Mixed feeding from birth

[NotSoThinLizzy]

Can it be done from birth? I tried waiting the 6 weeks with DS but he was a firm bottle refuser. Would rather just start from when this one is born if its possible anyone done it?

Why would it not be possible? Sorry I'm not being arsey but I don't understand what you're asking really.

The advice is to wait until 6 weeks so your supply settles. I'm not sure of the answer though I'm afraid!

I tried and my supply ended up being rubbish and eventually dd fussed so much on the breast as she wouldn’t wait for let down that I just gave up and she’s been fully formula fed since 8 weeks old. Also as my supply was not increasing much she was never full after a breastfeed and needed a bottle anyway. I also spent hours a day pumping which i hated. My experience was that it was not possible, but I’m sure some people manage.

I did. Baby is 4 weeks old and on the third day I could bf so he had a bottle. Since then he's been combination fed with no problem whatsoever - he latches easily and well, but also takes a bottle well too. My milk supply is probably a little less than if I were to ebf but I try to pump when I can to increase it.

Because you need to wait the 6 weeks for breastfeeding to be established?

We managed it through necessity.

Went into hospital with a breastfeeding frame of mind. Didn't get the hang immediately, so they gave us the aptamil ready made bottles.
She ended up feeding mainly from those, but with a bit of breast every day.
Breastfeeding never became established sadly but she took to bottles really well, warm, cold, room temp, all fine. We stuck with the same teats when we went onto powdered formula and they worked well for us.
Good luck.

Well you don't need to do anything. Many mothers mix feed from the start for a variety of reasons.
The very important feeds for supply are the overnight ones. I can't see the harm in someone else giving a bottle at day 10pm to allow you to go to bed early.

Of course it's supply and demand but if you're going to be replacing a feed with a bottle anyway then you need less milk of your own.

I did it from birth.

I had twins at 36 weeks, and although I desperately wanted to breastfeed my milk didn’t come in for a week, by which time I was at home. On the advice of the visiting midwife I gave them a bottle every night which was great as it meant DH could help.

I also bottle fed them expressed milk but made the switch completely to formula at four months because with two slow feeders it was just too much. I felt like a cow and couldn’t go anywhere.

By contrast I breastfed DS3 with no issues whatsoever from birth, my supply wasn’t the problem.

I mixed fed from two weeks as baby wasn't putting on enough weight from just breastfeeding.

I didn't mix feed from birth but dd had her first bottle at around 2 weeks old. She had one ff a day from the and I bf the rest of the time (perhaps the very occasional other ff), it was great.

If you want to keep supply but avoid a bottle refuser you can pump the same time every day and feed the baby that milk from a bottle (the day before’s milk will keep one day in the fridge).

My son was combi fed from day one, bottle in the day, breast at night.

I didn’t intend for it to be that way but he was a reluctant feeder and we had top ups suggested and I then became a bit obsessed over what he was eating.

My supply was fine, I assume because he fed often at night which I think is the key time for supply. I always had enough for him through the night and any random day feeds he needed if we were out without a bottle.

I did it from the start-ish!
DS was in SCBU for a week after being born and tube fed for the first 3 days. I expressed colostrum for tube feeding, but didn't have enough milk to express. Once he was off the tube, I immediately started bf'ing with ready-made top ups supplied by the unit.
Unfortunately, due to a difficult pg and tough labour, I don't think I was ever going to produce enough to keep him going, but after a week or so, we got into a routine where I managed enough for day feeds and he had bottles at night time. After a couple of months, we were able to chop and change bottle and bfs when it suited so sometimes I could leave him during hte day with a bottle of formula, and sometimes I would feed during hte night if DH wasn't around to bottle feed. It worked really well for both of us.
I naively thought I would do the same second time round, but DD had other ideas and flatly refused bottles. I ended up bf'ing for 15 months!

I've done it with both of mine.
DD was out of necessity as my milk was delayed & she lost too much weight; DS we decided to do the same as it gave me a break from BFing.
We made sure to use a syringe (absolute pain in the arse) for formula until 1month old then switched to Mam bottles - neither DC ever got nipple confusion or had problems swapping from breast to bottle.
DH gives DS a ff bottle at bedtime, the rest of the time DS is breastfed.
DD breastfed till 21mths.
It worked well for us & has meant I've been able to leave DC at different points with other people & they've fed fine.
It can be done!

Kaytee, it can be confusing for some babies to go from bottles to breast as the sucking mechanism is slightly different. I have a DS, almost 6 months, and was advised by the BF specialist to wait 6 weeks. We waited 3, have had no problems, but only gave a bottle a day from 3 weeks till about 18 weeks where it's been gradually dropped to weekends only to give me a lie in.

I did exactly the same as @DianaPrincessOfThemyscira with my twins. At 4 months too. It was really really hard and I couldn't go on with it. So I put them fully on bottles.

Question is, how important is breastfeeding to you?

Of course you can mix feed from birth. Chances are though, it will affect your supply and you will slide into bottle feeding after a few weeks.

If you are ok with that, go for it. If you really want to bf long term, get bf and supply established first before introducing bottles.

Fwiw i found mix feeding a pita. Worst of both worlds. Far easier to just feed than mess about expressing and feeding, washing and sterilising.

Oh and i had one who took a bottle happily. I made sure i kept a regular schedule of bottles so she would take them. Until about 4 months when she point blank refused and never took a bottle again. Which is when i wondered why i was bothering anyway, persisting with bottles was making my life harder! It’s only til weaning anyway, then i went out and they could have cereal or yoghurt if hungry.

The other went the other way, and once he got the hang of bottles completely refused the breast.

Problem is you don’t know what your baby will prefer, or whether they will happily mix feed. Which leads back to if bf is very important to you, just bf and worry about bottles later.

I did it from day one with both of mine. I knew I was running the risk of affecting my supply - so not being as 'successful' at breastfeeding - but I didn't feel very strongly about breastfeeding, and never planned on doing it long term (travel too much for work), so was willing to take the chance.
As it happens I ended up combi feeding one for 4 months and the other for 6 months so it worked well for us.

Initially I breastfed through the day and switched to formula on a night. I found mine slept for longer stretches like that and I could share the load with DH, which I needed after the CS deliveries.

Then they'd have a bottle if I needed to eek out the time between feeds for any reason. I loved all the cuddly / bonding feeling of breastfeeding without being totally tied to it if I needed to sleep or go out for a few hours so I'd definitely do the same again if we ever decide on a 3rd DC

You can if you want, but I'd recommend to wait until after the colostrum phase because you can't really replicate that with formula and the volumes are so different.

FWIW I think you should introduce a bottle sometime between 3 and 5 weeks. You need the first few weeks to establish breastfeeding. And if you wait longer than about 5 weeks it will be too late.

Personally breastfeeding was my priority and I just wanted the option to bottle feed if needed, so if you are the same then I suggest no more than one bottle per day. Otherwise baby might start to prefer the bottle.

Also be aware of feeding problems in the beginning, tongue tie is a very common one, and often goes undiagnosed - people often switch to bottles for that reason. So if you have any feeding problems I suggest that you go to breastfeeding clinics / drop ins and make sure tongue tie is ruled out by someone properly trained to assess it. Get al the support you can and focus on establishing breastfeeding properly before worrying about bottles.

I did it more or less from birth, I found breast feeding difficult initially so DS did have a couple of bottles in hospital (DH had to insist, we weren’t allowed home as DS was not putting on weight, I was struggling with b/feeding, apparently this can happen with a EMCS bit no one told me - the b/feeding mafia hated DS having formula). Once I got home I was able to establish breast feeding but found it convenient to give the occasional formula feed as well.

I believe mixed feeding could be better promoted, it doesn’t have to be breast OR formula.

There is no such thing as too late to introduce a bottle, babies can start bottle refusing at any time even if they've happily taken one before.

Yes my DS went through a phase of refusing the bottle but I think it helped that he'd taken it before, we persevered and he took it again.

I agree @Ragwort - I think it should be promoted as another option. It's always exclusively breastfeeding OR formula feeding 🤷‍♀️
Combi feeding can work, & really well too. Yes bottles can be a faff, but the Mam ones self-sterilise in the microwave; pumping can be a pain (I've never been able to pump much so don't bother now) & but breastfeeding ties you & the baby & sometimes you need to be away from them, whether through choice or not.