Want to give my growth spurting four week old her first bottle of formula this evening

[Cressida1979]

My DP thinks I am. She has been practically glued to my boobs since 5am this morning and was the same yesterday and I have nothing left! She's also very irritable and only sleeping in short bursts. I really want her to chug down a bottle and get some decent kip.

DP looked shocked when I suggested a bottle and said he thought we were waiting til she was 'much older' to introduce the odd bottle, and has now gone out to the pub. I may be a little jealous of this, am hankering after a glass of wine but it would obviously be wrong to quaff whilst breastfeeding!! Very tempted to break open the emergency Actimel whilst he's out...

BTW I like breastfeeding and plan to do so until I go back to work when DD is about 6 months, we are talking about the occasional formula feed here!

If you can then stick with it. The early weeks are the hardest but when you get through it you'll be so glad you did. If you really can't cope then do give a bottle. I remember the feeling of relief when I did that with my first. We'd got to 7 weeks by then and it was like a huge weight lifted from my shoulders. I then MF until 6 months. I think if I hadn't given her that one bottle a day when I did I'd have ended up FF because it was all getting a bit much.

coraltoes you must be a shit mother just like me. I stuck a bottle of junk in DS mouth and he's now graduating onto McDonalds and fags. I'm going to try him on a bit of crack next week.

TBH, it will be a bit hard to get a 4 week old baby to drink from a bottle, if she's used to latching on to a boob. You may lose more sleep trying to get her to take the bottle.

Ps: on my peer supporter training I was told that you would have to have almost lethal levels of alcohol in your blood before it would have an adverse effect on your child. Obv I wouldn't recommend testing that out but I would certainly have the odd glass when I felt like it!

I would be peed off if DH had laid down his opinion (which I agree with, but then it was me doing the feeding if you get me) which only impacts you, before buggering off.

It really does get easier. If you want to continue have a look at Kelly's Mom website I thibk it is, and have a look at growth spurts. At 4 wks I'd be loathe to introduce a bottle if you want to continue BF simply because your supply needs a chance to keep up, and you might risk nipple confusion.

What your DD is doing is normal.

Breastfeeding is hard work. It requires committment and dedication. This does not suit everyone or fit in with everyone's life.

Do what makes you all happy.

But..... I'd give it a bit longer if I were you.

OP, she's your baby. It's totally up to you. Thousands and thousands of babies are mixed fed, and they settle with the routine very well. That said, thousands of babies won't even accept a bottle of formula. So, you can try, but you may not get anywhere. Nipple confusion doesn't apply to every baby so while it's a risk, it's not a guarantee that she'll reject your boob should you give her the occasional bottle.

Things to watch out for:

Engorgement - should she happily take the bottle, you may need to express to relieve your boobs from any discomfort. Engorgement carries risks of blocked ducts, mastitis etc. You can hand express quite easily (have a warm shower 0 that helps).

She's having a growth spurt - so is effectively 'tanking up' in order to build your supply to meet her new needs. Giving a bottle at this stage could interrupt this process and may stop you body producing enough. It's a risk and if you want to bf exclusively, you need to consider this.

While this stage is exhausting for you, I can promise that it won't last. Things will settle once again (until the next spurt) and you'll be able to relax once more. There are things you can eat that will boost your supply, like any oaty-type food (flapjacks) and this may help you get through this phase.

Sorry for the random doling out of facts - I wanted to try and make this as factual as possible. It's a lot to take in. But the important thing to remember here is there is no right or wrong decision to make. She's your baby, you are her Mum.

Good luck!

Oh what? I want space dust too. [Sulks]

Fabbychic, how could the OP possibly find the "ff might be best in the long run"? If she changes to ff, she will never know how things might have gone with the bf (and vice versa) so we can never know which was best for us. Growth spurts are so well documented, I think it's very unlikely it's to do with a milk shortage.

ThoughtCriminal is kicking off trouble, and some of you are playing right into her hands. C'mon you lot - stop it. There's no need.

Here you go :)

Have faith in your boobs, OP. They're good at doing what they need to do - it's our brains which mess things up since we don't always know what is normal and right, and so doubt ourselves. If you've got this far, then you can do it if you want to.

:)

thoughtcriminal you know how you said 'if I'd known then what I know now' etc etc?

Can I ask, what do you know now? Did you give your DCs formula (it sounds like you did)? What happened?

Furry Sausage, my DDs first puree was Mac Ds sweet and sour sauce. I fucking rock.

There isn't a right answer, just do what you feel is right.

However, my DS cluster fed a lot at night and I used to express a bottle in the morning and DH would give it to him at night to take the pressure off me a little. There was no problem with nipple/teat confusion, he was always happy to accept milk from any source!

Oh yes, I wouldn't think twice about having a glass of wine either!

The Kellymom site is great! As is reading about everyone's experiences, it is great just to hear about what others have done and especially to know that the constant feeding is so common in young babies and is designed to increase milk supply. I feel stupid for not knowing this stuff before!

The formula is going to stay in the cupboard. And DP is sending over take out pizza and ice cream (already paid for by him!) as an apology for upsetting me! Now if I can just sneak this baby into her Moses basket so i can answer the door to the delivery person...

No-one knows till they, don't know... I guess! And all babies are different, some babies won't do some of the spurting, some will do constantly...you may miss a few etc! Sounds like you're doing great so far, it can be really tough, but once you get in the swing it is worth it.

Enjoy pizza, practice balancing a feeding baby on one arm, makes life, tea making, MN-ing much easier!

Glad to hear it's (sort of) sorted. But you need pizza, ice cream and WINE, OP :)

Hmmm I'd rather give my kids formula than half the supposed healthy snacks I know many kids at their school consume at playtime.

Oh that's right I did give them formula alongside bm and guess what they're all glowing with health.

Op she won't melt if you give her the odd bottle(or indeed many)but you might want to express too so your supply isn't affected.

See if you can learn to brestfeed lying down, if you haven't already. Makes such a difference...

breastfeed, even

I love a happy ending

Furry I can't believe your dc hasn't had crack yet.

FFS, that's negligence!

:o

Back on track...Cressida, breast feeding is a steep learning curve. If you're anything like me you also have well meaning relatives making comments like, 'she's still hungry, you aren't producing enough' etc. There is a huge amount of misunderstanding.

I used to fret and fret about my supply but luckily I had the resources and support to let ds have free access to the boob, and eventually my supply caught up. He is now a very fat one year old and I still feed him.

Glad to hear this is a one off for your dp!

Give the bottle then you can have the , that's what I did. Everyone's a winner. I breastfed for 10 months with both mine, much easier to do when you let yourself be a bit flexible. I didn't get along very well with expressing so anything out of the bottle didn't originate from me.