Can you bf and formula successfully without giving up bf?

[PrincessScrumpy]

I ebf dd1 until 8 months when I became very sick and I was unable to feed. I loved it but it was tiring and I'm now expecting twins in 8 days and I'm thinking ebf may not be realistic with a toddler. I will give it a go but I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I was thinking about dh giving a ff in the evening so I could put dd1 to bed and have some 1:1 time with her. Or, a "dream feed" before bed with formula. I don't want to stop bf completely, and would ideally want ff to be just a top up. When can I introduce a bottle (even with expressed milk)? I know with dd I didn't try a bottle (expressed) until she was 12 weeks, and she couldn't figure it out at all.

What's the best thing to do?

I would highly recomend you get the Le Leche Legue book "mothering multiples" Introducing a bottle can cause your babies to begin to fuss at the breast, refuse to latch on and develop a bad latch. Not saying this is garunteed but it is a very real risk, introducing a bottle can also be detrimental to your supply.

I'd also recomend getting along to a breast feeding support group before your babies come, that way you can get information and support that is tailored to your specific needs. Join a formum for parents of multiples to get the benefit of others experiences. esp those who have breast fed , feeding Twins is very much "do-able" as is breast feeding with a toddler at home too. But the right information and support is as allways vital.

some people do this no prob whatsoever but i think they start the formula dreamfeed after six weeks so as to establish a reliable supply first. the more you feed them in the early days, the more milk you will have months down the line. some people struggle as the formula at night makes them sleep longer than they normally would which sort of short circuits the whole supply as night feeds in the first months can be quite important to maintaining a good supply.

i knew a lady who bf twins and it was exhausting but she was so so proud of doing it and pleased she did it when she stopped at around a year. good luck with it all :)

introducing a bottle appears to be different with different babies. mine had expressed for a week at a week old no problem but never took a bottle again, ever?!

Mixing feeds is very possible - I did it from 3 weeks when DD failed to thrive (because I was making a hash of bf) and mix fed successfully to 8 months but the standard advice is to wait until bf is established.

If you do want to mix feed then I would talk to a breastfeeding counsellor first so that you can make sure you're not damaging your supply. I would go along to a LLL meeting if you can so you can talk to other mums about how to BF when you've got a toddler in tow.

Good luck with the birth, enjoy your twins :)

I'm mixed feeding quite happily at 11 weeks - DD was in SCBU and couldn't be breastfed to start with (though she had all expressed milk in the early days). I'm sure, though, it has 'damaged' my supply, if that's what you want to call it. The body settles into what it thinks you need and I think it' be impossible for me to go on to EBF as I would not produce enough. As I don't want to, this is not a problem. Having started with 6 breastfeeds and two bottles per day, but with DD not putting on much weight I started topping up (another great evil according to some) I stated to breastfeed five or six times a day, top some of those up with bottle and give 1 or 2 exclusive bottle feeds. This works for me - my philosophy being that some (quite a lot in fact) breastmilk is surely better than none and I frankly don't have the time or commitment to do EBM though hats off to those that do. I do appreciate how lucky I am to have the (selfish I suppose) choice and know that some feel more strongly about breast feeding and would not want to be so pragmatic.

I introduced a bottle occasionally (once a week or so) from about 4 weeks with no problems - but we were feeding well by then. Started doing a formula dreamfeed every night from 4 months without problems too, and ds dropped it at 8 months.

I do have several friends though who found that around 4-5 months their baby started to show a bottle preference and refuse the breast, but they were all giving at least 2 bottles a day - and daytime bottles rather than an asleep one.

Mine started a breast preference at 4mo. So I'm another who couldn't go between bottle and breast successfully.

All the MN posters that have experience of how combo feeding can affect supply should be most paid attention to I think.

Saying that, just so you know I have a friend who said that waiting 'the advised' 6 weeks meant DD1 wouldn't take to the bottle; I have another friend who had a similar problem with her DD. The first introduced a bottle to her DD2 after about 4 weeks and had more success getting her to take it but she was still very much a baby with a penchant for BF.

Also in my experience, it's been friends with DDs that have struggled to establish combination feeding or make the switch entirely; most friends with boys that switched even after 6 months of EBF said there were no problems. Sure there are exceptions, saying that.

I MF my DD from 7 weeks. Starting with one bottle a day then increasing gradually one feed at a time until I stopped BF altogether at 6 months. It worked really well for her. I understand that is the best way to do it, i.e. replace a BF with a FF rather than "topping up" with FF after a BF. I found my supply just adjusted itself accordingly. I'd be very full for a week or so after dropping a feed then it would settle down again. If I needed to do an extra BF in the day (or night more likely) I still could though.

Oh and DD did have bottles of expressed milk from 2 weeks old.

I read a book by Gordon Bourne written C1937 and updated. He recommended a bit of bottle/formula from day 1 to get dc used to it straight away. Dh can then do night feeds of liquid cosh Gold label and you can kip, your tits should fill up overnight for the morning. Worked for me.

Best practice is definitely not to give bottles before 3 weeks! That's when the chance of nipple preference allegedly recedes. Mine was mixed fed from 2 weeks, not by choice but because she wasn't gaining enough weight and I wasn't getting any decent help with latching etc. We used a syringe until she was about 4 weeks which was a pain in the arse but she was definitely a bit funny after our one attempt to use a bottle at 3 weeks so I'm glad we waited to bring it back in.

I remain convinced that with more support I could have got off the top ups but after a few weeks, my body was settled into that pattern and it didn't go well when I tried to change it, so proceed with caution. If you've got help with your eldest during the first 6 weeks of being stuck on the sofa with babies, then that would probably help!

Also I noticed that when she dropped night feeds, my daytime supply suffered, so probably best to give a bottle late afternoon rather than night time, if that's any help.

Your breasts don't "fill up for the morning" as such - if you skip a feed then less milk is made, not more.

I thought mine did, but maybe you're right. I was pretty laid back about it all, had a 'that'll do' approach. Seemed to work out OK, bf til dd was 6 months ish

Removing milk is a signal to produce more and increase supply, so a full breast stops production and missing feeds, especially overnight where hormome levels are highest, can dent your supply. Some people's supply will be more robust and able to cope with missing feeds than others though.

When dd1 slept longer at night than usual my boobs did "fill up" and would be coming out of my collar bone. Dh would get squirted in the face if I fed lying down.

I was thinking more that you often hear it's a good idea to extend gaps between feeds to give your boobs a chance to refill - but actually full breasts aren't producing milk, and big gaps aren't great for supply.

There may well be something in what you say; I remember friends saying similar at the time. But I am stubborn and lazy optimistic, so I followed Gordon Bourne (not just because it's a GENIUS name for an obstetrician)

I've been 'topping up' since week one. My milk was slow to come in properly (ten days) and my boy was a hungry ( 9lb 3). It has always worked brilliantly for us, ds is 16 weeks old and now 17lbs. Initially started with an ounce before bedtime, because the cluster feeding was so hard. Now he has 8 ounces at 8pm every evening bottle fed by his dad after their bath. No nipple confusion at all. I think supply would only be an issue if you messed about with timings and amounts, we stick to the exact time (or within a half an hour either side). Do what feels right for you, I had some horrified midwives in the early days but they weren't the ones sitting up with a hungry baby all evening.

I started mixed feeding DD when she was 6 weeks, due to very poor weight gain. Initially she was drinking lots of formula - like 50:50, but after she caught up with the weight gain, she slowed down the formula intake and even had several weeks of refusing the bottle and demanding only breast. We have now settled with only 300 ml of formula a day (Should be about 1/3 of what she eats), and she still refuses the bottle at times.

Mixed feeding was very hard at times, especially due to conflicting advice. However, we found the way it works for us (bottles only after 4 pm, when DD realises that breast is not enough). DD is now 5mo, and I am about to start weaning her soon, and I am so optimistic that I am even hoping to drop the formula feeds and keep breastfeeding.

So, I think it is very much possible to mixed feed successfully without affecting the breast milk supply, but you should probably delay the introduction of the bottle by several weeks. Some babies really like the breast, and are not giving it up even if (evil) bottles are given to them...

Same thing with me my dd is 3.5 months old and has started preferring breast refusing bottle..m worried if i will be able to produce enough milk..were u able to after 4 months?