Combination feeding advice please!

[Cb700]

Hi my little one is 5 weeks today. He was in special care due to breathing problems and born at 37 weeks. When he came back to the ward he wasn’t getting enough from me breast feeding after been on formula at special care. The doctors suggested combination feeding to build him up as he had lost lots of weight. I really feel like I don’t know what I’m doing and if I am feeding him too much but he is very hungry. Currently I am breast feeding him roughly 3 times a day for about 20 mins during day then straight after he will still have 4 oz and the other times he will have 4 oz. he is still really hungry so feeding roughly every 3 /4 hours sometimes 2 when super hungry! Hubbie wants to up feed to 5 oz a couple of times a day to content him. I don’t want to overfeed him as I know formula feeding can make their stomachs bigger. He is also on colief due to colic. Hubbie also says give up the breast part as it is doing no good apart from comfort for the little one. He is putting on weight and put on nearly a 1lb in a week and a half. I know I need to speak to health visitor but seem to be calling her all the time! I am going it all wrong?

[Teddybear45]

Try breastfeeding him more first. The more you feed the more your supply will go up too. Contact La Leche League or NCT for specific combination feeding advice.

[moobar]

Congratulations op.

It's so hard eh?

I combination fed. So if exclusive formula your looking at 2.5 oz per pound per day.

So I did about 1.5 oz per pound per day, sometimes 2 if hungry plus BF.

Feed if hungry, two hours, one hour fine. They cluster feed at this age.

So with formula I tried to be strict on timings. Four hourly. BF inbetween when hungry.

Baby will be getting lots of antibodies and goodness from you. You just need to find your rhythm.

I managed until we weaned and then couldn't do all three so stopped BF then.


Very early days, you may find as your milk increases you can reduce formula again.

[user1493413286]

What do you want to do? If you want to solely breastfeed then I’d almost book out a few days where you’ll be doing a lot of breastfeeding to both keep him full and up his supply; it’s not unusual for a breastfeed baby to feed every 2-3 hours when they are tiny so don’t feel that you’re doing anything wrong just because he’s feeding often.
It might be a rough couple of days but if you reduce the formula then you’ll need to feed more but it will work.
Equally if you want to only formula feed then go for it or carry on how you are if you want as it’s never bad for a baby to be getting breast milk as well as formula

[firstimemamma]

I'm not an expert but I honestly don't think 3 breastfeeds a day is enough to establish supply (apologies if I mis-read and you do more than this).

I'm breastfeeding my 14 month old and when he was a newborn I'd breastfeed him 10-20 times a day in a 24 hour period (I know that 20 does seem a bit extreme!) do you breastfeed at night?

Admittedly I've got no experience of combi feeding or your situation. Could you try the national breastfeeding help line (google the number)? They are really good and might know more

[Modestandatinybitsexy]

The combi feeds I've read about always lean more heavily on bf too maintain supply. It's supply and demand and at that age my babies were always hungry. I bf almost constantly and my DH would give a bottle when I needed a break.

You need to decide if you want to keep bfing - you can't overfeed a bf baby - use that as first feeds and any top ups after bottles. Your supply should then up to start satisfying your little one.

[gracepoolesrum]

I had a very similar situation with my DD when she spent 3 weeks in neonatal after birth, at discharge I was breastfeeding and then topping up with formula every time as she'd lost weight too.

When my DD began putting on weight I stopped formula top ups cold turkey apart from a bedtime bottle. DD then spent about a week basically cluster feeding, especially in the evenings. I mean literally feeding every half hour at times, and also feeding every waking moment (so she was either asleep or feeding). As pp said they need to do this to build up your supply and 3 feeds a day is nowhere near enough at this stage. If you want to breastfeed, accept that you will be doing little else for the next week or two, settle in with snacks and plenty of water and just feed feed feed whenever your baby wants. It was a hard fortnight but I got there in the end, we kept the nighttime bottle but otherwise my DD is breastfed.