Expressing - when, and how much to give? General advice on introducing a bottle.

[PrincessOfWails]

I'm bfing my seond Ds, who is 4 weeks old. I thought I'd like to give him a bottle one night (so I could have a break!) and wondered when should I express (given that he feeds a lot!) and how much should I give him in his bottle?
I had hyperlactation with DS1 so it was abundant; supply and demand is more normal this time, and I expressed a bit this morning when DS2 was sleeping, and managed 50ml. (It was 100ml in 2 minutes, one side only with DS1.)

Or should I just use formula for the first time? Or even generally?

Also, should I give a bottle regularly, to avoid him refusing it later; or more rarely? (DS1 refused point blank at 4 months, despite having a weekly bottle of ebm, and never drank from a bottle after that.)

Thanks!

[MigGril]

To work out how much to give try www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html

I would if you can give expresse milk if you can. Formula changes the gut floura in a BF baby and can upset there stumok if your only giving the odd bottle. You can give a bottle as often or as little as you like, some babies will refuses a bottle even if they have been given one regularly. I don't think there is much you can do to prevent that. Some BF babies refusse a bottle altogether and other will start to preffer the bottle to the breast.