HVs great advice again...

[suzi2]

DS had his last set of jabs today and when the HV asked me how he had been, I told her we'd been having a tough time the last 2 weeks. he's been waking every hour and grumpy and some days eating more, some days less. We're sure it's teething.

Anyway, she told me to give him a formula feed at bedtime so he slept better and also said that 1 feed a day won't affect my milk won't make any difference to the 'power of breastmilk' so to speak.

She's definately wrong isn't she and this is definately duff advice isn't it? I don't plan to do it but am a bit put out that she would tell me that it didn't really make a difference to give a bit of formula! Interestingly, she also said that he may be getting ready for solids and that's the problem!

Grrrrr. If he is teething, then giving him formula won't make any difference! If he is getting hungrier, then formula surely won't make any difference either!! Tiktok will explain this so much better than me, but basically giving him formula won't make any difference to the way he is behaving just now (only possible difference is that your dh could do the formula feed whilst you get an early night ).

I took my ds for his jags today too - poor wee manny. My hv, when I said he still wasn't weaned, said "good for you - he's thriving anyway so obviously doesn't need it" - could do with more like her couldn't we!

go with your instinct its your baby you know him better

Well......the antibodies in breastmilk are still there, whether or not you give formula, and well-established breastfeeding may well not be affected by one bottle a day (OTOH, it may have an impact on supply - especially if it means your breasts go hours and hours without being fed from).

But the max benefits of bf are seen with exclusive bf to 6 months...and HVs are supposed to support you so you are enabled to do this.

I don't know how old your baby is, but early solids do not make any difference to waking.

Challenge her - tell her you felt undermined and unsupported and ask her what she is doing to help support the mothers on her list to bf excl to 6 mths....

I might well do that tiktok. I just wonder that if I didn't have you guys I might think she knows best which is bad.

Are you sure he's getting enough feeds in the day?And that you arent overdoing the sleeps in the day? I had huge supply probs with my first ds and introducing formula did help enormously with producing a more settled baby but it was the end of bf for me. 2nd and 3rd time around I just kept feeding whenever they wanted it daytime, didnt allow more than 3.5hrs sleep between 7-7 if poss and if they were v sleepy I woke them up to feed again. They were v settled at night sleeping 7-10.30pm (woken for a feed) and 11-7 by 12 weeks. And I contd exclusively bf til ds2 was 1yo and dd gave it up herself at 10mo, too keen on the fast flow of a supplementary bottle by then. I didnt wean either until 24weeks.