Is my breast feeding journey coming to an end?

[Youaremysunshine86]

My son is 4 months old and he has been breast & bottle fed since he was born.

I really struggled with breast feeding to start with but after around 4 weeks I really started to enjoy it. However the bigger he got the more bottles he started to have and now I only bf once or twice per day and the rest is formula.

I'm feeling really emotional at the thought that I might not be able to bf him anymore and wondered if I could get my supply back up by pumping and feeding again? Has anyone done this and succeeded?
Thanks xx

Wanted to post as no one else had. I've no personal experience of this exactly but I've EBF my DD (whose now 8 months).

Breastfeeding is all about supply and demand. The more you feed, the more you produce. If you wanted to try to increase then try to feed more often especially in the night. In theory it should work, in practice it can be challenging. Pumping can help a bit but not as efficient as feeding itself. Could you try starting with a BF then give bottle?

Either way, just remember that you've done really well to get this far and don't beat yourself up about it. Good luck.

Hi
Same as me -I have two girls each had to combine feed. At around 4 months for each of them we were in the same boat as you and yes I did feel sad. At 5 months they each started refusing the breast and again I was sad but couldn't do anything about it.
I think when you combine there does come a time when they realise (especially with me with my very poor supply) that it is more efficient to get milk from the bottle.
I let them keep going at the breast for as long as I could kept putting them on before formula feeds and when the time came and they stopped, yes I did feel sad. Now one is 2 and the other 7months and so great and I know I absolutely did my best with the bf ing.
Not really any advice but just my story. I hope it works out with the breastfeeding but if like me the end is nigh- remember how great a job you've done. You really will look back and be proud of how long you kept going despite the difficulties.
I got very emotional about it all at the time but now I really feel I did my best and hope you do too.

Have you heard of baby-led bottle feeding? It's a method of bottle feeding that mimics breastfeeding in that you purposely slow down the flow of milk, give baby small breaks throughout the feed, let baby suck on an empty teat for a few seconds - all to mimic the experience of breastfeeding and making baby work a bit more for the milk.

I had to combo feed my dd, and was able to get her fully on the breast in part due to bottle feeding her this way. She was much younger when I got her on the breast full time, about 10 weeks.

If you respond well to the pump, you could start pumping a couple of times a day and use that milk for bottles? Babies are more efficient than pumps, of course, but it might help up your supply a bit.

The most efficient way of getting your supply up, however, is just let baby spend time at the breast more. Offer the breast before every bottle feed, and see what happens. Have a lovely bath together, lie in bed longer, etc. Best of luck.

Thank you everyone. This is so helpful. I will try the bottle feeding techniques and also feeding him before a bottle.

But I will also try to be at peace with whatever happens. Thank you for sharing your stories with me it's really helped me feel more relaxed x