How do you mix feed?

[Heatherbell1978]

After struggling with feeding 17wk old DS1 for about 4 weeks now I think I'm going to have to start mix feeding. He's just got fussier and fussier and has slowly clocked on to my feeding strategies and one by one they don't work. This last week I've not left the house so I can feed him in his sleep which is the only way he'll bf now. Today that didn't work so he's had a couple of bottles of formula. He still seems to be fine to bf during the night, early morning and sometimes at bedtime so roughly half his feeds.

HV advice the other day was that if he feeds asleep then carry on doing it despite me saying I was getting a bit depressed never leaving the house and working my life around his feeds. But now he seems to have clocked onto that too.

He loves a bottle and I need to stop battling with him. So is it sustainable just feeding this way without pumping? My boobs feel ok these days and stay reasonably soft even when missing feeds.

[PenguinsandtheTantrumofDoom]

No one can give a definite answer as women vary so much. But how many night feeds is he having? If lots, a 12 hour day gap is surely not that different to having a baby who sleeps through.

[violetwellies]

It's up to you but the more bottles you give the less likely he is to take the boob.

I think I'd just go out any way, it's not going to kill him to just feed at night, and if he's getting to be a very efficient feeder then he probably won't need the bottles.
Ds started off on bottles (mostly expressed milk) and moved onto the boob over a six week period - unhappily as he preferred bottles. But bottles are such a pita.

If he's hungry and asleep can you find a quiet corner whilst you're out and about?

[BertieBotts]

It's not necessarily true that the more you move on to bottles the less he will take the boob, some babies develop a preference (often thought due to fast flow, you can make the bottles less easy for them by sticking to the newborn teat size and feeding with the baby held upright and the bottle held horizontal so they actually have to suck and gravity isn't doing all of the work. Combine with breast compressions to make feeding at the breast easier).

The trick to successful mixed feeding is keeping the bottle feeds consistent and breastfeeding as much as he wants (and as much as possible to some extent) at other times. Boobs being soft between feeds is normal-ish at this point but I'd expect to find some engorgement/milk build up after a long gap like all day or all night.

When you say you've been having issues for four weeks, what changed?

I would definitely be tempted to go with it - BF at night, FF in the day, see what happens. It might be sustainable long term or it might not, either way you've still given him a good run and continued it for as long as possible.