My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Infant feeding

dedicated breast feeder just gave my first bottle-am I doing the wrong thing?

10 replies

nicewarmslippers · 19/08/2009 21:55

I breasfed dd for 14 months (exclusively for 6 months and she never had formula-I expressed when I went back to work full time at 6 months). I was so dedicated (as you can imagine to do so much pumping!). I tell you all this so you understand where I am coming from. With ds it has always been harder (dd slept through from 10 weeks, ds still doesn't!). He has often seemed hungry at bedtime and I have gone through numerous efforts at upping supply in the evening. FInally at the age of 10 months I had had enough of feeding 3 times a night and stopped (he eats loads of food). Stopping was amazingly easy-just took a bit of settlign and cuddling from dad) but since then I have had NO supply in the evening. He crys alot at bedtime and bites the boob in frustration. We give him food just before that but is often too tired to eat much. My counsin has a similar aged ds and she bottle feeds. Seeing him have a lovely full bely of milk and go to sleep so easily was so hard that I went out and bought formula. He loved it and guzzeled 7 ozes and loked for more. I did this again tonight. He settled much better.

What shall I do?

  1. accept breast feeding may be coming to an end and that I may have to give bottles for a few months
  2. not give him bottles again and work on supply (not sure I can face more pumping, etc etc and feeding him more is hard as he isn't that bothered in the day)
  3. work on getting more food into him before bedtime?

    I'd love your advice. I know its daft to feel so odd about giving him bottles now but I do. Especially feel odd about how much he loved it and seemed so much happier than afte me!
OP posts:
Report
WobblyPig · 19/08/2009 22:09

Personally I would be kind to yourself and give the bottles.

YOu have done a fabulous BF stint and your baby is eating well . Time to move on maybe?

It's funny that BF always feels so personal so that when babies enjoy FF we take as a snub/rejection - I also felt that with my DS.

I think it would be different if DS was younger.

Report
artichokes · 19/08/2009 22:14

Giving a bedtime bottle does not need to spell the end of BF. Can't you BF for the other feeds & just have one bottle a day. That would seem to give you the best of both worlds. My Dd2 is 8 months & has had one bottle a day for the last month with no knock on effects for my supply for the other feeds.

Report
nicewarmslippers · 19/08/2009 22:17

wobbly pig thanks so much. This is what my head says (though it is hard as it is so different from how I did things with dd-we just bf untill it sort of petered out and after that she just had milk in a sippy cup with dinner-bottles just feel so forign. I odn't know what to do with bottles, how much to give-how long do you give them for). But my emotions feel confused-I don't want to change things from the way I did it with dd. I know that is daft though as the 2nd is always different

Thanks for your email, I think you are right. its not as if I think bottles are bad-just they aren't the way I parent. I can't imagibe making up a bottle when out and about ratehr than wopping them out

OP posts:
Report
Aranea · 19/08/2009 22:19

Sorry, no advice, but I am very interested in your situation. You have my sympathy - it must feel horrible.

My dd2 is 10 months old and still feeding 3 times a night. I had been vaguely thinking that maybe I should knock this on the head, but hadn't thought about how it might affect supply.

Do you think it might help to offer him the breast during the day when he's really hungry to get him to take more milk and boost supply? So before mealtimes? My baby sometimes has a breastfeed shortly before a meal and it doesn't seem to affect how much food she eats.

Report
secretgardin · 19/08/2009 22:29

have just been on another thread discussing the benefits of ff and bf. how about combining the two? stop feeling guilty and start enjoying your ds. all babies are different. my ds was ff and my dd was bf, due to their needs and neither has suffered long term consequences

Report
bubblepop · 19/08/2009 22:50

you have given him a fab start by bfeeding till 10 months. don't feel guilty by switching to ff now if it makes you both happy.

Report
Debs75 · 19/08/2009 23:05

I know how you feel DC3 11 months is bf, only had 2 ff when I wasn't there. She feeds to sleep and takes a lot of bm during the day as well as a good amounjt of solid food. She also bites when tired.

I have been wondering wether to add a few ff's in to try and break the routine odf always having bm but she doesn't like it.

My hope is too get to 1 year so I can put her on cows milk. She has it in her cereal so is getting used to the taste.

I feel quite sad by all this, at the start I was just going to bf for a few months which gradually became until I really have to stop. I would love to bf till she is 18 months but the biting is getting me down as is the feeding to sleep.

If I stop bf now I will feel as if I have let her down. Yet the biting is making me feel she doesn't want my milk anymore. Emotionally it is leaving me very drained.

M

Report
secretgardin · 19/08/2009 23:14

Debs75 - feel for you. my dd drew blood at that age (never knew a nipple could stretch so far ) only able to laugh at it now, but at the time it was awful. did realise though that she was using me as a chewing toy, because she was teething. was easier though to stop as she was on combined and started to prefer the ff.

Report
nicewarmslippers · 20/08/2009 14:43

thanks all, i hadn't reallly considered possibility of mixed feeding. i'll keep going withh bottle at bed time and keep offering boob at other times. 1 typing hand sory!

OP posts:
Report
edam · 20/08/2009 14:46

aw, I felt really sad when ds started to prefer a bedtime bottle to me. Was a little while after I went back to work, so we were only doing that one bedtime feed, IIRC. So of course my supply must have been dwindling. And it was fine. But I did have a little lump in my throat.

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.