How much to feed FF & EBM

[Spindelina]

DD is mixed fed - currently breast followed by ff top up (400ml in 5 bottles per day).

At about 6 months, she will need to be bottle fed 3 days a week, while I'm working. Two of those days will be at nursery, and one with dh.

I plan to pump at work. Anticipating getting enough for one day each week. Easiest would be dh feeds ebm / nursery feeds formula.

But bm is higher calorie/ml, right? So will we be OK putting the same quantities in the ebm and ff bottles - so some days she'll be underfed and some overfed, with it balancing out in the end?

Don't know on that one sorry, but hopefully this will bump for you.

How old is she now? Will you be weaning her onto solids soon? Depending how she takes to that and whether you do purees or BLW, her overall intake may drop anyway.

I would just express for the length of time that you normally feed her and see what you get. And your DH or the nursery will just have to offer more/less formula as necessary if she still seems hungry or doesn't drink it all

She's 3 months now, so this is more me musing that an immediate crisis.

I breast feed her every 2-3 hours for 45 - 60 mins, so I won't be replicating that at work! Although I'm sure things will change by then. My aim in pumping is to be comfortable and to maintain my supply, rather than to get a certain amount. Hoping to BLW - who knows how that will go!

Thanks for your replies.

Ah we'll you have plenty of time. Could you start expressing so that (1) you know how much you'll get in say 20mins and (2) to build up a freezer stock?

How old will she be when you return to work Spind?

When I was expressing in an attempt to build supply, I was getting about 40ml total. I expect to get a bit more when I do it more than an hour after bf, but we'll see. Like I said, I'm not doing it to get Xml. And I'm not particularly bothered about having a freezer supply, so I'd rather spend my time elsewhere.

Current plan is to start back at work at 24 weeks. We're going to have that, starting weaning and Christmas very close together. I'm not keen on early weaning, so plan to stick to bm / ff until at least 26 weeks.

Another question: how do you know when a baby has had enough from a bottle? She always finishes the (

I'd really ring one of the helplines and discuss your return to work plans, you don't want to go back and develop mastitis, just like I did

As for the quantities, I still don't know what the recommended amount is for mix feeding but formula is 20floz per day from 6 to 12 months, however a bf baby usually takes around an ounce an hour on average, so again I think you Are best speaking to a BFC. Have you got the helpline numbers?

Mastitis: been there, done that. Got it straight after we started the top ups the second time (surprise surprise). Definitely want to avoid that again. Thinking of expressing three times/day (when I get there, lunch time, and before I leave) for a start. Need to discuss private room to do this in - guessing very male-dominated workplace won't have a clue!

My experience with BFC is that they know very little about mixed feeding & formula (see other thread!). So not sure ringing helpline is going to be helpful on the how-much-to-put-in-a-bottle front, but might be useful on the how-to-avoid-mastitis front.

In lieue of any evidence to the contrary, I think we're going to go with dh feeding whatever ebm we have, plus formula as required. Will have a guess at how much we should put in the bottles, and see how it goes. Will tell nursery to fill bottles to the same level with formula (and give them any ebm we have by some freak left over). And if she's settled and gaining weight then we'll stick with that plan.

Am slowly reconciling myself to the lack of owner's manual!