Co feeding from birth

[Rowanhart]

Im going back to work after four months and after reading experiences on here I'm worried baby won't take a bottle. Works 40 mins away so DM (retired as a teacher this year-handy!) wouldn't be able to bring her down if she doesn't.

So I'm wondering given the timeframe whether co feeding from birth would be the best solution. Any one wise done this and what were your experiences?

Thanks..

I mix fed dd after a couple of weeks of her being born. I used breast flow bottles which reduced the risk of any confusion. They worked pretty well. I mix fed until she was 8 months old.

You are supposed to leave it a few weeks before introducing a bottle, in order to establish a good milk supply. It might even be more than a few weeks, I cant remember, although 2 weeks was ok for us.

You might want to discuss your plan with a BFC before baby arrives. I'm not trained but see lots of threads on here when baby once took a bottle and now refuses, so mix-feeding from birth doesn't seem to guarantee them always taking a bottle IYKWIM.

rowan, to be honest this is not a good idea. Bf doesn't get a good chance to establish itself if you are using bottles from the start - most likely result is you end up fully ff very quickly.

If you don't even need to use bottles until your baby is four months, then it makes no sense to do so at birth - if your baby is a 'bottle refuser' even at 4 mths she can use a cup and you can bf when you are with her. Bottles are more efficient than cups at 4 mths, but it's still a possibility. In any case, your baby might be fine with a bottle.

Do call any of the bf helplines and talk about it.

I'm sure I read that you should wait 6 weeks before introducing a bottle to make sure bf and milk supply established.
Fwiw, DS was a bottle refuser til I went back to work at 8 mo. nursery and mil got him taking 1-2oz of expressed milk at first and now he happily drinks several oz with no fuss. He has never took a bottle off either me or DP though

I used some expressed bottles from 2 weeks. Using expressed milk rather than formula meant that my supply was not being compromised and it made sure he would accept a bottle. He now takes ebm or formula if he is being babysat by someone else (4 months old) but we didn't introduce any formula until about 7 weeks.

Give yourself a good chance to get a good supply established, perhaps have a bottle of expressed milk a day from 2 weeks or so so you can go to bed early and your partner can give the late feed. If you get on with expressing then you can continue this when you return to work if it is possible to do so with your job. If not then at least you will have built up a good supply at the start and you can start introducing formula from about 6-8 weeks or so. That will give you plenty of time to drop two or three breastfeeds a day by the time you go back to work. Remember you do have the legal right to have time to express milk and a place to store it at work.

Three of my friends have mixed (bf, expressing bm/bottle and ff) pretty much from birth and all have been fine - no "nipple confusion".

On the other hand, a friend who took the "no bottles before 6 weeks" advice had a hell of a time every getting her baby to take a bottle at all and as a frequent feeder, she still couldn't have a night out at 7 months and felt very claustrophobic.

It's a fine line I think - all babies vary.

I mix fed from birth - a bottle or 2 of formula a night - no problems with supply or anything else and we're now at 14 weeks with the same pattern. I have heard though that they can still just decide to refuse a bottle one day anyway, you can never be absolutely sure! It also seems that no one can tell you whether you're going to be one of the women who can and do 'get away with it' or whether your supply will be affected.

I mix fed my twins from birth, not really by choice but because the hospital put lots of pressure on me to give a bottle. It's not an easy route - all the emotional issues of bf and all the faff of ff. You need to express for every missed feed if you want to keep supply up and avoid getting engorged.
Still bf them couple of times a day now at 9 1/2 months though.

I have to say I have found it an easy route - bfing was easy and my partner dealt with the ff faff. You do have the hassle of both but you also get the benefits of both. My partner's done a night shift since she was born so we've both had a solid chunk of sleep from the start. I've never expressed when we gave a bottle and it hasn't affected my supply. Didn't get too engorged either unless she slept for way longer than usual but that would happen anyway. My point is just that it's different for everyone and there's no way to know whether it'll work for you or not in advance. I wasn't hung up on bfing so if my supply had been affected I would've gotten over it. To me it was worth taking the risk but that's something everyone has to judge for themselves.

Yes Sioda is right, it is different for everyone - unfortunately my partner didn't do night shifts and I had two to feed so probably would have found it hard whichever route I took!

Thanks for the advice ladies.

I think I going to Bf for first two weeks and then try and introduce ff for night feeds.

I've still got a couple of months to go to finally decide though!

My wee one is nearly a year and is still not great with a cup. Please don't assume a cup is a magic solution. It might be great but it might not.

She took a bottle fine from about 3-12 weeks and then because BFing was going well we went a few days without giving a bottle and she never took another. If I was in that position again I would give a bottle every day once BFing was established.

I think it is a really good idea to talk this through with a bfc before your baby arrives.

The problem with giving formula for night feeds is that night feeds are very often important for supply as a whole - something to do with hormone levels being higher in the wee small hours. Also if you dont BF overnight there is a long interval between feeds - and long intervals are not great for supply either. You may get away with it but you may not....

The idea of keeping a baby used to bottles by using them early might also founder - I know so many babies where bottles were used for last evening feed and/or others for several months , yet at about the 4 month stage the baby suddenly stopped accepting bottle. II think this is not uncommon. I not saying this to make things difficult for you but it would be a
shame for you to mix feed from th off in orderto avoid bottle refusal only to end up with.... bottle refusal!!!!! a cup could be a good compromise at 4 mos if the bottle does turn into an issue.

What i has trying to say is that giving a bottle a day doesn't guarantee it will always be accepted. It may, but it may not. Your mum could feed from an open cup, not a spouty -type cup. Even tiny babies can usually manage it with the carer's help, obv :)

I agree - talk it through in real life.

Ff at night after two weeks is very likely to lead to early cessation of bf - those night feeds are crucial in those early weeks. It's just the way the biology of it works!