Mixed feeding help and experiences

[BelleStar]

Just wondering if there are any words of wisdom or advice to be shared about mixed feeding. DD is 11 weeks old. Breastfeeding has been great so far. She currently has her last feed at 7pm and sleeps until 5am at the earliest. I started weaning to bottle (very gradually!) as I needed to start taking some medication that doesn't work with breastfeeding, but have got a couple of formula feeds in (2pm and 7pm) and now feel like I don't need to start taking the meds just yet (it's for a condition that comes and goes and I've found something else that works!). I like that my husband and I can share the feeding, particularly at bedtime, and I like being a bit more free so I'd like to continue with this mixed feeding. But as this was never really the original plan I haven't looked into it that much. How might it affect my milk supply, if at all? Anything else I should consider? If it helps her feeds go a little something like this:
7am breast
10am breast
sometimes 12pm breast
2pm formula
5pm breast
7pm formula

The only thing to be cautious about is the 14 hour gap between feeds. At 11 weeks I would worry that it would have a detrimental effect on continuing to make milk as you are only doing 3-4 bfs a day which is very few at 11 weeks.

Would you consider pumping in the evening/before bed to lessen the time between milk removals (the longer milk stays in the breast the less milk is signalled to be made) or perhaps switching the bottle feeds around so they are evenly spaced through out the day?

Obviously if you want to stop bfing in the near future then it's not going to be a problem if you swap over to bottles sooner rather than later but if you wanted to continue to bf for a longer period of time you might need to swap to expressing a feed or two, switching bottle feeds or even dropping a bottle feed/upping the breastfeeds.

BelleStar, mixed feeding can work for some, but just as you suggest, milk supply is an issue you need to consider.

At 11 weeks, things have not been going on long enough to be 'iron plated' in terms of supply, esp as you have already intro'd formula, and are not bf at night.

It's the mothers of babies of, say, eight or nine months plus, who are feeding at night and maybe a bit more in the day at weekends, who can get away with fewer feeds.

In your case, 3 sometimes 4 feeds in 24 hours, with long gaps overnight and sometimes in the day, is prob not enough to sustain a reliable milk production. The risk is the body will not just 'downsize' to 3-4 feeds, like it does with older babies, but it dwindles and fades, and the baby objects to it....and you find yourself giving more formula in response, and then you really are saying goodbye to breastmilk.

If you want to sustain bf, then you'd be better off keeping formula bottles to the time you really want them - maybe once a day?

As I say, some people do manage ok, but I would say most don't, and they find themselves stopping bf before they wanted to...and you can't tell in advance which category you are in :)

Thanks you two. The long gap was what concerned me too - I think I need to make a commitment one way or another (expressing to maintain supply, or doing bottles or breast only), as not deciding and carrying on like I am will probably result in no milk! Tiktok, I'm glad you said what you did about how young my baby is (ie relatively little time to establish milk supply). I didn't really realise that I was so far off and it's definitely something I need to know about before the decision is made for me!