Calling Roxwood - Advice needed on benefits of exclusive BF

[Tatties]

You posted on a recent thread that introducing just one bottle of formula can alter the benefits of exclusive BF, so I am asking for your advice! If this is so I am really gutted . I would say that my DS has been exclusively BF (although strictly speaking he hasn't). He was and still is a terrible sleeper, it has always been a nightmare to get him off to sleep at night without several rounds of BF and he has always woken several times in the night, only being settled by BF. With the help of a dummy after 6wks I thought we'd cracked it but he wouldn't take it after about 3mths. Since about 4mths I have given him the odd bottle of formula before bed at night (maybe about 3 or 4 in total) - I was really at the end of my tether and wanted to try anything. (This was before I discovered MN I might add). Needless to say it didn't work.. But I was under the impression that this wouldn't do any harm as he surely had all the benefits of BF. I started him on tiny amounts of solids at around 5mths. He is now nearly 6mths and I intend to carry on BF as long as we both want. If I have jeopordised the benefits of all that BF by just a few bottles of formula, is there a way of getting them back now that he is 6mths?

You haven't jeopardised all the benefits, far from it, its just one part of exclusive breastfeeding that is affected by the odd bottle of formula and that is the "sterile gut".
Basically formula fed babies have very different gut flora to breastfed babies but it only takes one bottle of formula to introduce this flora into a breastfed baby's gut, and it takes between 2 and 4 weeks of exclusive breastfeeding bor the gut to revert to its pre-formula state.
This is only one tiny part of the benefits of breastmilk however, I'll try and find you more information in a couple of hours, right now I'm being called away from the pc but I'll be back!

Here's a nice article about how the benefits of breastfeeding "add up" over time..

How Breastfeeding Benefits Add Up

Basically I wanted to say that the tiny amounts of formula you describe your little one having, though they will have had an effect on your baby's gut, have not negated the benefits of breastmilk. Your little one's gut will have had a whole lot easier time than a completely formula fed baby, and of course there are all the immune benefits and hundreds of nutritional components in breastmilk missing from formula, and none of these benefits have been affected in the least by the odd bottle.

The best way you can give your baby protection now is to continue feeding as long as you feel able, breastfeeding continues to prevent more and more illnesses and give more and more lifelong protection for as long as you continue.

Here's a link to show the benefits of breastfeeding past the age of one, healthy children are not made or broken by the age of 6 months.

Kellymom Extended Breastfeeding

I hope this helps you feel better, you've done amazingly well to get to this point with only a few bottles, and you've given your little one more protection than 80% of children in this country have had by 6 months!

Thanks ever so much Roxwood. That does make me feel better, don't think I'll be stopping BF for quite some time now