help with the practical positives and negatives of formula feeding

[KnackeredMerrily]

I'm currently breastfeeding my week old but we are struggling with putting weight on and jaundice.

I've been here before with my first son, and the first months of his life with feeding him 20 times a day and expressing top up feeds. The idea of doing it again makes me want to curl up into a ball and weep.

But, I've never gone through the practicalities of formula feeding either. What is it like? How do you make feeds up in advance? Is it a fiddle travelling with bottles and keeping them warm and wondering how much they've had? Is one formula better than another?

I am well aware of the benefits of breastfeeding so I don't need to hear that slant. I'm just wondering what the day to day life is like when FF

Thank you fatlazymummy for reminding me - I'd forgotten about leaving DS1 with SIL when he was 12 weeks old, and enjoying a weekend away in a stunning French chateau with DH. I think there was quite a lot of champagne involved too.

"She's asking whether ff is easier than ongoing tricky breastfeeding. (And it's assuming the worst of people to think people have not sought specialist help"

The OP has only been breastfeeding for a week this time around.

You, I and she has no idea whether breastfeeding will continue to be difficult.

And I didn't assume that she hasn't sought specialist help - though she doesn't make mention of having done so. Lots of people don't get help with tricky breastfeeding.

"It's not always as simple as pushing through to when it's easier"

No - nobody has suggested it is.

Do you think you might be projecting a bit on to my posts?

I FF DS from 3 days old because he wouldn't latch on and I was in and out of hospital with blood pressure problems. It was good that he could be at home with DH some of the time rather than there with me all the time when he didn't need to be.

If you do decide to FF you get into a routine of washing and sterilising the bottles and making up feeds and it's fine. Yes, it is more faff ongoing than BF once you are up and going and assuming your baby is an efficient feeder but it's not that much hard work.

I did hate the fact I FF to start with but quickly it didn't matter and once you're past 6 months, no one really cares. DS is fine and healthy and you can't pick out who in his Reception class was BF or FF.

Just to add my DS was SMA and had no problems - the few times we tried Aptimal because I couldn't get SMA he was not happy. He liked Cow and Gate too though.

And he didn't ever have constipation on formula - it's not automatic!

Knackered

I found I had to be quite organised, but once I was in a routine, it was really easy to manage. Make sure you have enough bottles so that you aren't scrambling to wash/sterilise them, and always have a ready made milk with you in case you are caught short. When I was going out for the day, I took enough for a normal day's feed, plus one extra bottle, plus one ready made carton.

I can see there has been a bit of a bunfight, and don't want to get into all of that, but will share my story just in case it helps anyone who is wobbling on the making up bottles in advance / current guidelines.

When DS was a few months old he had a nasty bout of salmonella. We realised reasonably quickly that it wasn't just a tummy bug, and he was on antibiotics within a day of falling ill. He was lucky, and recovered well, but it could have been much worse.

This was 10 years ago, and I hadn't been informed of the latest feeding guidelines. I really wish I had, as I wouldn't have risked it.

If you really must make up bottles in advance, then ensure you prepare with water that is still over 70C, not with boiled and cooled water.

Get one of these for when you're out and about: www.mothercare.com/Philips-Avent-Milk-Powder-Dispenser/723834,default,pd.html?cm_mmc=Google--Feeding--Shopping%20-%20Feeding-_-&gclid=CjwKEAiAk8qkBRDOqYediILQ5BMSJAB40A5UtGwcd6_XpUYJLNEDS7Ar_p8un_NaVJlINUTEjZuHHBoCSGTw_wcB

Agree with Dr Brown's bottles.

I ff ds1 from 2 weeks - I was in agony, fucking miserable and he cried constantly.

I ff ds2 from birth.

No regrets at all. Neither baby was constipated. Just 2 contented, healthy boys.

A lot of this adivce is out dated formula has to be mixed with boiling water to kill the nasty bugs in it. You shouldn't maje feeds up in advance.
Don't make any quick decisions maybe mix feed but don't do formula night as this will ruin your supply.
If you can have lo checked for tounge tie.
Personally I'm please I suck with bf as when my sons over tired or poorly I can constantly feed him as some nursing is purely comfort. When he wakes in the night I cam latch him on a snooze and he doesn't fully wake up and cry while I prepare a bottle.
About 20 times a day sounds ok for a newborn his stomachs only the size of a walnut.

Experienced exactly the same as you with my twins. Dtwin1 was seconds away from being admitted due to lack of weight,jaundiced and dehydration.

Switched to ff and never looked back,beyond easy to do and pretty effortless.Dp made up the days bottles the morning before he left for work,took him 10 mins.Bought ready made for trips out.

Sadly the midwife I then had with dd did far too much ff scare mongering and bfing pushing and dd who was also jaundice,struggling to put on weight and dehydrated ended up in SCBU for a week.

It isn't worth the risk.All it takes is 10 mins to make up bottles,a decent steriliser and a good bottle brush to make sure you clean the bottles out properly.Buy several bottles then you can just do a big scrub at bedtime and make up loads the next day.20 mins effort a day- tops.

I hate the way these threads descend into pleas for the OP to stick with BF, because they haven't tried hard enough.

That, and the endlessly incorrect advice about making up formula feeds. The water should NOT be boiling.

You don't see many people here telling mothers they can ignore safe sleeping advice on the basis that 'I did it and my baby was fine!' though.

Yes, you absolutely do. Ditto with going into their own rooms at 6 months, weaning before six months, using a forward facing car seat as soon as possible. Plenty of people pile on to give anecdotes about how they did what suited their family and their child was fine. I just used my example to show I do understand that going outside guidelines does not automatically mean something terrible is going to happen. Thankfully most babies are fine most of the time. I was trying to make the point that I would do things differently next time now I know what the research says and the reasoning behind the official advice.

Ffs.

Yes it's safe to make up feeds in advance as long as you sterilise properly and dispose of after a day. And your baby isn't premmie or compromised.

Last time I checked the op wasn't asking posters to tell her that she should bloody bf. She doesn't want to any more!

Ffs seriously so much patronising crap.

I wish to god I had stopped bf earlier with ds 1 it caused me no end of worry and angst.

I bf/ff the other 3 because I was more confident and didn't take kindly to being told what was best for me or my baby.

Hmm interesting the way the risks of co-sleeping are conveniently brushed under the carpet by MN but ffing is examined to the nth degree.

Funny that.

Pips
Sorry, but you are wrong. The water should not be boiling. It kills off to many nutrients. Boiled and cooled for 30 minutes to 70C.

When the bottles are made up in advance and cooled, the risk of salmonella is very low. I remember researching after DS got sick.

princess mind went into their own rooms at 10 weeks and weaned at 3 months.

It suited them and us as a family and was actually not against advice at the time.

Just because the advice is there it's just advice not actually the law of the land.

too many nutrients!

LePetit trends and fashionable parenting.

As ever.

Here is the relevant bit from the WHO research re making up bottles in advance

If you scroll down to around the page 48 mark, you will find the results of the tests. The reheating cooled bottles that have been made up properly results in a rise in risk only in very hot climates.

Refrigerated, or in a cool bag is fine.

Compared with the 2°C baseline refrigeration temperature, as the temperature of refrigeration increased, the level of risk increased for milk that was reconstituted at temperatures of between
30° and 50°C.

• Refrigeration temperature had no impact on formula reconstituted with water at 70°C. This holds for scenarios of preparation and use at both the cool and warm ambient room temperatures.

• In all cases explored, the increase in relative risk was less than 1.5-fold.

catlington just seen your post.

Don't be ridiculous dear.

I think a lot of the hysteria here Around ff is from the breast feeding mafia to be honest.

I didn't BF and my son had salmonella from making up FF incorrectly.

Think that is hysteria?

I'd like to help others avoid that horrible situation.

I am not going to argue with you, cause this was a thread started by a MNetter who is struggling and asking for advice.

Pro-tip for next time, Knackered - don't start a thread asking for advice on FF on AIBU! Hope it works out for you, whatever you decide.

Hi did you know it can take longer for bf babies to get back to their birth weight? But this is usually fine.

Also treatment for jaundice is to feed feed feed. Bf not formula. If the bilirubin levels are high and rising baby will be admitted to hospital for photo light therapy. But they don't need formula to get rid of the jaundice. Commonly hospital doctors will tell mothers to 'top up' but this is against the NICE jaundice guidelines.

So assuming the jaundice doesn't need additional treatment, other than time and feeding, and assuming the weight will increase soon- bf would be totally possible.

However I think you need some support, do you have a bf support group you can go to? They can observe the latch- positioning and attachment. And give you more info of what's normal for a bf baby.

You've got loads of great advice on ff from this thread, which is super.

But it is nutritionally not as good as breast milk. It is adequate and fantastic, and babies do very well on it. But there are many health benefits for your baby to be breastfeed. We don't even know the exact composition of breastmilk, so formula cannot replicate it.

Our culture in the UK is nearly totally formula feeding so the general knowledge of how a bf baby behaves and develops is pretty much lost. That's why I've recommended you visit a bf support group.

Breastfeeding is our biological norm, but formula feeding has become our society norm. It is fantastic, but for someone in your position I think you need support to be able to continue your bf journey.

'The breast feeding mafia' umm no, not an organised crime gang making millions and murdering anyone who comes in their path.
Just people who dare to challenge the advertising from formula companies. Don't be daft.

It's the 'voldemort effect' we are not allowed to say how bf is better for baby? It's all been scientifically proven. That's just crazy.

Op do look for some real life help and weigh up, in full knowledge what you want to do.

Thanks Mme to be honest I'm lucky to have never had the need to know. How scary for that to happen to your son.

But as op asked for negatives in my opinion having to make things up and regulate is s negative hence suggesting mixed feeding while she decides what's best for her family.

Oh yes, people formula feed due to advertising.

Nothing at all to do with not being able to breastfeed. And there are all sorts of perfectly acceptable reasons for deciding that breastfeeding is intolerable.

Jaundiced babies need a lot of either to flush it out.It is harder to judge as to whether a baby is getting enough when bf.An underweight baby is not a good sign.

I got lulled into the "a bf baby takes longer to put on weight" stance and my baby ended up seriously ill because exactly she wasn't getting enough to flush it through.

I would never,ever make that mistake again.Jaundice can cause brain damage.A few months of bm just isn't worth the risk imvho. Obviously if everything is going hunky dory as regards bfing that is entirely different.