Formula instead of expressed milk for rare nights off?

[purpleflower123]

We've tried giving DD2 a bottle of expressed milk and she refused. I tasted the milk and it tastes like soap. I know I can scald the milk before freezing but to be honest I find expressing a PITA. I was wondering if a bottle of formula very rarely would hurt. It wouldn't be very often (no social life). For example I have a hen night to go on in a couple of weeks, with DD1 I built up a supply in the freezer and pumped and dumped when I got home if I'd been drinking, I would start feeding her again in the morning. Could I do this with DD2 but use formula instead?

I never feel as though I have enough milk to express anyway and struggle as to when would be the best time so I think this would be easier.

Would this effect my supply, I don't want to formula feed full time and I don't want to mix feed all the time, just a rare bottle if she will take it.

I didn't have the problem of funny tasting milk with DS or DD1, whys it like it this time?

TIA

No the occasional bottle of formula would not hurt and if it is a once in a blue moon occurence then it won't hurt your supply either.
Do make sure DD2 will accept a bottle before you go out though to be sure.

How did you scald it before freezing?

The odd bottle won't hurt IMO, especially as you get established.

there's the whole virgin gut thing to consider but tbh it's not something everyone agrees on and formula isn't poison. (indeed, according to my kids, it was delicious).

I haven't tried to scald the milk yet Iggly, we only discovered the soapy milk last night and I haven't expressed since. I read up on it last night. It just seems like a hell of a lot of hassle.

She's nearly 15 weeks now so I think the virgin gut thing should be ok as I can wean her from next week (waiting a while though, she's still too young for me) and surely the calpol she's had would've ruined that anyway?

I mix fed DS and ended up losing my milk altogether which is why I was worried but he was alot younger than DD2 is now.

I think I will buy a carton of formula and give her a try.

Thank you :)

It's not known how Calpol affects the virgin gut but the quantities are so small it's unlikely to be a problem (although I prefer infant Disprol - fewer additives).

16 weeks is earlier than the virgin gut should be protected for (and it's not under dispute by the way) - it's around 6 months that the gut seals.

This is a useful page discussing the virgin gut, and the addition of formula:

www.health-e-learning.com/articles/JustOneBottle.pdf

However the focus is really on something like a bottle a day rather than the very few you're talking about so the risk of what you're considering is way, way smaller than the discussion here.

You are right about scalding the milk before freezing if you have the lipase problem (soapy smell). So if you have to scald and you struggle to express I can totally see why you feel formula may be a better option.

It's not possible to say it won't do any harm, and it will strip the gut with that one feed - but - given that you are planning to do this rarely then this will heal again quite quickly so you aren't permanently destroying the "virgin gut" by any means. Of course this will lead to an increased risk of infection or cow's milk protein intolerance, and it's not possible to quantify this risk for an individual baby, but I honestly think that it must be really tiny assuming she's not allergic to cow's milk or something (which you'd find out in due course anyway).