ANOTHER expressing question!

[Beccaroll]

When can I start expressing? Im breastfeeding my little boy (6 days old) and would like to express milk that can be given to him in a bottle.

Could anyone advise me on when I can start this and how to go about it!?~

Thankyou
Beccaxxx

How come you want to express so soon? Enjoy!

Im quite happy feeding him myself Im just anxious that I get him used to a bottle as early as possible so he doesnt reject it at a later stage, Im due back at work when he is 5 months and I dont want that to mean the end of breastfeeding for us!

You can start expressing any time - when your milk initally comes in you will have lots of milk, so supply is not a problem. But a lot of BF professionals advise not giving a bottle too early as it can cause nipple confusion - because the action of suckling is different from a bottle. Also, you want to give your breasts a chance to adapt to the needs of your baby, and BF is the best way to do that, and that means doing the night feeds as well. I think official advice is 6wks, but Gina Ford starts her expressing regime at 2wks. I actually gave my DS a bit of milk in a bottle in the first week, because I had expressed some off to relieve engorgement and didn't want to waste it, as DS had lost a lot of weight. BTW, DS took a bottle quite easily, right up until about a mth before I wanted to go back to work - and then never did again very successfully.

I started in my second week after dd did a gorging fest and made me too sore to want to let her near them! She was quite happy with taking the bottle. I was really worried about it but its all been fine so far. She is happy to swap between the two. Mind you at 3 weeks we are still in early days.

I started expressing at 6 days, and never had any probs with giving dd a bottle, or expressing. I did it slightly differently and expressed at the end of some feeds so I could build up a store.
But if you are doing it just to get used to bottles I really wouldn't bother. But if you want to do it so dp can help, then do, definately, it really really helped me.

I have just given expressing the first go and quite quickly got 4oz so that was quite pleasing! I have stored it in the freezer for future use

It has also had the knock on effect of encouraging me that Im making plenty of milk, this was after a feed and I thought I had very little milk left but the milk seemed to "flow" well.

How does everyone store their milk? Not sure what to put it in to freeze it !

Becca,
Boots do Breast milk reezer bags

I have a 8 day old baby and am breast feeding, also expressing with an advent pump. Does anyone know how much milk a baby of this age should be drinking and how often.

how often ? - probably every 2-3 hours average, sometimes less, sometimes more.

how much - breastfeeding maybe 1/2 hour, maybe more. Bottlefeeding - maybe 2-3 oz (100mls ish).
Very difficult to say if you are combining both.

Usually they say if they have 6 wet nappies a day and the fontanelle isn't depressed then they are fine.

caitlin - don't express too much at this stage or your body will find it difficult to adjust to baby's needs. Is there a reason you are expressing just now?