Combining breastfeeding and formula

[ratfly]

Ds is 3 weeks old now. I must say that I am absolutely exhausted! With DS feeding every 3 hours, including during the night time, I have so little sleep that by evening time I am often a tearful wreck!

Recently, I have been expressing 2 feeds (late night ones) so my husband can take over to give me a bit of a break. DS has taken to bottle feeding like a duck to water (I think he will suck anything to be honest!). The thing is that I can barely find the time to express those 2 feeds (3oz each), particularly when DH is at work and I am having trouble settling DS. When the choice is between getting half an hours nap or expressing, I admit it is a difficult decision....

I would like to know if it is possible to combine formula and breastfeeding successfully? I would like to express 1 feed, and let the other late night one be formula. Has anyone had experience of combining the 2? What are the pitfalls, and did it work for you?

I am really sorry, Ratfly, but I think this is too early to start trying mixed feeding - your body will just get confused.

This bit is horribly exhausting whatever you do. It does pass. Really it does. It feels like forever, and you feel like you'd do absolutely anything to make it better, but it will pass. It will.

Just every 3 hours? Lucky you! Ds at 4 weeks is about every hour for the first part of the morning and the evening, every 2ish the rest of the day and at night....well.....nights are nights really they come in good and bad forms!

What I'm trying to say is I feel your pain but remember he is only a little baby, he is supposed to feed that much, he only has a little tummy and if you have him sleeping for those 3 hours between feeds at night then you are doing amazingly well. Make your dh take him out for a walk after work to let you have a bath/nap/general you time and relax, the goal posts will keep moving around (mine have moved a few times in the past couple of weeks) so just go with the flow.

hi,

my ds is 9 wks old now - i bf for 6 wks and then introduced one formula a day - it worked really well, I have now increased this so that it is half and half bf and formula. Now have to stop bf as on antibiotics but thats another story - you're very lucky ds feeding every 3 hours as like Indith says it can be every hour like my ds was and even now at 9 wks I am lucky if she goes for 3 hours!! Take care and remember it can only get better.
x

Hi Ratfly. It is possible to combine breastfeeding and formula, but I understand that the success of this varies. A lot of that depends on how determined you are to breastfeed, or whether you gradually allow the amount of formula feeds to creep up. Whilst I would agree that it's probably a bit early to introduce formula, I have to be honest and say that I did introduce formula this early for a whole raft of reasons (I found it very hard to express enough as well). But I was really determined to keep up the breastfeeding for as long as I could and I kept it going for 4.5 months.

I think the main pitfall of using formula for one feed is that you don't get the stimulation for your supply from that feed, which might mean that you can't build up or maintain a sufficient supply for your baby's needs. Having said that, it's not completely irreversible - at one point DS was being almost exclusively formula fed but I managed to get the breastfeeding going again for quite some time. One of the key things for me though was to try to express last thing at night before I went to bed. Then DH would stay up and give DS the last feed. In my case I used to give DS the expressed milk during the night (I had such severe problems I couldn't face bf directly at night). If you can manage to breastfeed properly in the night that's be much better.

I think you have to decide how important breastfeeding is to you in relation to the other issues you mention. If you really really want to breastfeed for as long as possible then it's probably not a good idea. And if you leave it for a while you might find you no longer need the formula - I'd agree that this time is knackering no matter what you do. But if you're more circumspect about it, and you feel you really need the extra rest (and you have my sympathies), then it might well be the right thing for you.

There's loads more I could say but I've waffled enough. Good luck with your decision, and please remember - it IS your decision.

ratfly, the early weeks are hard. Is cosleeping an option? It's what got me (and a lot of others) through the first weeks of constant feeding.

As others have said, mixed feeding is tricky in the first weeks. I've certainly read that most women who introduce formula before six weeks end up stopping breastfeeding earlier than they want to.

If your DS is having any weight gain issues, expressing for middle-of-the-night feeds isn't very wise, anyway, as nighttime feeds increase your supply more. Of course if his gain is fine, and all else is well, you can ignore this issue.

Oscar22, you can generally keep breastfeeding while on antibiotics. If you don't want to stop, you don't have to. If you want advice on this, start another thread on it.

"I've certainly read that most women who introduce formula before six weeks end up stopping breastfeeding earlier than they want to."

It can also prevent an exhausted woman from giving up breastfeeding earlier than she wants to though. Sometimes a compromise is what's needed to keep breastfeeding going - it saved my breastfeeding. I'm not saying it's right in this case, only Ratfly can decide that, but just that in some circumstances it might be the best thing to do.

Thanks for all your responses. btw ds doesn't always go 3 hours, it was just a generalisation..

having thought about it some more, i think i will persevere with expressing. at least then my milk supply should keep up with demand, just for now. I might follow oscars lead and perhaps try to add 1 in at about 6 weeks...

I think that as I am so concerned about it, perhaps it isn't the right thing for me yet..