Combi-Feeding...Breast&Bottle or Express&Bottle?

[cherryontopp]

Just that really.

My plan (though i know plans don't usually work out) is to breastfeed for the first 2 days for the colostrum and then to mix feed with formula and breast milk.

But which way is better?

Should i express during the day and then formula feed on a night to help them settle?

Or breast during the day and then formula feed at night?

I know there is such thing as sucking confusion etc but i thought if i introduce a bottle from early days, this would help.

Any advice or experience would be appreciated

[AssassinatedBeauty]

If you can avoid expressing then I would. It is an extra thing that takes up time, needs equipment to be washed/sterilised etc etc. I only expressed because I had to, and as soon as I could stop and just breastfeed I was inordinately grateful.

In the early days, breastfeeding at night helps to stimulate milk supply, so you may find that just expressing or breastfeeding in the day might affect your supply. It's also going to be tricky going for long times between feeds in the early days. Before your supply settles down, you may get very engorged after a few hours and need to either feed or express a bit to remove some milk. It might be easier to start with one formula feed, and then gradually add in extra feeds until you're doing the amount of bottle feeds that you want.

[cherryontopp]

Thanks for the advice.

So do you reckon i should do breast feeding with one bottle a day to begin with then up it?

I already have to sterilis the bottles etc anyway

[OhHolyJesus]

I'm with PP, hated expressing but did it as I wanted breast milk only and also wanted one feed to be done by DH. Phased it out around 6 months and replaced with formula. Breastfeeding is much easier once you get the hang of it, but it might not be for you.
Just try it and see and be open minded. The sterilising is a pain and I wanted lots of bottles in circulation so was a bit of £. I recommend a microwave steriliser which is quick.
I bottle fed and breast fed from the first week and never had any problems but you don't know how your baby will be. Good luck x

[mindutopia]

For the ease of it, I would feed from the breast. There's no reason to express unless you have to as it takes twice as long. It's also usually less efficient and less likely to keep your supply going, which you'll need. I would just be cautious if you do decide you want to carry on bf that you can keep that supply going. I had to switch to expressing full-time at 6 weeks (due to some health issues with me that I was hoping we could overcome). So I was expressing for 6 hours a day plus doing formula top ups because even then I wasn't producing enough. My supply plummeted and I literally had no more milk, I could express and express and nothing came out, by 10 weeks. If you do want to combi-feed, I would just go in with a solid plan of how you'll do it so you have something to aim for. It wasn't ever what I planned and even trying so hard, I couldn't keep my supply up. Personally, if you had to choose, I would bf during the night as that's most likely to keep you going. Also, it's just easier when you don't need to faff around with bottles in the middle of the night.