Moving to formula - what routine?

[Screamer]

I'm having to wean DS (3 months) onto formula and have no idea what the routine should be. At the moment I am EBF on demand so no routine.

Should he fall asleep after bottle like he does now after breast? If he wakes in night should I give him a bottle? At the moment he often sleeps through but if he wakes I give him a bit of breast and he falls asleep. Can I do the same with bottle or will I overfeed him?

Doctor said he should feed morning, midday, afternoon and evening (so more or less 4 bottles a day). Does this sound right? Sorry for being clueless, I have no idea when it comes to formula having only been around BF babies! Thank you.

at 3 months my bottlefed ds still fed 3 hourly so had much more than 4 bottles per day. He also fed in the night a couple of times. If your lo seems hungry then, yes, you would give him a bottle feed.

My friend who formula feeds does it 4hourly i.e. 7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm, 11pm, 3am

You may find though that instead of feeding at 11pm, 3am they just do one feed at 1/2am instead.

For evening feeds it might be worth feeding at 7pm then wait and see what time they wake up and feed again then. If you take an empty pre sterilised bottle to bed along with a carton of formula this will minimise preparation time.

I have recently started mix feeding and feed DD a bottle of FF at 7pm and then another at 1/2 when she wakes.

I personally find that FF knocks out DD in a way that BF has never done and once she is asleep she sleeps much more soundly.

Just keep demand feeding. It'll annoy you because you'll start off not making enough or worse chucking loads away (just try to remember it's not precious. It didn't take you an hour to pump it!!) Use the box as a guide only. DS fed like a 6 month old at 3 months and I worried constantly I was overfeeding him but he was born on the 91st and stayed thereafter on the 98th centile. He was/is just a big boy.

I pretty much demand fed and DS sorted it out into a routine in his own time. IIRC by about 5 months.

Screamer, is it important that you switch to formula totally and quickly?

This sounds as if you are making a 100 per cent change which is the hardest way to do it.

If you have to stop (and I guess you have checked out the medical advice to stop to make sure it's correct - you wouldn't be the first mother to have been told you have to stop when you don't) then the easiest way for you and the baby is to cut down gradually, replacing a breastfeed with a bottle feed at the rate of one more bottle every few days.

Is this an option for you?

I mix feed (2 BFs a day, but really mostly FF bottles) and my baby is 13 weeks old. FF babies are fed on demand too, but they (or at least, mine!) develop a pretty much predictable routine. My baby feeds about 3 hourly during the day. She then goes down at about 7pm, gets woken for a sleepy feed at 11pm before we go to bed (lights low, gentle talking - no big excitement!) and then we feed her in the night if she wakes and cries (normally between 3 and 5).

Read baby's feeding cues and you'll know if he's hungry or not. Also pay attention to when he's crying - if you know he's been changed, has just had a nap etc but is still grumbly etc and it's been about 2 1/2 - 3 hours chances are he's wanting food.

I don't find that she falls asleep on the bottle - she gets her business over with. Sometimes she is sleepy on the bottle at 11pm, but she doesn't fall asleep.

Speak to your health visitor about how much feed to prepare - even though there's a guide on the back of the pack, it really depends on how heavy they are, rather than their age. If I remember correctly, you multiply their weight in pounds by 2.5 to get the recommended amount of FF in 24 hours (then divide by the amount of feeds required to work out how much per feed). Put in an extra ounce or two per bottle in case he is a little hungrier - it's best not to let baby drain the bottle as they may want more. I think as long as you're using an appropriate rate feed (not too fast) they'll eat how much they want and will stop when they are full - mine does anyway.

And tiktok has a point - BFs should be dropped gradually rather than cold turkey.

Yes, wish someone had mentioned the gradual stopping. I stopped when DS was 4 weeks. At 10 weeks I was on my 3rd hospital app getting the last 35mls of pus drained via a huge needle from my boob

I moved from ebf to bottles over a few weeks in prep for creche. I started when dd was 9 wks old. She never went 3 hrs between feeds. I think she got used to the frequency of bfing. She's now mixed fed & goes about 2.5 hrs between feeds. Recemmedation for her age is 5 x 6 ozs. I put between 7 & 8 into each bottle but find she doesn't take a lot in the morning but eats more as day goes on. Dds routine is eat, then play, then sleep.she usually doesn't fall asleep on the bottle. Her eyelds might get heavy but once she's winded, she tends to wake up fully. I stil bf for the night feeds. Is that an option for you? Soooo handy.

Thank you for all the advice.

tiktok - I have got about a month before I need to have stopped BF at least during the day so won't be going cold turkey. I'm aiming to substitute one feed a day for a few days then another etc.

However we have just had the morning from hell trying to get DS to take a bottle of expressed breast milk I finally managed to express a bottle's worth this morning but he will not take it. Screaming the place down as DH tries to feed him

:( :( Screamer and baby Screamer.

It is not worth going through a morning from hell.

nct.org.uk/info-centre/decisions/view-6 is a link to a factsheet with some hints and ideas you may not have tried.

Are you leaving him every day for the whole day after a month, Screamer, or is it less than that?

Good news - DH managed to get him to take breastmilk from the bottle!!

DS was sucking his fist (as he constantly does) so DH gently pushed the teat in his mouth as well....the sucking action made the milk appear, DH slowly pulled the fist out and the teat stayed in

DS downed the bottle then was rooting for more so I frantically expressed some more and DH gave him the bottle and he wolfed it down no probs!

Am hoping to do the same tomorrow to reinforce his new skill