combining breast and bottle

[redruby]

Have been breastfeeding 4week old DS, and it is going well, but would like to introduce daily bottle of breastmilk, without putting him off the breast. I've read that this needs to be done in 1st 6 wks. Is that right. Any suggestions?

I gave my DS a bottle from about 4 weeks cos I had really painful nipples. I was under the impression that as long as it was only one bottle a day it was ok.

He's nearly 13 weeks now and is still mainly breastfed with a bottle of expressed last thing at night and maybe a bottle of formula during the day.

Have you got the feeling that breastfeeding is fully established? The advice is to wait until your baby is 6 weeks before you introduce a bottle.

i di this with both my ds's. ds1 had a bottle of ebm/formula once a day from bout 4 weeks and took to it really well. Carried on like this and managed to still be bf (once a day in the morn) till he was 1. ( i decided to finish as i needed to go back on the pill). ds2 had a bottle of ebm(and later formula) from bout 2/3 weeks although he was very fussy bout it and would only drink very lttle from it but i think he was a 'little and often' person rather than the milk guzzler that ds1 was!! i continued like this and bf him till just over 1 year (although there was some hairy momments at about 4 months which involved me doing things like lying over him led on the floor and dangling my boob by his mouth to try and get him to feed and other things as i really wanted to carry on bf and didn't want to give him any more that 1 bottle a day!!!)
i used avent bottles with ds1 and avent and tommee tippee closer to nature ones with ds2. the tommee tippee ones are supposed to be more breastlike. they are others tou can get that are supposed to be good too, mothercare do a version which have a teat inside a teat thing that is supposed to mimic the breast. others say the nuk ones or the mam ones are good.
One tip is to let someone other than yourself give him the bottle as otherwise he might smell your milk and refuse the bottle
(maybe go into a different room and have a lie down!!!) I say all this but i never did it! with ds1 he loved milk sooo much that he was quite happy with me giving him a bottle and with ds2 he was just as fussy with anyone else giving him the bottle so i just used to do it out of ease.
hope this helps and hopefully someone else will come along and give you more advice as i am no expert!

The current advice is wait 6 weeks to avoid nipple confusion and breast feeding is established.... I got loads of book cheao from library selling them off rom about 10 years ago and they say if you want to mix feed introduce bottle as soon as possible...

We introduced bottle very early my mistake (I had post C section infection and was very poorly a few days and they gave a her 3 bottles of formula over night)

My experience was that this was fine and that we gave bottle only at times we felt we needed to (I have problems with my arms and hand so sometimes if we were ou I was unable to hold her to breast feed for example) but generaly found she ha maybe a bottle once every other day. This did not affect supply beasue obviously my body adapted to exactly what she was having.

Do you feel breastfeeding is well established? maybe try in the next few weeks?

I guess it's weighing of two options:

If they prefer the bottle, this can be countered. It's not like they'll refuse the breast forever. Nursing strikse are hard, but at this age normally last 3 days proper with 1 week with after effects. When LO striked we didn't give her any bottles until she back to normal and reintroduced with no side effects.

On the other hand, if your baby refuses a bottle you've probably got a long drawn out battle on your hands. If you're not fussed about DC taking a bottle, then this doesn't matter so much

One a day should be fine if you fell confident with feeding. (Our problem only came about as I was away for a day). We introduced a bottle most days from 3 weeks, but I had to return to work quickly. DH would give her a bottle when she woke at 6 and play with her until he went to work. At which point she came into our bed for her nap (and even more sleep for me)

Oh and from 4 months I went back to work full time (only did a few half days before hand) and she has expressed milk during the day and feeds from me nights and weekends, which has been problem free.

My ds is 6.5 weeks and has had one bottle of formula a day since 5 weeks as he was feeding hourly from 1pm until 11pm and I (and dd, aged 4 and getting v bored!) needed break from constant feeding. I use tt closer to nature bottles as I did with dd and he's been fine - no nipple confusion here.

I wish I hadn't waited until 6 weeks tbh! I really am not sure about 'nipple confusion'. DD took a bottle a day from a few days old no probs (until she refused it at months - another story!). Waited til 6w with DS, he won't tolerate a bottle. Very frustrating!