi, just to share my experience. i mixed fed my son from 4 weeks, i tried expressing but hated it with a pasion. from 4 weeks my little one was on a bottle of formula a day, normally before bed. i found it a huge help, and successfully mixed fed him til 2 weeks ago (he's 6 months nearly.) i found a bottle at lunch and before bed really helped him settle, and he was happy with breast milk the rest of the time. for me, it was the best of both worlds, and i never had any problems stopping breast feeding because he was well used to the bottle and formula. you'll find your own way (i hated public breastfeeding too!)

[Martha200]

ds2 is 6 weeks today and not sure exactly when I introduced the bottle (bit of a blur) but it was down to mastitis and I found just a bottle of ebm or formula helped me get through it. He has had no problems so far with switching.. and it's working out well with the one or sometimes two bottles as dh can feed and I have a good shower before I got to bed!!