Mixed Feeding does it work?

[BeauticianNotMagician81]

I am breast feeding 2 week old ds4. This is the first time I've breast fed.

I suffered excruciating headaches after the birth. I've never experienced anything like it and they developed into migraines. I had one every day for 12 days. It meant I struggled to look after my other 3 children but luckily DH has been home. I went to the GP and they could find no reason for my headaches. So in order to get a break I introduced two bottles of formula a day. One in the morning and one in the evening. I started this two days ago and yesterday I didn't have a headache or today. Maybe just coincidence.

My supply still seems good. If I express I get plenty. When baby comes off the breast he has a milky face so obviously something going on and loads of wet nappies.

I just wondered if anyone else has successfully mixed feeds like this?? Has it affected your supply? My breasts are soft now and I don't get much engorgement but I'm presuming that's because they have settled now.

Hi my baby is nearly 6 months old have started her on solids and is on aptamil but only drinks like 3 ounces every few and isn't puttin on weight took her doctor they fort he had cows milk allergy and prescribed her milk but Wundt drink it doctor said he if she continues to put on weight and he hasn't anyone no what it could be x

I mixed fed from the start pretty much with my second. We started with one bottle in the evening but now do occasional other feeds in the day if needed. It works well for me. Means my dh can give one feed and let me have a solid chunk of sleep (my magic number is four hours. If I get that I can cope but if not I get very anxious and grumpy and really struggle). I don't express because it has bad associations with when I had pnd with the first and because I don't think formula is evil. I find it gives me flexibility and allows me to get support from others when I need it.

Yes I mixed feed from the start and DS has responded very well so did my DD.

Have a read on www.kellymom it's entirely research based breastfeeding advice site.

I found mixed feeding completely messed up my supply with ds1 and I had to stop bf before I wanted to. With ds2 we had a much better journey which I put mostly down to kellymom and local bf support

Mixed feeding can work. But you need to be careful at 2 weeks that they are feeding more from breast still. So I would only replace with one small bottle each day (3-4oz), for now. They say it takes around 6 weeks for breastfeeding to fully establish so if you want to continue I wouldn't formulae feed too much for the next month. Than can gradually add more if you want

I mixed fed DD. Mainly the last bottle at night, and the odd one in the day too. She was fine and switched between the two easily. I actually found she slept longer through the night after the formula so just stuck with it and in actual fact slept through from 10-6 from 5 weeks...bliss!!

Thank you so much for all the replies. Pleased to see its worked for most of you. We have a wedding to go to in a few weeks and children aren't invited so it would be really good if he was used to taking a bottle as well as breast.

I have a 5 month old and mixed fed from 2 days old. It has worked amazingly well for us although I think it really does vary from baby to baby.

We gave only one bottle a day (at night before bed) for a long time until my supply was established properly (about 8 - 10 weeks) and until breastfeeding became natural and easy for us both. I would worry that two bottles per day is too much for establishing your supply.

Also important to me was that if we gave any extra bottles during the day for some reason, I would try to express instead so that my body would get the signals 'milk is still required at this time'.

I've never heard of headaches from breastfeeding, are you hydrated enough? Especially in this heat. Remember to drink a glass of water or juice every time you feed, I found I was crazily thirsty for the first few months and that was in cold weather.

Mixed feeding was a lifesaver for us though - that little break each day has meant that at 5 months I'm still feeding rather than getting totally pissed off with it when it was difficult. Good luck and I hope your headaches resolve.

1,000s of NICU babies are mixed fed every year and do perfectly well.

My DS was born very early and spent 7 weeks in hospital before he came home. I couldn't drive for most of that time and had another DC so just couldn't be there all the time.

I would bf him once a day, express the rest of the day and the nurses would bottle feed him some times and tube feed him the rest. When he came home I bf all feeds except one tube feed, then all of the feeds a few weeks later.

It all worked perfectly well!

Oh, and when DS was in hospital I was really ill and exhausted and got behind with my expressing so the point where I went from expressing 120ml in 5 mins to struggling to produce 30ml. I was terrified I'd completely screwed up and lost my supply. But after a week had it back up to usual supply.

Mine was mix fed from day 2 and still is at 11 weeks. It works for us

Well I'm doing something right as the health visitor came around today and at 14 days he weighs 8lb 13oz. Birth weight was 7lb 6oz. Pleased to see it has worked for others too.

DD1 had a bottle of formula at bedtime from 6 weeks, DD2 from 4 weeks. Neither had any negative effect on my supply, despite all the stuff I'd read online. I bf DD1 for 9 months; I'm still giving DD2 one bf first thing in the morning now at 7 months (for convenience), but the rest of the day she just has bottles as she started biting me a while ago, and again it works perfectly fine. It really doesn't have to be all or nothing with bf or ff!

I mixed fed from birth as I wasn't great at breast feeding and I was never sure if DD had got enough. It worked for me. Midwives were very anti about it but you do what is best for you both. I tried expressing and couldn't. It's what's best for you both.

I mix fed both of mine from birth too, I knew I ran the risk of not having the best supply / not being able to BF exclusively, but I never wanted to so took the chance. Mine would usually have formula on a night so both DH and I could feed. Then I would BF during the day.
It worked really well for us, both DDs were very happy and healthy, never lost weight, slept brilliantly and I could get a break if I needed it.

I've been mix feeding since 4 weeks, my DS has one bottle a day before bed. It started at 4oz but now has increased to 5oz. He's been sleeping very well and gaining weight. I've had a hard time with BF (I use shields) so the FF bottle leaves the door open to transition on to FF if we had to. It also means that my mummy duties end at about 8ish as my husband does the last feed and bed, which is lovely.

I have found the stuff online to be a bit purist and not a true reflection of what people do, in RL there are a lot of mixed feeders!

I mix feed as well. Works really well. One bottle in the evening from 2 weeks old. So good, meant DP could help out in a pinch and he gets time to himself with her. We used to do one bottle at 6am and one at bedtime but have clustered them in the middle of they day so I can return to work in Sept.

I couldn't mixed feed due to over supply. If I missed one feed then I would have to express it out. If not I would get mastitis (breast infection). So just be careful.