HELP! Combination Breastfeeding

[Jessssssh18]

Hello I'm a new mum I gave birth on Monday (13th) to beautiful baby girl. With everything going around with corona I really want to breast feed. My milk supply seems to be good but getting a good latch is difficult (being a left hander I'm usually quite awkward with stuff anyway) the support worker for breastfeeding has been brilliant but everytime she's here baby latches perfectly and I find it difficult getting a good latch myself. When trying to feed I use a milk catcher on the other boob and I produce enough to 'top up' with a bottle. I'm not sure if this is a good idea though? Going from boob to bottle when she's not latching properly? I know im only 4 days in but I don't want to give up. Any advice would be great.

Well done for getting to 4 days! You and baby are both learning and it will get easier as you go. If you’re getting the latch when the peer supporter is there, you will definitely get it on your own. I wouldn’t top up with a bottle as it could affect your supply, baby needs to be on the breast as much as possible at the moment to stimulate milk supply. You also don’t want to create confusion between nipple and bottle. Babies have to work to get milk out of a nipple whereas they don’t with a teat, so it’s quite different for them. Keep going, you’ve got this

Hey congratulations and I agree the first days / weeks of BF can be tough.
I wouldn't intro a bottle until your milk supply is established and that latch is perfect and isn't leaving you in any discomfort.
You can freeze the milk that you're collecting for later down the line but best to let baby feed directly and 'put her orders' in rather than pump / bottle feed / miss feeding her and milk may dry up.
Best of luck!

What the others said, freeze the extra milk and you can introduce a bottle later once you’ve nailed the latch. You really, really don’t want to intro the bottle until you’ve established the breastfeeding first (I speak from bitter experience).

Congratulations on your lovely daughter! Well done for hanging in there! It's really tough in the very early days.

I'm no expert and my advice would be to find some lactation consultants on facebook to get advice from or breastfeeding groups on there. I'm sure I've read that the milk catcher type pumps can cause oversupply and I imagine that isn't great very early on when your supply is settling. I struggled to get my daughter to latch and she lost weight until day 8. It was so stressful, but she was back to birth weight after 3 weeks. Hang in there. Remember that you're both learning. I found trying different positions helped. Good luck!

Oh - and have a look on YouTube for the ‘Flipple’ technique, it’s very useful.

If you can afford it, an online lactation consultant appointment would be worth it’s weight in gold. Look up Lucy Webber IBCLC online, £35 and she was more help than anyone has been with our breastfeeding challenges.

If you latch well on one boob in say cross cradle hold, try to replicate that on the other side and just bring baby across so they latch on the other boob facing the same way?

Congrats on your little one!

Try a nipple shield. Mam do good ones. You can order on amazon prime. Congratulations on your baby girl 🙂

Please don’t start using a nipple shield without seeking some more BF advice. It absolutely ruined my BF journey, affected milk supply and milk transfer and my daughter lost a lot of weight.

Fantastic to use if you need them and have good support with them.

Congratulations! You're doing amazingly.

Frankly, I think the 'confusion' about nipples/teats is very overhyped. Some babies really care, but most don't. If your baby is happily taking the breast and a bottle of breast milk, why not go with it?

My DD was combi-fed from the start as she was quite ill, so she had all the types of feeding you can think of. We were told to top up feeds every two hours with formula or expressed breast milk until she was several months old. And even so, when we went off on holiday and forgot the bottles, she quite happily accepted four days of EBF with no trouble at all.

I can see it sounds sensible to keep making sure your DD latches on for a bit and feeds on the breast each feed, but I can't see how, after that, a top up from a bottle could be a bad idea.

Hi. I’m a combi feeder. If you can do what the others have said and perhaps use nipple shields to keep as a sole breast feeder then do that and try that for 6 weeks if you can do that it doesn’t mess with your supply. However if the option is then bottle of formula or stop then don’t do that, catching and expressing via a pump can be a genuine option, we are nearly at the 6 month point of doing this.

I combo fed from the start and my baby is now 9 months and happily still combo feeding and eating solids three times a day.
We struggled to get the latch in hospital as he was c born by c section so we used some formula and I started pumping on day 2.
If you’re worried about nipple confusion try using a Medela calma teat and bottle as these are specifically designed to help baby suck the same way as on the breast.
Also- try nipple shields as these can make it easier for baby to latch (but make sure you get the right size!)

Good luck

Another vote for trying nipple shields. They were a game changer for me. My son was tiny and had tongue tie and my boobs were just too big for his tiny mouth to cope with. The shields act like a little funnel/extension and made it much easier for both of us. There are different sizes so if it hurts, try the next size up. I used them until about 5 months then one day my son pulled it off, flung it across the room and latched perfectly. We were fine without them after that. Without them I genuinely don't think I would've lasted the first week as I dreaded feeding and was so sore and tired. Ended up breastfeeding for 2 years.

I also expressed and gave formula bottles on occasion too, so be flexible and give yourself break if you need one.

Hi OP, well done! Have you been shown different holds for the baby? Laid back, football hold, lying on your side, etc. What works for one person doesn’t for another. Also, a specialist breastfeeding pillow can sometimes make the world of difference (not just a gimmick, promise!). If you haven’t been on there already, Kellymom.com is a very helpful website.

When you’re starting off, 4 days feels likes a lifetime. If you already have a good supply, that is amazing though.

If you feel able to persevere and you are happy with baby’s nappy output (lots of wees and 2 good poos a day at this stage, the NHS webste currently says - poos only space out later), I would be tempted to keep going as you are and freeze the milk.

However, if you have any concerns about your baby getting enough milk then please do not be scared to top up. My baby was combi-fed from quite early on as we weren’t getting the wees and poos in spite of a perfect latch and demand feeding. Still not really sure why but I never leaked milk and he never seemed to be swallowing a lot - some sort of low-level supply issue I think. I had a lot of trouble pumping so bottle fed a mix of expressed milk and formula. The breast milk definitely suited his tummy better - less wind and eased his constipation - so was worth the faff for me!

I know people say to top up using sippy cups etc to avoid nipple confusion. I remember the NCT breastfeeding lady telling us the baby would lap the milk. Well nearly all of us in the class tried it at some point and decided it was bollocks - baby didn’t take any bloody milk!

BTW I fed my ‘baby’ til he was nearly 4 , which was not something I’d ever dreamt of doing. One day you’ll be back on here asking how to bloody wean the boob monster once and for all .

I agree that if you don’t have to express then just freeze any excess for later. Expressing until 8 weeks should maximise your supply later so keep doing it but there’s no need to give baby anything other than breast right now

Mine mixed fed from two weeks then three days. He was a four hourly feeder, so rboob,one feed, left the next then bottle. Gave each boob time to recover but kept the supply up enough to build back up later. Midwife said he would give up breastfeeding if he had formula. He did, eventually, two and a half years later. The last few months he only fed from one side as well, upside down, back to front, standing on on leg with one arm in the air....(why?)