does formula upset breast milk?

[Cuauhtemoc]

does formula upset breastmilk?

I have linked this thread over here for shazzaronnie. Will the wise women come in please?

i'm here! i'm havin problems, i give my dd bottles as she doesn't seem to get enough food from my breast as she screams always after a good feed so i express so i know she's gettin enough but my supplys get less by evening and i have to give her s.m.a y does it seem that dd isn't getting what she needs?

How old is she? Sounds like she's cluster feeding to up your supply. Don't express, just feed her - you'll make more milk like that. Any formula you give will upset the balance of supply and demand of breastfeeding. You DO have enough milk, but you won't if you keep giving formula.

but y does she scream after every feed and not settle but does with a bottle?

Ahem.......broperbonkers......

Broperbonkers is right though.

I'm not gonna be around for a little while, and hopefully someone else will be able to chip in. Shazzer, you need to give us a bit more info - weight of baby, age, what has happened in the past with her birth, feeding and anything else.

If you are giving more than just the occasional bottle, there will be an impact on your breastmilk supply....there's no getting away from that, sorry. The way to amend this is to make sure your baby feeds frequently and effectively from the breast, to build up your supply.

I have to go now, but that's the basics! You may need to wind the formula down gradually if she is getting a lot. Sorry can't give more details.

she's 8 wks weight of 11.6 and had fits so went back to hospital day after coming home in intensive care for 5 days and put on a drug for 4 wks so gave bottles in hospital as couldn't feed her while attacted to machines and with her tubes in her hand and stuff!! now giving her 5 bottles of breast milk at 180 mls then 1 formula and breast feed b4 bed??

Why aren't you breastfeeding directly more than once a day? Expressing and formula will affect your supply - expressing doesn't maintain your supply as much as breastfeeding directly will.

Try bfeeding her directly more often during the day - and ditch the formula completely. Express after a feed if you feel you want to, but don't use the amount you get to gauge how much your baby's getting.

dd was not latching on after infection and still doesn't well also she's had it and has a screaming fit during the next day as doesn't seem to get enough from me?

i agree with other comments that you would be better feeding dd directly yourself. a baby who is latched on properly can drain a breast much more effectively than a pump. following a good breast feed baby would normally appear contented and full, almost drunk looking. if she is happy and alert when awake and has plenty of wet nappies, you can feel assured that she is feeding well.
switching from breast to bottle will be confusing for her.
as tiktok says milk supply will be affected by supplemental feeding, but its also very important that you look after yourself, i know this is hard sometimes with a newborn. but you need to eat well and drink plenty of fluids as that can also affect your supply. trust in your body and know that you are doing the best for your baby. i hope this helps honey and i wish you well.

014777shazzaronnie, it sounds like you need one
to one advice from a breastfeeding counsellor. please, call one of their helplines. your problems sound too complex for us to deal with on the internet. i think whoever advised you to stop breastfeeding your dd because you (and her) had an infection gave you grossly wrong information. if you want to save your breastfeeding, you have to get one on one support fast.

if she is refusing to latch, try to comfort her in the bath with you. lots of skin to skin, in bed is also good. remind her that being on the breast is a nice place to be. but call the helplines.

nct - 0870 444 8708
lll - 0845 120 2918
abm - 0870 401 7711
bfn - 0870 900 8787

Are you sure its not wind? They don't get much if breastfeeding, but they get more if they aren't latched on properly and some babies take a long time to bring it up.

She could also be a bit lazy now as milk will come faster from bottle. You could try a haberman type bottle to gradually increase the strength of her suck, if you think that might be the problem. What teats are you using? Don;t like to advertise, but MAM ones are good as baby uses same action (with tounge) to feed, so its much easier for them to swap between the two.

Definitely call a breastfeeding counsellor - a supportive one who'll work with you to wean her off the bottles.

You definitely need to get back to direct breastfeeding if that is what you want to do.

Lots of feeding, skin to skin contact, always breastfeed first, one breast then the other and maybe even back to the first again. Definitely contact a Breastfeeding counsellor who will help with latching and offer better, more specific advice etc.

Expressing doesn't stimulate your supply in the same way as breastfeeding does and you don't get as much milk from expressing into a bottle as a baby can get directly from you.

Shazronnie, I hope you are ok and getting lots of rest and support. I would really echo the posters who are telling you to BF more to get the milk going. If you are only doing one feed in the evening, eventually your body will stop producing enough milk to do even that. You can build up your supply so that you can fully BF (assuming that's what you want of course ) but FF is counter productive to this.

You need to spend as much time as you can with DD in bed resting and with your clothes off. Just a nappy for DD and topless for you. Let her feed as often as she wants. Your body can make the milk that's ideal for her but by offering formula you are making it much more difficult. I was useless at expressing (often only got a couple of ounces when I had a full boob) but had enough milk to feed a very large and greedy DD when I fed her from the boob. Would definitely contact a BFC and see if you can get some advice face to face.

Hope this helps and that you have had a better day. Take care.

thanks for advice its a great help all. when also do u use solids is it about 4 months?

the current World Health Organisation - and Dept of Health advice is 6 months. Many hv's still tell women 4 months and there are threads and bunfights aplenty on mumsnet on this topic. just search the Weaning threads.

i exclusively breast fed by dd but only got to 10 weeks before she weaned, every baby is different. yours will let you know when.

sorry, before anyone gasps in horror i meant to type 19 weeks not 10.

How are you today Shazronnie? How is the feeding going?

Gracesmum I have just noticed the time of your post . Are you on a different timezone or are you up with LO all hours of the night!

dolly feeding going ok still wakin through night but never mind thanks

It is normal for babies to wake at night for many months for at least one feed and often more. Lots of threads on here about it if you search. It is hard work but it WILL end at some point.
Are you managing to feed her more often directly from the breast Shaz?

dolly p i am night shift worker and log on to mn in my breaktime.

shaz, have you been able to go to a breastfeeding support group in your area? they can really help giving you confidence and ideas of what is normal and what is not. also giving ideas of how to make things easier.

here are the links for the baby cafes and the nct which has local mum and baby groups. search the links for the ones in your local area.

also if you give more information in your post others on here could give you strategies to make things easier.

shazz it looks like you are getting plenty of the right advice but just wanted to add that I had to re-establish b/feeding after being away from ds2 while I was back in hospital and it CAN be done. In the beginning she will want to feed little and often as your supply builds up again (also plenty of skin to skin as everyone suggests to help with latching). With ds2 it took roughly 3 days, I had expressed in hospital to keep supply up (he was on formula as I was on bad drugs so b/milk no good) When I was off the drugs I started exclusive b/feeding straight away - no bottles in between at all - it took roughly 3 days of sleepless nights and constant feeding to get there but it can be done. Don't worry about not having enough milk - even after hours of feeding squeeze your nipple and you will see its still coming it will just be a little slower and your dd might be a bit frustrated but will not go hungry. Do check that she is latched correctly with top ip curled up and bottom lip curled down.

Also - you don't need to measure your breastmilk to see if she is getting enough - if she has plenty of wet nappies and poos and is bright and responsive she is doing fine. If you MUST use bottles we used NUK latex wide-teat bottles with a slow flow and there was no problem getting ds2 onto the breast again. Good luck. (just to add ds2 now 5months exclusively b/fed and feeds and sleeps like a dream - you WILL get there!)