BF'ing and Formula - anyone mixing it?

[Holymoly321]

My DS is ten days old - what a wonderful little being he is!! - and I#ve had some trouble with bf'ing - I've seen counsellors and MW's and my nipples are small and DS is a very 'sucky' baby so the whole BF thing has been very painful. So, anyway, I'm currently feeding him a mixture of breast milk from the boob, expressed breastmilk in bottle and formula. It usually runs like this, breastfeed in the morning for about an hour (split between each boob), then formula during the day, along with a bottle of expressed milk (around 4fl oz) and then formula in the evening and once in the night and maybe once in the early (very early!) morning. He seems fine with it and is putting on weight normally. I did feel guilty at first that I wasn't exclusively bfing, but the pain was too much and he's still getting some breast milk so that should be ok right? Just wondered if anyone else was mixing it up and how they felt about it?

I mixed it with my first. Also started formula just before 2wks old. I would bf first, then top up with formula at every feed. Didn't like it, TBH, even though it is true that any bm is better than none, so was doing what was good for him.

At about 6wks decided to try and increase bm by slobbing on the sofa with food and drink to hand until lunchtime, and doing nothing but letting him get on with it. Ended up bf without top-up for the two am feeds and the night-time feed, and topping up the three pm feeds. Ds started sleeping through at 9-10weeks, and we settled into a patern of 2 fully breast feeds, then one breast + half quantity of bottle, then two breast + full quantity of ottle.

BTW, I also had very small, slightly inverted nipples, but feeding pulled them out, and they're now ordinary size. I don't think they make any difference to feeding - it's technique rather than equipment that makes the difference.

I have seen people say that mixed feeding is a bad idea, as baby gets confused between breast and teat but if I hadn't done it with DS1 I wouldn't have managed to BF him at all.

As time goes on and your nipples get used to bfing you'll probably find that you can drop the formula and exclusively bf if you want. It's pointless to say 'don't feel guilty' but you really shouldn't. If he's happy and you're happy and he's thriving then you aren't doing anything wrong. At least you know that you can leave him in someones care and get a break.

Good luck, and it does get easier, honest

Which reminds me, I used Avent bottles and made sure that ds 'latched on' to them in the same way as he latched on to a boob: with his mouth in that wide gape, taking in as much of the teat as poss. I think that the narrow-mouthed bottles encourage the baby to suck, rather than to suckle, which is why sometimes there is nipple confusion. Neither of my babies ever got confused, or abandoned the boob in favour of the bottle!

I'm using the Avent bottles with DS - don't think he's got confused yet! The BF'ing has got slightly easier - but still hurts - but my nips are no longer bleeding!!! So I think I'll just keep on doing what I'm doing. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how much breast milk in Fl oz he should have and how many times each day?

He should have as much bm as he wants! There's no point agonising over the fluid oz (yeah, I did too) as every baby's needs are different.

I only really understood and accepted this when my dd was weaned: at 9m she was eating two to three times more (solids) than my ds, and he was 3yo! And they were both perfectly normal-sized children, slightly above average height, and although ds was - and still is - very slender, he was also average weight.

Don't get seduced by the idea of expressing to see how much you're producing. Firstly, you may produce different amounts throughout the day, and, secondly, if you're a poor expresser you won't get a realistic amount out.

Are you expressing during the day too ? If you're to maintain a good supply as he develops you'll need to be feeding/expressing on and off around the clock at this early stage, and one big feed plus random expressing may not be enough at the moment to achieve this. Then, as the soreness eases up, you can try feeding him directly more often during the day and can then choose to do less ebm/formula according to how much you ultimately decide to mix feed. dd never took more than a couple of ounces/50-75ml of ebm at a go even around 6 weeks, but they all vary - go for the little and often approach to start with !!

Kamillosan was really good for me for sore nipples. Also agree with Pretty Candles, you cna successfully breastfeed with apparently flat nipples, but you need to practice a bit. Good luck.

A newborn baby's stomach is the size of a walnut - doesn't take much to fill it!

I did it. DS had a bottle of formula once a day from two weeks. I had a health scare and thought I might have to go into hosp for an op so I thought he had better get used to both boob and bottle. He did it with ease.

After the scare I carried on with the bottle for convenience and also DH and my mum could have a go at feeding him now and them which is nice too. I found expressing very difficult, lots of pain and not much gain so the bottle always had formula.

Go with what works for you, don't feel guilt or any of that stuff. Make your choices as and when you need to, change your mind at will too!

You're the mum, you're in charge! Good luck.