Can you combi feed breast milk and formula?

[Luisaa]

Just that really? Due baby no 3 soon and no longer in the position to sit glued to the sofa for hours on end whilst newborn feeds from me! In an ideal world i’d breastfeed for every other feed and use formula in between, but of course I’m worried about engorgement/risk of mastitis by doing that? Pumping seems to be defeating the point as I may as well have baby on the boob… but like I say, I know it will be very hard to exclusively breastfeed a newborn whilst running around after 2 other children! Any advice?

I did on both of my children from the start. I gave one bottle in the middle of the day and a big bottle before bed. The rest I fed myself.

I did this for months. If it makes life easier for you, do not let anybody tell you that you can’t.

@Keepgettingolder81 Thank you! That’s really reassuring to hear. Did you ever have any trouble with engorgement when you ‘skipped’ a breast feed?

Yes I did also. My breasts just adapted.

You can but be aware your supply could suffer. You may be better off getting breastfeeding established over the first week or two then introducing one bottle at a time over the next week or two until you’re where you want to be.
I’d recommend breastfeeding overnight and first feed in the morning as this is when supply is usually best -a lot of mums start with a bottle of formula around 10pm that your DH could give so you can go to bed early and get a good stretch of sleep before taking over the night feeds.

Ps you shouldn’t get engorged if you do things gradually, your supply will adjust

I combi fed DD extremely successfully from 4-12 months. I had to go back to work early in a very demanding job, and really couldn’t be arsed to
pump. She breastfed when she was with me and had formula when I wasn’t there. Never had an issue and my supply regulated quickly. We went on to BF for 2.5 years.

I did a mix of both for two of my children. It worked fine.

Do you have a breastfeeding support group near you? La Leche League or similar? HV can probably point you in the right direction - they'd be well qualified to advise on how to go about it while taking precautions against mastitis or low supply. I agree with PP that it's probably easier to EBF to begin with to get your supply established before gradually introducing formula a bit later on.

I lasted two weeks of exclusively breast feeding and introduced a bottle then. Don’t leave it too long as baby will likely reject it. I was on my knees with exhaustion at being the only one who could feed the baby. Health visitor came and I said can I try a bottle, she said go for it. That night I went to bed and just let my husband get on with it and it was fine

I did for the first month with both mine, though it was probably just a couple of bottles a day. Usually one during the night to give me a break, and one in the day. It didn’t affect my supply as the hv warned it would, it just made that first few weeks easier. No issues.

From about 3 months in I (my husband) gave DC a bottle of formula most night. It went fine

I combi feed my baby, have done from 2 weeks old and he's nearly a year now. Never had any supply issues or engorgement problems, I've no idea how it worked out tbh because it goes against everything I read about building up your supply etc, I didn't have any sort of plan or routine e.g boob at this time, bottle at that time. Just winged it and it's been fine.

Im currently combi feeding dd 7 months. I did it right from the start as I have had bottle refusers. When she was newborn id do one bottle a day at the same time roughly your boob's will get used to it. I always bf through the night as I cba making bottles. She now has 3-4 bottles a day but only has 3-4 ounces the rest is boob. She's also a good eater for solids

I did this baby was very greedy and had another small child all worked out well.

Yes you can. I did BF and formula with my first as I didn’t have enough milk, so would bf, pump and formula feed 😵‍💫 I did find if I didn’t pump or bf and skipped a feed with it, then I would feel very full. But eventually your body will adapt to how much and when. With my second he was feeding a lot less and so I would have the most amount of milk during x feed.