Would you have formula in the house?

[CherriesInTheSnow]

Am 34 weeks pregnant now and have finally (after much internal irrational anxiety) decided that I do want to try and exclusively breast feed my DS, who is my second baby. I had up until today planned lots of complicated/convoluted routines to either pump, use nipple shields or combi feed, and a big part of me was just assuming I would go straight to formula.

I've now had a bit of a mental breakthrough and am just wanting to stop complicating things for myself and give breastfeeding a go. My question is, would you have formula ready at home as a backup? My my mum brought me a big tub of formula after I came home with DD and I very quickly turned to it when I started struggling as I just wanted to make sure she was fed.

For those with experience of breastfeeding ( I only lasted about 6 weeks of formula heavy combi feeding and pumping last time), would you recommend or advise against it? Should I just wait until if/when I need it, or is it stressful to not have in around as a backup?

No, I didn't buy any. Like others, I wanted to give breastfeeding a good go, and convinced myself it would work. And it did...it wasn't easy for the first few weeks, I had thrush, mastitis and a bleeding nipple, but it got easier! Good luck!

I never had formula in the house as a back-up. I did just assume everything would be ok, and luckily it was!

I had a similar experience. I wanted to breastfeed my first but had formula in the house just in case, and I did turn to it when things got difficult and ending up formula feeding after a few weeks.

With my second I didn't have any formula, knowing it was easy enough to buy in an emergency. I was determined breastfeeding would work out, and we're still going at one year old.

Naive as I was, I didn't think breastfeeding would be difficult and it wasn't. My issues were the nurses giving DD1 bottles while she was in SCBU but once we got home we got a pattern going and really it was a dream.

I thought second time around would be just as easy. The after pains (which I hadn't heard of) were horrendous. Having had two drug free labours I had to take painkillers to be able to feed. I knew that BF was way more convenient so I did thole it out. Had to give up at 5 months when I became very ill (unrelated) and switch to formula.

I'd say it's easy to buy formula if you need it but just be prepared for BF to be as much of a challenge second time around. But it's worth it just not to have the faff of formula and sterilisers and always having to be prepared. For someone as disorganised as me then BF is so much better.

Thank you so much for all your advice, support and well wishes, it has honestly helped me so much already

I have made a list of advice so far and DH asked me earlier if I wanted him to get formula in case (which prompted this post!) and I have said no for now!

I had a couple of cartons of ready made in the cupboard. I'm glad I did - first night home (night 2), ds cried from 8pm to 5am because my milk wasn't in. I caved and gave him 20ml of formula. It was almost as big a relief as when my milk actually did come in about 4 hours later. Ebf since then. Still bfing now at 23mo.

Yes, I did and needed it.

I breastfed all three of mine and didn't have a bottle or formula in the house. Fuck knows how I'd have managed if they couldn't feed. Part of it I suppose was my emotions around feeding and the fact that baby one staye din for six days and baby two for two days so if I couldn't have fed them myself the hospital would have sorted formula. Baby three came home same day and I was an old hand by then.

When mine did have formula, useful in cooking too, I bought the HiPP organic one which was lovely and creamy.

We had a couple of bottles of premade formula that came with teats you could screw directly on to the bottle so no need to buy actual bottles or sterilise anything. We ended up topping him up by syringe for a few days but have breast fed ever since and DS is growing very rapidly! You can get lots of support in the hospital and after from the midwives so hope it all works out for you

No i didn’t. And honestly i don’t think i’d have successfult breastfed if i had.

There were many moments in the early days where i just thought breastfeeding was too hard, and if i had formula i would have given it. I made the decision to send dh to the shop in the morning often. Then in the morning it didn’t seem so bad, so i thought i’d do one more day, and if tonight was so bad i’d definitely get some the day after.

In the end i bf for 18m. Once you’re through the first week or so it’s much easier.

Oh the only support i got from the m/w was a telling off for not having formula, and them constantly offering it every time they saw me bf.

Get altenative lines of support ready just in case your m/w are too busy to do anything other than offer formula if you have any bf problems.

No just get on with the breast feeding when baby arrives but have husband on standby to go to the shops for backup if needed - believe in yourself , give it a go but if it all goes ' tits up ' don't worry just switch to plan B

I got a couple of cartons when I got mastitus.. Baby was starving and I just wanted to sleep. Other than that Bfed till he was 2.

I am a great fan of breast feeding but do really worry that the pressure is too much on women if you feel this bad for it not working.

Just to clarify I don't feel bad at all for formula feeding; I formula fed DD and have advocated strongly on infant feeding threads before here that there should be no pressure on women, and evidence based research makes me feel that in our country there is little difference in breastfeeding and formula feeding.

I just realised in hindsight that there was actually no reason for me to have to quit BF quite so early, and that I did feel a lot of guilt at the time. Coupled with the fact that this is my last baby I would love to give it a real shot and learn from the mistakes I made last time :)

I would have a couple of cartons of premixed stuff and a syringe after my experience with DD. Midwife came round on day 3, she'd lost 14% of her birth weight, and, it turned out, couldn't latch (that this wasn't spotted in hospital is something we'll gloss over for now). I was allowed to stay at home, but told after a phone discussion with a paediatrition that we had to get milk into her. It was Sunday evening at this point - we nearly had to return to hospital to get some - someone at the hospital was able to tell us of a supermarket which was open and stocked formula.

We syringe fed DD for 2 days. Syringe feeding takes ages and requires a lot of concentration. If you're willing to do that rather than breastfeed, it'll only be because it's really necessary!

Babyblues, that's really poor advice! If you have a blockage you need to keep feeding to clear it so it doesn't get worse or turn into mastitis.

Your entire milk flow won't get blocked!!

I didn't have formula in for DC1 and I regretted it. I was in a right state both physically and mentally by about day 7, we ended up having to ring a relative in the night to drive an hour to get some to us. But - i got over that crisis in a couple of days and went on to EBF until 7 months.

Second baby I got the formula in but never used it.

My advice would be not to get too fixated on the "exclusive" thing. Just because you give a couple of formula feeds doesn't mean you can't continue BF if that is what you want to do. Good luck!

I would. Definitely. In fact, I think it is irresponsible not to. Without even addressing breastfeeding going well or not, post-partum is a high-risk time for mothers' physical and mental health and you could easily find yourself re-hospitalised in the first few weeks after birth. Often it is possible to bring the baby with you but in certain cases, it isn't.

Bu