If you are planning to breastfeed do you get a bottle/milk just in case?

[Dirtydishesmakemesad]

i bottlefed my first 3 dcs. When i had dc4 I decided to breastfeed but because i had never done it i got all the bottle equipmets as well just in case, sterilzer, bottles and milk. I didnt use it and fed her until she was 14 months and got pregnant this time.
I am wondering whether to get all this stuff again or just leave it? I am planning to breasfeed this time as long as all goes well and im a bit loathe to spend monet on a sterilizer etc. I was never really able to express (even with the pump) with my last dd and so the bottles etc really did go unused apart from the very end of the time when i was first pregnant and very sick - but that was 13 months after she was born so not exactly an emergency.

I should add we have no car so if for some reason i did need to give the baby a bottle in the middle of the night 24 hour tesco or something is a bit of a hassle.

what have you done?

I think it'd be a shame to waste more money like you say if it doesn't get used. For a newborn you can give milk from a cup or spoon (which is actually better as it avoids chance of nipple confusion) and steralise by boiling in water on the stove.

We had a few bottles as they were on a deal but ds refused a bottle of expressed milk whenever we tried so the others got given away. Later on got a couple of cartons of milk as we moved to the end of nowhere, just in case, - threw away the other day as they were way out of date.

Sterlising tablets are cheap and you can just use a tupperware container. Boiling is quicker but uses more energy. Either method should see you through for a few days.

I wouldn't shell out for a big carton of formula. I would get some cartons instead if you are going down this road. Some people find that having formula in the house helps them to keep going with BFing and some the reverse.

I didn't get anything in advance but we have a car. We mix fed ffor about six weeks due to 12% weight loss. The hospital gave us some little bottles of formula to take home and syringes to finger feed. We introduced a bottle at three weeks. Baby is now EBF at 19 weeks and started refusing a bottle at around 10 weeks!

Congratulations on your PG and good luck.

I have just had DC4 and was paranoid that this time I would not be able breastfeed.
I bought one of those little cases of ready to feed Cow and Gate. The ones where you just screw the provided teat to the bottle, the same as I had seen in the hospital.

She is now 6 months old and I have used 2 of them.

I was in same boat, and I borrowed a sterilizer, bought 2 bottles and some ready made cartons. I did have to use the cartons in the early days as I struggled to get feeding going, but it was peace of mind having them at hand. Do what u feel is right. I ended up giving back the sterilizer after about 2 weeks and bought Milton tablets- I've never used them! Having the items in the house didn't make me any less determined to bf

I got a steriliser (cheap cold water one) and pump which came with bottles.

If it didn't work, the plan was to go to 24hour tesco for milk, online for more bottles etc but we did fine despite tongue tie until it was corrected on day 6 and mastitis on day 8!!

Good luck with it all. If you are determined to nurse, I'm sure you will do it

I bfed both DDs and never even thought of getting bottles or a steriliser. Some would say I was lucky that both bfed with no problems, but I think my determination also played a part.

If your concerned that you wont be able to breastfeed maybe you should get a pack of disposable bottles (about £5) which i used one day whilst out after my LO threw it on the floor and cried for more milk and maybe a few cartoons of milk. It means that you arent spending so much money if you can breastfeed but not panicking if you cant. I hope then your mind would be put to rest. x

I planned to Breast feed, but also knew i wanted to get into giving a daily bottle of breast milk quite soon.

I bought just 2 bottles and a mini steriliser but no milk.

Im pleased i didnt buy milk because i think in the early days, i might have given in and given baby some, but because i didnt have any, i couldnt and didnt (we live a 3min walk from a co-op thats open 6am - 11pm)

We have a car and live 15min walk to a 24 hour asda superstore. So we would have to be unlucky to be a Sunday to not be able to buy bottles and formula. Besides it never occurred to me that bf won't work! I did have a starter pack of bottles and a pump because I wanted DD to know how to use a bottle for return to work.

In your case I'd probably get some Milton tablets, a few bottles and some cartons of formula? If you keep the receipt, and if it's not too old, I think the big stores will let you return them?

If you are not near a 24 hr shop where you can get bottles, formula etc I might be tempted to buy them with some milton tablets. If you are in a mother and baby group/toddlers group they may take them or a mum might use them if you do not.

I never bought bottle feeding equipment. I didn't see any point as breastfeeding was my default option. If we had needed bottles we would have had to go get them at the time but there seemed no point in wasting money on items that we were not planning to use.