When can you start using formula for BF babies?

[susiesheep2]

I BF my first exclusively (she would not take bottles, so no formula and no expressed milk) She was in hospital twice when she was given formula whilst I was out, with serious vomitting. So I never tried formula again as they suspected some intolerance, anyway I wasn;t going to take the chance as she was a very poorly baby admitted to hospital on both occasions :(

Anyway, number 2 is on his/her way and I really want to try and use bottles at some point with this baby - basically so I have a bit more flexibility as baby gets older and I return to work.

But I am worried how to get baby #2 to take bottles as I want to BF mostly - but maybe one bottle during the day?

Is this possible?

My 1st baby never had a bottle she went straight from boob to beacker, but she was over 1 at this point, and I need to return to work P/T sooner with this one - at around 4 months :(

Any ideas greatly appreciated :) xx

PS. by bottles I mean either expressed milk or preferable formula as I really struggled to express last time, and she would refuse to drink it from a bottle so I did give up trying to express.

AFAIK, as soon as they are established properly on the breast.

I'd wait until you're confident things are going well, the latch is good, and your supply has settled down - around 4-6 weeks probably.

DS has had one bottle each day (formula) since he was 4 days old; he's now 4 weeks.

It hasn't impacted my supply at all and I am now cutting the FF out if I'm just at home and don't need the flexibility. That said, I seem to have good supply and usually it's suggested you wait until breastfeeding is safely established.

It's best to wait untill around the 6week mark then your supply is well estabilished. Giving formula before this can have an effect on your long term supply.

Don't give up on the expressing though I couldn't the first time round but seem to be able to much more easily this time.

4-6 weeks seems to be the best time. Expressing takes getting used to so persevere if you don't get much at first.

Okay, I'm going to confuse things here -

My excellent and pro-BF MW told me that (big disclaimer here) as long as latch was good, there were no weight gain problems, baby was generally feeding okay from the breast, then it was really important to introduce a bottle BEFORE 6 weeks. If you wanted to have the option of bottle feeding later on, that is.

There's a narrow window when they take to it easily, but once they have got used to breastfeeding they can be very reluctant, or just refuse, to take a bottle, whether it's expressed milk or formula.

She also said to give a bottle every couple of days, or once a day if convenient, and NOT to offer the bottle once, think, oh, DC is fine with that, and then not bother again for 2 months. Because they aren't going to remember how to do it then.

I asked about nipple confusion - she said for one bottle a day or less, for a baby with a good latch and no other problems, it wouldn't be an issue.

This was at just under 2 weeks with DS. It worked totally fine for him, he's 8 months now and has never had formula, just BM, largely from the boob! But having the freedom to give him the odd bottle has been SO helpful.

I know women are told to wait... but there are so many posts on this board from women who are desperate for their 4/6/8 month old to take a bottle, normally because they have to go back to work. They waited, and their baby didn't want to know.

There are other issues around this, for the mother, to do with supply and expressing, but I just wanted to share that.

Nipple confusion hasnt been proven anyway, its all just anecdotal "evidence"...
I gave DS a bottle from about one week of EBM. And he had a dummy from 1 day old.

Okay, I have misread the original post, I am sorry! - what I say makes sense if you are feeding expressed milk, not formula -

I just mean, getting the baby used to the bottle before 6 weeks is the key bit, but using formula before 6 weeks would make me anxious about affecting supply. I would def wait til 6-8 weeks to introduce formula, IF you have the option.

Hello, and thank you everyone for your replies and help :))

Its good to know it can be done, my first just would not take a bottle at all, ever! But I have put that down to maybe when she was given formula milk and it made her so sick she remembered some how this association from just 6 weeks. That sounds really wierd doesnt it!!

So now I just have to try and make sure I can express this time, I had a electric medala pump last time, which was meant to be good, but I struggled to get 2oz a time :( even though for baby my milk supply was good, she only lost 3oz in first week and put is all back on the next, but for some reason it just wouldnt come out for the expresser ://

It was quiet hard actually because she couldnt have forumla either because of the intolerance so we literally couldnt be parted for my than a couple of hours, which by large wasnt a problem, but it makes trips to the shops, etc hard work because you can't leave them with nana or daddy for any longer than that.... and I couldnt bare the thought she was hungry and I wasnt there!!

I think it's quite normal to have to express twice or three times to get enough milk for a whole feed (certainly that was my experience). My BFing support person told me it's because your body regulates the amount of milk it produces according to what the baby wants, which makes sense if you think about it. I always made sure I had some expressed milk in the freezer and was ahead of the game IYSWIM, so I never felt stressed about expressing either (stress is not conducive to getting milk out!!). Oh, and I gave my DS a bottle if expressed milk from 2 days old, I'd agree with introducing early and not waiting until 6 weeks.

If you express at the same time every day then eventually your body should see this as an extra feed and increase supply slightly to accomodate it, much better to do it this way than just at random times as this is likely to mess with your supply more. Beter first thing in the morning too as some women find.

Although how much you can express is no indication of supply of course as you know.

2oz for a first expressing try is actually not bad!

It really does take a while to get used to. In the early days when DD was in SCBU or needing lots of top-ups, I had to relax, think baby, not be excessively tired, use massage and compressions - and thought I was doing amazingly well if I got 4oz out of a session with a double pump! Now I express one side first thing every morning without having to think about it (I read, listen to audiobooks or plan my day whilst pumping) and get 5oz from one side.

We introduced a bottle at two weeks for the 10pm feed.

2oz is fine, that's at least half a feed. FF amounts and EMB are different (and also EBM amounts don't change after 6 weeks).

Since I needed DD to take a bottle, I started at 3 weeks for the reasons gloyw outlines.

It's not nipple confusion so much, but a bottle preference. There was a day at 9/10 weeks where I away for 12 hours and didn't know then that it's better to adapt bottle feeding technique for BF babies. When DH had fed her, she had always been fine, when my mum or other old fashioned FF people had fed her, I had problems. Often even when she only took 1 feed from them. Hence we had a full on nursing strike, which was pretty horrible.

Also another area where people sometimes go wrong, is to give babies a big dream feed. BF babies will often take more than need from a bottle (regardless of whether it is BM or FF). It they gorge so much you could miss a night feed which could affect supply. I'm not saying it is a certainty, but something to consider. Since most babies will still wake up in the early hours, it's not so bad.

Anyway I hope this makes sense.

I hate it when people say nipple confusion is not proven, just anecdotal, or that it doesn't affect most babies so don't worry about it.

Of course your baby might be fine with a bottle very young, but there is absolutely no way of knowing how your baby will react to being given a bottle, and if a very young baby does have one bottle and then reject the breast then it can really require a huge effort to get them breastfeeding again.

Warning!! Anecdote coming up!!

My DD had a bottle of EBM at 7 days on the advice of a midwife, she had previously been cup fed top ups. It took us 4 days to get her back on the breast, adding 30 minutes to each feed as we struggled and struggled with her, and another 30 minutes for me to express ready for the next feed and to maintain supply, and to wash up and sterilise all the bits. It got to the point where even the midwives suggested that I call it quits and I very nearly did, but finally finally got her back feeding from me again. If I'd had a toddler too then there is no way both me and DP could have put in that much effort.

Anyway, I'm just saying... I think you should wait until breastfeeding is properly established.

It's not just bottle preference - they can learn a different way of feeding which then means bfing will not work. This happened to us (DD was tube fed then bottle fed then bf). DD started off not opening her mouth wide and putting her tongue to the roof of her mouth which were both a real struggle to overcome to get bfing working.

Oh and despite having bottles in the early days and us really struggling with bfing, DD has never prefered the bottle. She's a boob monster - thankfully!

I bf and had to get DS (now 7 month old boobhound) onto a bottle so I could start back at work at 6 weeks (sob!) - so we introduced one at 4 weeks, then tried a couple of days running - just one feed- at 5 weeks, and by 6 weeks he was able to swap back and forth. We used the Tommee Tippee closer to nature bottles, and DH gave them. Even now, he won't take a bottle from me, and looks affronted and makes a lunge for my boobs!

just re: the amounts - when I started expressing getting 1oz from each side was a big win. For a while, I had to save up ebm and add together frozen feeds. Now (because I've been expressing at work for 6 months almost) I get 2-3oz each side, which makes up his 4 oz bottles nicely. he's been taking 3-4oz, 3 times a day (eg between 8am and 4pm) at daycare quite happily. He's a big biffer and still, 4oz of BM is enough.

Hi I have mixed fed DD2 since she was about 3 weeks old because DD1 refused bottle and because I had to quit bfing for health reasons, her refusal caused months of anguish. Was keen to avoid this for second time and now DD2 (who is 14weeks old) happily mix feeds. I am slowly winding the bfing down and supply adjusts itself accordingly. I feed morning and evening and in the night if required. Bottles during the day and at 1030pm. good luck!