Help ! Advised to give formula and gave it...

[pinkposey]

What are the disadvantages and advantages of giving one formula feed per day to a baby please?

He is 5 months old, and I did it on the recommendation of my doctor as a result of him dropping from 50 - 15 percentile - which I now realize thanks to mn might be more normal than i or my doctor realized. Anyhow, he's now had 3 days worth of formula. He's always a generally happy calm baby regardless, but the formula does seem to have satisfied him for a bit and also given me time to recuperate, sleep, to up my calories and fluids intake and I'm feeling a whole lot better than i was 3 days ago.

What do i do now? Continue with the formula (he seems to like it) or return to EBF and monitor that? I really didn't want to go to formula and was pretty devastated when advised to. However, I now want to consider an informed cause of action from here on.

Advice would be most welcome.

pinkposey - if the formula (however unnecessarily, who knows?) was given to address weight concerns, and these are no longer live, or no longer worrying you or your doctor, then I cant think why you would not just stop the formula - you are keen on fully bf, you sound raring to go, and any weight/intake concerns can be addressed by bf more often to boost your supply and his intake of milk (far, far more crucial than anything you can do with your diet and fluids or rest - which really make bugger all difference to your milk, though they can make you feel better) :)

Many babies do have formula at 5 mths, and I think it's unlikely this has had any effect on his well-being or health, so your choice what to do!

I apologise for this not really sounding very informed (and probably saying the "never did us any harm" type of thing that I hate) but...

What you do is entirely up to you.

If you think about a 5 month old, many have started weaning (actually all of the babies I seem to know have weaned before 6 months by varying degrees and this is by well informed parents). You could consider a bottle of formula to be non-breast milk food substance in the same way as a bit of veg or fruit puree would be. Yes the list of stuff on the carton is long, but it is designed entirely for babies and the list isn't nearly as long as the list that would be on your breastmilk, so I wouldn't let that put you off.

From a non-nutritional point of view it is great for your son to have a mother who is feeling better - emotionally and physically.

I would say that you need to give yourself a bit of an emotional break. It's one feed a day for three days. My DD is 5 months and I am thinking about mango and carrot and baby rice and all sorts, very soon. I can't imagine that formula once a day will do anything compared to the carpet fluff and bits of magazine your DS will be eating as soon as he is crawling! Glad you are feeling better.

If you don't want to give formula - and deal with the hassle of bottles - don't bother. Your supply will adjust if you drop the formula feed and you can feed more often if you need to get more breastmilk into the LO.

On the other hand, if it isn't bothering you or LO and you think it might be simpler - e.g. if you were planning to add in formula at 6 months anyway - then don't stress.