Advice please regarding mixed feeding

[Rtfairy]

Was wondering if anybody could help give some advice. My baby was born 5 days ago and I initially attempted breast feeding for the first 24 hours. However due to issues with the latch my nipples became unbearably sore very quickly and unfortunately I gave up and started to feed her formula milk.
Yesterday my milk came in and I decided to express this (managed about 1.5 oz) and fed this to my baby. So my question is will this be something I can continue ie formula feeding with expressed breast milk top ups or vice versa. Will she still get some of the benefits of breast feeding this way (have tried her on my breast since yesterday and she isn't interested).

Please can someone with experience of this advise. Sorry for any grammatical errors in this post, am currently extremely sleep deprived. Thanks in advance

She will definitely get benefit from it - any breastmilk is good!

Firstly, if you got sore in hospital, can you get your midwife to check your latch? I'm no expert, but remember to aim up towards the roof of her mouth, and get lots of the areola under your nipple in. If she only has nipple it hurts! Also, put Lansinoh on after every feed.

The issue with mixed feeding is that you may not stimulate your supply enough to continue feeding as long as you want to. Your supply will literally dry up if she doesn't stimulate it regularly ie every few hours.

I would try her at the breast every time she feeds and top up with formula if required. Don't get obsessed with the numbers game - it doesn't matter how many ounces she takes from a bottle, if you can hear her swallowing breastmilk you have to trust she's getting enough. This can feel like a leap of faith so look out for wet and dirty nappies as they are a great sign baby is taking enough milk.

Also, time at the breast is not a great indicator of how much they've taken.

My DD latched at skin to skin, but then was cup/tube/bottle fed for the first 6 days. Since then we've been exclusively breastfeeding - a less than perfect start is not a barrier to successful feeding! DD is now 6 weeks and thriving.

I'm completely rambling now ... These night feeds are tiring!

Congratulations and good luck.

Also, you can continue to express and give bm via a bottle - I did his with DS for 6 weeks, but it is tiring and you have to express a lot, at every feed for 8 times per 24 hours to ensure your supply stays up.

I'd really recommend you get help with your latch and try feed her directly. Lots and lots of babies have no issue with nipple/teat confusion so give it a go.

You can definitely mix like this, but you can also phase up your breast milk slowly if you want. All breast milk is a good thing, and it sounds like you express well. My son spent his first few days being tube or bottle fed, and we didn't get to breast feeding until day five, when it was an unmitigated failure. I ended up sore and cracked and crying.

We had some help from the local breast feeding cafe on day eight, and over the next week, we worked it out and phased out formula. I'm not trying to tell you that this is what you should do - you should do whatever works for you - but I just wanted to let you know that it's possible. At seven weeks, he is only breast-fed, and things are going well. I wouldn't have hot here without help though.

Absolutely. You can mix feed either by time at the breast and bottle, or you can express your breastmilk and mix it in the bottle with formula. The important thing is that you must express as often as you can because your supply will drop very quickly, this happened to me after just a week of expressing :-(

Be aware that switching between bottle and breast at such an early stage can lead to nipple confusion. It doesn't always happen but be aware that is can, and you may end up with very sore nipples as a result.