Giving a bottle to breastfed newborn

[Jennifersox]

My son is nearly 4 weeks old. He's been ebf, having had a bottle of formulaon day 1 and day 3 when in hospital. I have to leave him with my mum for an evening next week. It's inavoidable but I'm so stressed about it. He normally cluster feeds between 7pm and 9.30pm then sleeps for a long stretch. He'll need to have a bottle of formula while I'm out but I have no idea how much to give him he weighs 8lb12oz and the cartons of Sma I bought says to give 3-4oz but if he's used to cluster feeding will be be expecting more milk? I'm not even sure he'll take the bottle at all and then it'll mess up his night time routine. I've only bought a couple of cartons of the ready made sma but don't know whether I should have a few more just in case. We don't live near any shops. Any advice? Help!

I should add my mum breastfed 4 kids and states she has never made a bottle of formula in her life and knows nothing about it.

Ive had 6 dc.

I would sterilise 4/6 bottles ( probably wont use the majority) just to be on the safe side & buy a few small cartoons of ready made formula.

If you buy & open a tin of formula, you will waste loads & it's expensive.

Hope that helps.

Hi jennifer, dd was ebf so I'm not speaking from experience but wanted to offer my advice. I'd personally have an extra bottle of formula there just to be on the safe side.

Also I think try and give him a bottle (or get your dp or mum to) before the night itself so you can reassure yourself he still takes one. You said he has twice before so hopefully that will be fine.

How long will you be gone for on the evening? If you feed him as much as you can before you go, your mum might be able to keep him settled just be rocking him. I wouldn't worry about his routine, it's only one night it won't affect him long term.

Are you able to express milk at all? The formula will taste different so he may find it easier to have expressed milk from a bottle?

I think the younger they are when you give them a bottle the easier they take it, with both DS's they didn't have a bottle til they were past 6 months and I needed to go somewhere and it was a bit of a nightmare to get them to take the bottle - ds1 I had to breast feed and slip the bottle in halfway through to get him to take it, ds2 wouldn't take a bottle and I used a dippy cup.
Dd on the other hand had a couple of bottles of expressed milk or formula a day in her first 2 weeks as I was really ill with mastitis and bleeding cracked nipples and although then EBF so was always happy to take a bottle of breast milk if I needed to leave her with someone. She also had a dummy the first couple of weeks but then never had one again.

I'm not keen on the idea of expressing although I know I should give it a go at some point.
I'll be out from about 6pm until 10pm so peak cluster feeding time!
Midwives managed to give him 1oz from those little glass bottles you get in the hospital but I have the tommee tippee nature ones and her hasn't had since day 3.
He takes a dummy every day (and will only entertain the big ones- wants nothing to do with the ones for bf babies!) so am hopeful he'll manage the teat on a bottle
I'll try him with a bottle today for practice. Wish me luck!

I'm sure hunger will take over and he will take the bottle. One night won't hurt. Don't stress he will be fine. As my midwife would say milk/food is being offered and it's up to them to choose to take it, to a point iyswim