Can a baby be FFed in the day and BFed at night?

[blueberrypudding]

I have to stress (without any criticism of mixed feeding or formula feeding whatsoever) that this is a last resort for me, personally. It's been a really rocky road in terms of EBFing but I had always planned to continue until 6 months - for the ease more than anything. I wanted to do formula top-ups at 8 weeks but at that point of time baby wasn't taking a bottle.

Baby has been on a bit of a nursing strike since Friday 13th and cries constantly on the breast, refusing most daytime feeds. I do manage to feed her completely fine at night. Initially she was refusing the bottle too but after a tongue tie snip at the end of last week seems to take it fine.

Most daytime feeds now goes like this: Baby shows signs of hunger. Baby is put to breast. Baby sucks for a few seconds, comes off and screams. I soothe her with a dummy. After another half hour or so, after calming down, baby cries at being hungry. I proceed to try and coax her to feed, but she cries as soon as she's put in position. She stops taking the dummy. I end up having to give her an ounce or so of formula. She then comes off the bottle, cries. Sometimes she wants to go back on the breast and does so fine, others she just cries herself into a state and refuses to feed anymore.

It's so distressing for us both, and I've tried cold turkey-ing her and only giving her breastmilk, but she ends up not feeding all day and getting very upset. I've also tried expressing but it's so tiring and I never know whether or not she's going to have to take the bottle or if she's going to go on the breast this time. I've spoken to a BFC and tried every trick in the book (changing position, feeding on the move, positional feeding) but she's just not having it.

Baby's now 13 weeks - will I be able to FF her in the day so she's not so distressed and BF her at night for the next three months? Or will my supply dry up to a point where I'd have to exclusively FF her?

I feel so desperate and really want to continue BFing but she seems to be making the choice for us. It's so heartbreaking to see her cry like this.

Sorry for the long post. Just at my wit's end and really need help!

Could it be silent reflux?

Mix feeding isn't a problem in itself. You'll produce milk when your baby needs it. So, if your baby drinks milk at night, your breasts should get used to producing as much as she wants then. You'd only have a problem if she lost interest in the breast, or slept through feeds, in which case your supply would gradually dry up.

It might be worth checking out if there is another problem though - as the pp says, silent reflux? Under or oversupply could cause refusal too. Are you feeding her in a different position at night? A Lactation consultant might be able to help?

I suppose your milk supply would adjust my ds (15 months) feeds about 6 times through the night and maybe only twice in the day sometimes not at all.

It's strange that you have no problems with night feeds?! What do you do different during the night, the room, position etc...
In theory if you can carry on bf enough then your supply will adjust to your babies feeding pattern how it is at the moment then if you can crack the day feeds you can go back to ebf if thats what you want to do.

Good luck its good that baby still wants to feed at night

DD fed very well at night. The daytime feeds were one long scream fest. It was silent reflux.

Link:

kellymom.com/health/baby-health/reflux/

Go to your GP, sounds to me like there is an underlying problem - maybe reflux or an intolerance to something in your diet.

I took her to my GP when it first started but he didn't seem overly concerned.

He said as long as we're getting her to feed in any way we can it was fine, just give her what she wants.

He told me that some babies suddenly decide they don't want breast and some suddenly decide that they don't want formula, we just can't know what they're thinking, but kids will eat when they're hungry.

We had/have this. My DD has been diagnosed with silent reflux - I understand that this is a classic sign. She's currently on ranitidine and things are improving, not sure we've quite got the dose right.

GPs are notoriously rubbish at this. And as you've discovered, you can't simply assume babies will eat when hungry - if something is bothering them they may not. Mine wouldn't. I'd try another GP. And have a google of silent reflux and see if she has other symptoms. FWIW my DD didn't shoe symptoms till about three months when she had a TT divided - her feeding gradually improved and as she took more, more quickly it became apparent we had another problem. I've been told anecdotally that this isn't uncommon.

GPs are crap with this. I saw 6 GPs in 8 consecutive days to get a referral to a consultant for DD.

I filmed an episode of feeding/screaming on my phone to show the GP. That did get us a prescription of Ranitidine which worked initially. Is your HV any good?

If you want to yes its possible, I did that with dd2 until she started sleeping through the night. If she hadnt started sleeping through I could have continued.

I think you'll need to wean onto daytime formula slowly though, otherwise at night you'll have leaky engorged breasts!