Combination feeding expressed bm and formula

[Petasmith84]

My baby is 3 weeks and 3 days old, we have been breastfeeding only but it was getting to much and she wasn't happy or settling so as of yesterday we moved to formula, sma comfort 4oz each bottle every 3/4hrs approx. longer at night. However i am still expressing as hope to mix breast milk expressed and formula but what's the best way to go about it? Today she has had one 4oz formula bottle first thing, and 2oz of expressed milk this morning which she seems satisfied with. I have made a formula bottle in case the expressed wasn't enough - so far she hasn't requested it

Peta, best way to keep up combinaton feeding is to ensure you are expressing often enough to maintain a breastmilk supply - this means 8 x in 24 hours as a min. It's very time consuming, no doubt about it.....would you consider doing some of the bf 'direct' so you could do fewer expressing sessions?

It sounds a lot of formula - risk is that this takes the place of bf, and she does not want the ebm (and this is not likely to help you want to express with the needed frequency!).

Have you got a HV or midwife you can talk this through with?

One option would be to continue bf for the moment, keeping formula to the minimum, as that would preserve your bf for longer.

Thank you for your reply.

I understand breast is best but there really is very little information out there for combination feeding if wanting to express. Unfortunately breastfeeding wasn't working for us.

I am now tryin to give my lo 4oz of expressed breastmilk followed by formula should she want it during the day (so far she doesn't always) then 4oz of formula in the evening (well that's the plan although she wouldn't settle until she had an extra 1/2 oz last night!)

I'm expressing every 4/6 hours for about 5mins each side, which probably isn't often enough but getting about 8/9oz each time, which seems to be ok at the moment. I plan to continue until it stops, hopefully not too soon.

I'm going to get lo weighed Monday so will ask hv then :)

Any further advice welcome