Don't want my milk supply to slow down

[mower]

Have just started giving ds2 who is 17 weeks two bottles of formula a day.

Have ds1 who is only 17 months so give ds2 a bottle of formula while we are out as find it really difficult bf and keeping an eye on ds1 who is toddling around everywhere.

Also give one bottle at night as it makes ds2 sleep longer.

I love breast feeding so much and want to carry on for ever it feels like now but am so worried that giving these two bottles a day will cut my supply down leaving not enough there for ds.

Any advice??

Can you express to make up for the missed feeds? If it's being emptied out then you should keep making more. My mw told me today that the evening/night feeds are the most important ones to keep doing, something to do with having lots of prolactin at that time of day, perhaps you could express last thing at night before bed?

It all works on supply and demand, so if you are feeding ds2 say, 4 times a day, then you will produce enough for 4 times a day. As long as you are consistently giving the formula at the same feeds then there is no cause for concern.

Thats the problem I am giving his formula during the day at different times, but only one bottle. For example today he had it at 2pm but tomorrow I will give it to him at 11am as going to toddler group.

Do you think this makes a difference?

Can yo express breastmilk to take out and about with you? Also I have found that even say a 7 oz bottle of expressed milk will make my 18 week old sleep longer if DH gives it him before bed, because DS takes more without dozing off. You don't have to give formula if you don't want to. If you do then your milk wont dry up as long as you keep feeding him regularly. I do know that with my first 2 babies once I started introducing formual I ended up on a slippery slope giving more and more formula and less breastmilk. I regret that now.

That is a good idea stongteabag will start expressing for when I am going out then will just give one formula before bed.

Well I'm no expert mower, but I guess that tomorrow your breasts will be ready to feed at 11, so you may find that by 2 you are fit to burst, but then if you don't give formula until 2 the day after, I would guess that at 11 you won't have quite as much milk as you would otherwise have done. However, I believe that you actually produce milk as it is drunk, and you never actually run out of it, so I don't think it will be a problem, no. Just keep an eye on whether your ds is happy with what he is getting, and if he seems to be less contented, then try and throw in a day without the daytime formula at all, to get your supply back up.

mower, I think you are right to be cautious. It is not really correct that if you feed 4 times you will have milk for 4 feeds...it's more complicated that that. In the early weeks and months, and 17 weeks is still the early weeks and months in the great scheme of things, cutting down on breastfeeds gives the body the message 'stop making milk'....if you feed a much older baby/toddler, you can probably keep a milk supply going on very little stimulation, as personal experiences on these boards will testify. But at 17 weeks, you risk your supply dwindling and then disappearing....again as experience here will show.

Note I say 'risk' - this is not a certainty. People are individual in their physiology and some women can do what you are proposing and everything is just fine....they produce just what is 'ordered'.

You don't know what will happen to you. Wd it be poss just to stick to one bottle instead of 2, for the time being?

Oh thanks for correcting me tiktok. I did say I wasn't an expert , but it's amazing how quickly you forget the timescales for things. Now, of course, I can bf my 13 month old just twice a day and have plenty for her, but I didn't ever try to reduce feeds until she was eleven months.

Do obviously pay more attention to tiktok than to me mower!