Can I give occasional formula and still sucessfully breastfeed?

[spiderpig]

Hello, any help would be much appreciated!

I am currently breastfeeding my ds who is three weeks old . Things seem to be going pretty well, but he is feeding very frequently which I do understand is to build up my milk supply but which is also pretty exhausting!

I have been trying to express when I can to give my DP a chance to do a feed or two but I havn't been doing it often as the baby has been constantly attached to me.

So I was wondering if introuducing an occasional bottle of formula would be ok? As in would it affect the breastfeeding?

TBH it would really help if I could especially since I have other young children so whilst I am happy to feed him for hours on end when I can it just isn't always possible.

Any advice much appreciated

[TheProvincialLady]

An occasional bottle is not likely to do much harm but you might want to wait a couple of weeks if you can, until things are really established. Try not to give it in the night as you are producing more hormones then and are also likely to end up engorged. Do be careful how often you give it though, if you want to successfully BF, as my best friend started with the occasional bottle and literally within 3 weeks was fully FF - not really what she wanted but it kind of happened that way.

[sallyforth]

Best not to give formula if you can avoid it. This is the period when your boobs are laying down prolactin receptors in response to baby sucking, and if baby doesn't do that frequently enough you may develop milk supply probs down the line.

Or you may not. But you don't know that.

I'd also advise ditching the breast pump for the time being, IMO in terms of time saved it is not worth the faff of sterilising etc.

Get a sling
Co-sleep
In other words keep baby attached to boob as much as you humanly can

Ring the support lines! this is just the kind of thing they are for!

[boredwithworknow]

I did from when my DS was about six or eight weeks old, once my supply was well establishedthen my DH did a bedtime bottle (7pm-ish) and I got a couple of hours off before the night shift!

I never got the hang of expressing (seemed to have perfect amount of milk for DS but no extra), so didn't bother - used formula for that one bottle a day.

I continued to feed in this way for a year, had no problems.

[boredwithworknow]

PS well done you! The first few weeks are exhausting but worth it.

[FrannyandZooey]

If you can wait a few weeks without formula or expressing it would be much better in terms of safeguarding your supply for the future. You MAY be able to add formula without endangering your breastfeeding but it certainly is a risk. Ditto expressing won't actually stimulate your breasts in the same efficient way that your baby will, at the moment, so frequent breastfeeds and ONLY breastfeeds are best in the early days, which you are still very much in.

It can be overwhelming can't it! It will only be these first few weeks where your baby needs you so intensely. I agree a sling can really help you get on with life in the meantime.

[theyoungvisiter]

I never managed to get DS to take a bottle but from the experience of my friends I would say some people can, some can't (or maybe that should be some babies can - it seems to be as much the baby's decision!).

I know several mums who introduced one bottle a day successfully from quite early on, and several more whose baby went off the breast after they introduced what was supposed to be one bottle a day.

One thing worth bearing in mind is that some of the health benefits (allergies and stuff) are supposed to only really work if you are exclusively bfing. It depends if that aspect of it is very important to you.

[dutchmam]

It worked fine for me, DS was combined bottle and breast fed from 1 week old. He wasn't bothered switching as long as there was food in it (and he is still a good eater 4 years later )

[ja9]

worked fine for me too.

[FrannyandZooey]

the thing is, I am glad mixed feeding worked from an early age for you ladies who have just posted, but it IS risky to introduce formula at this early age, if you definitely want to carry on breastfeeding, and probably not the kind of advice that should be passed on at random to strangers

it's a bit like me saying I crossed the road with my eyes shut and nothing bad happened to me

quite possible but not really giving the other person the best awareness of the risks and consequences, IMO

I am not sure how you would feel if the OP followed your advice, found she was unable to keep up her supply, and was fully formula feeding, not by choice, in a month or two's time?

[ja9]

sorry, didn't read op closely for age. i didn't start mixed feeding until dd was 5mo and i was preparing her for my return to work. but it worked fine for us from then.

[pud1]

i am no expert but am breastfeeding my 4 month old dd. those early days are so hard but well worth it int he end. i started expressing at 2 weeks to let my oh give a feed at 6 ish. this meant that my dd was quite settled int he evening. i soon found the expressing difficult as i was only able to get 3 oz off and as her demands grew i found that i was either expressing or feeding and it got to much. by 6 weeks i decided that i would gie a formula feed after bath time. it has worked well and has not affected my milk supply. it is now part of the bed time routine.
as i said i am not an expert but it has worked for me

[trishpops]

IME, yes.
my dd is just over 6 wks, she used to have 1 bottle of formula a day from about 4 days old until 4 weeks old, just so i could get some rest as she was feeding for hours, then she started refusing the bottle so has been exclusively BF since. i did have a 'babymoon' the day after she refused the bottle to increase milk supply. i make so much milk i have to express at least once every 2 days to relieve engorgement. BTW my baby is 59cms long and weighs 13lbs 4oz, so definately thriving!! she is accepting EBM in a bottle now, but doesn't enjoy it as she does a breastfeed.

[eidsvold]

i did it with both dd2 and dd3 - dd2 at the start as it was the first time I had breastfed and I was so exhausted looking after newborn and toddler with sn. Pretty soon we had it sorted and she then went on be fully breastfed and dd3 had the occasional bottle cause expressing was not an option for me. She was fine too.

[VictorianSqualor]

As Franny says, it is risky to introduce formula at this age.

It's risky enough to even introduce a bottle of EBM tbh. There is a thread on MN atm where a MNer was advised to give a bottle from about this age and baby is now refusing the breast causing much heartache.

Introducing formula to the baby's diet will stop baby getting all the 'benefits' (- I hate that word, breastfeeding doesn't really have benefits, more it is formula has risks but that's another thread).

I know it's hard at this point but it does pass quite quickly.
DS2 is now 10 1/2 weeks and has been having 3-4hourly feeds of about 10-30 minutes for a while now. Try and hang in there a little bit longer before you start adding bottles.

FWIW, DS2 has just started to take a bottle (tommeee tippee closer to nature bottles are the dogs bollocks IMO) sometimes as well, he has EBM which I manage to express in about ten minutes.

[Flibbertyjibbet]

I did it with ds2 who fed 24/7 for weeks on end. His brother was only 16m and started being naughty and hitting to get attention. Plus I was exhausted.
So we gave just 1 or 2 ounces of formula maybe 2 or 3 times a day - at tea time dp would give it so that I could spend time with ds1 when he came home from nursery, or at 2am when I was desperate for some sleep.
I think if you give a full bottle then yes it might interfere with your supply as baby will be full for so long. It seemed to work for us doing just 1 or 2 oz at a time as that was just like giving him a snack.

IMO and IME if mix feeding allows you to carry on bf partly or fully, then this is better than giving up bf altogether.
I beat myself up with ds1 for giving some formula because of the '6m exclusive bf' recommendation, then I found out that most other mothers I met who bf, did mix feed at some stage or another, or switched to fully ff before 6m. Whereas by mix feeding my babies were able to get mostly bf past 6 months.

[TheProvincialLady]

I thought the OP meant an occasional bottle, eg one or two a week at most, rather than one a day. I agree that this would definitely pose a risk to BF and is not a good plan if you want to carry on. Mixed feeding does work for some people but at 3 weeks it is a real risk.

[LuckySalem]

If you give a bottle it will affect your milk supply so really you need to BF as much as you can.

However,

We used to give DD a bottle each night (as my milk hadn't come in on one breast and the other didn't seem to cope) we managed to carry on like this for another 3 months. Whereas if I'd have tried to BF exclusively we wouldn't have got beyond 2 months as she wasn't getting full.
Then as she got older we switched and she would BF the first and last feed of the day. I finished BFing at about 5 and 1/2 months.

[misspollysdolly]

Best (school)friend has a 2.5 week old and was advised by MW to supplement BFs with formula from about the 2nd day. Am quite at this and also quite as I have BF my 2 DSs and understand the need for BFing only in the early days if you can.

Am v pro-BFing (BF'd DS1 til 20 months, intend to BF DS2 for at least that long) but don't want to appear critical or complicate things in her head further by giving my opinion.

Just feel like she's been given bad advice - esp as she's now completely stressed at not producing enough of her own milk and so is in a perptual cycle of stress, not producing enough milk, supplementing with FF, still not producing enough milk, more stress, etc, etc.

SO frustrating as I can only stand on the sidelines and watch. She's quite an easily stressed out person - nothing is ever straightforward or uncomplicated - but I so feel like my hands are tied by not wanting to appear judgemental.

[ilovemydog]

agree that you should b/f for as long as possible. It goes by so quickly in retrospect!

Vic Squalor: what do you like about Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature?

[sabire]

misspollysdolly - stress won't stop your friend making milk, but giving formula will. She needs to understand the logic of this. Can you not get her down her local bf cafe or clinic to talk through her problems with a bf counsellor? It won't look as if you're being critical if you just ask her what the midwife said about the impact of constantly giving supplements on her supply, because you've been told that it's very damaging to breastfeeding in the first few weeks.

[spiderpig]

Wow thank you all so much for the replies, it's so fantastic to get so much advice and support!

Yes I did mean just an occansional bottle of formula rather than one each day (althought tbh that is something I might consider when he is older)I really don't mind feeding for as long as he needs but I'm just worried that there will be times coming up when I just cant uyswim? For example my eldest son is starting secondary school in september and next week we have to go to an open evening there, obviously the baby will be coming with me but there is just no way I will be able to feed him for two or three hours while I'm there! So I was thinking of taking a bottle?

I really appreciate hearing everyones experiences and it's great to know many of you have sucessfully mixed fed but I am also listening to the advice not to as I really do want to carry on the breastfeeding.

Also I didn't realise that some formula could negate the benefits of breastfeeding would anyone mind explaining that to me please?

Thank you all again

[AllBuggiedOut]

Do you mean that you would need to feed for 2-3 hours, or that there will be 2-3 hours during which you can't feed? If it were me, I'd put baby in a sling, and if he gets grumpy would find a place for a quick bf. Is anybody else able to come to the open evening with you so you can do this without missing anything? You might just find that he sleeps for the whole time in the sling anyway

[spiderpig]

Yep I mean he will be latched on for 2-3 hours! It normally only takes him around 30 mins to feed but in the evenings he is pretty much on me for hours

It's a good idea about the sling though, thanks

[sabire]

Using even the occasional bottle of formula affects a baby's gut flora in a way that makes them more vulnerable to harmful pathogens. The result of this is that mixed fed babies have much higher rates or gastroenteritis than exclusively breastfed babies. There was a study done on this in Dundee a few years back that forms the basis of the NHS guidelines on infant feeding. Rates of gastro-enteritis were 17.9% for exclusively ff babies, 15% for mixed fed babies, and about 2% for fully breastfed babies. Exposure to cows milk proteins early on in life is also thought a possible trigger factor for children who are genetically predisposed to diabetes, plus a factor in various auto-immune diseases such as asthma and excema. Also coeliac I think - which has got something to do with the infant gut environment during the period when the baby is first given solids.

Sorry - I know you probably didn't want to hear that.

I do think it's bad that HV's and midwives don't explain the whole exclusive bf thing more clearly to mums. A lot of people are in the dark about WHY the government it. Most people think it's primarily about protecting a mum's milk supply, but there's more to it than that.

[Canugess]

I quite agree with sabire, and was gonna post a similar comment. It is much better to avoid all formula milk if possible. It is much better to use expressed breastmilk. There are some really good drip catchers (Breast shells) available, it is amazing how much you can collect from the boob that you are not currently using to feed from.

It is also better to get your partner to cup feed it rather than use a bottle, (the bottle lids work well) as you don't want to introduce any nipple confusion.

Hope that helps
CG