Advice please.....mw says no point in mixed feeding newborn

[Magpie1976]

Hi.
Dd is 5 days old and has been bf and ff since birth. I found bf v difficult in hospital so a mw provided a cup for her with formula.

Since then I've mainly bf with a bottle at night and occasionally in the day as a top up. I'd like to continue this pattern for as long as I can manage the bf for. I'm aiming for at least a month but ideally more dep on how it goes.

I've had terrible experiences with bf before when I've developed mastitis and then a horrible abscess which needed surgery and my breasts have been lumpy since then. So I'm v worried about this happening again which means I'm not really enjoying bf. But really want to give it a go in the short term at least.

However when I went to my mw appt the other day I was told that as the formula had already colonised the gut there was no point in carrying on mixed feeding and I may as well just stop and do ff. I was really hoping there would be some health protective benefits as she still is getting a lot of bm but, with my anxiety, I don't want to keep on if there's no point.

What have other people been told about the benefits/ point of mixed feeding from birth?

Thank you

I don't know a great deal about this, but we had to ff as well as bf from day 8 for a number of reasons (too longwinded to go into). My little boy is now 5 weeks and we've finally (today!) had our first day of exclusive bf.
As far as I know, and certainly what I've been told throughout, is that any breast milk is better than none. It's not just the gut bacteria that will be getting the benefit but everything else too.
That being said, you need to do what makes you happy, because a happy mummy makes a happy baby, whatever he or she eats!
Well done and good luck.

I was under the impression that mixed feeding does give some benefits over ff alone. Your baby is still getting the important antibodies etc from your milk - formula doesn't stop that. Read this kellymum link - kellymom.com/ages/weaning/wean-how/weaning-partial/

I combination fed for 7 months as ds didn't gain weight with bf alone. Obviously the choice is yours, and its perfectly fine to stop bf if you wish to, but don't let an ill informed midwife make you feel like you're not giving your baby any health benefits from breastfeeding.

Congratulations on your new baby!

Fwiw that mw is talking shite.

The colostrum colonises the gut, not bf or ff.

Do exactly what you have to do to survive!

I mixed fed my baby after the colostrum and have had no problems.

You may need to consult a lactation specialist to advise on breast health and latch. Pumping also.

I’d ignore that mw.

She’s talking utter utter bollocks . I HATE this all or nothing black and white thinking and I have seen it end many a breastfeeding journey. Mixed feeding to various degrees is a great option for many.

(I’m a MW, HV, NCT teacher and worked with a lot of families from massively diverse backgrounds. I’m also a Mum - I ended up in ITU after my second baby and my baby was given formula - THANK GOD - and a MW told me it had ‘stripped his gut’. People come out with all sorts).

I'm no scientist but suspect she's talking shit. Any breast milk that gets into a baby will surely do it good. Suspect they won't promote mix feeding as they fear it'll lead to mothers giving up breastfeeding. I think it would actually encourage more.

I don't think this is true - there are benefits from exclusively bf, but mixed feeding is definitely better for your baby than no breast milk at all. My dc1 was initially mixed fed, then we gradually reduced the formula until she was only breastfeeding.

Also, if you are worried about mastitis the best thing you can do is to breastfeed regularly. It is when you don't breastfeed for a long time that the milk builds up, leading to blocked ducts and mastitis. Make sure you feed from both sides, and use different feeding positions. If you feel a lump then deal with it straight away by massaging with a hot flannel, and feeding from that boob. Good luck

This is utter bollocks. You are doing brilliantly breastfeeding and should be encouraged to continue. Do you have any breadtfeeding peer support groups near you? I found them so useful (and has mastitis and thrush but still feeding 17 months later). If you want to keep going, keep going 😊

I mix fed both dc for 6 months, right from day 1 as I didn't produce enough milk to bf alone. Bottle and breast at every feed. It worked fine for me. It was obviously a compromise that was more hassle than one or the other, but it was the best I could do.

Like with you, professionals were clueless about mixed feeding and had no advice about patterns / quantities. It's a shame as several friends gave up bf because they couldn't do it fully.

I've heard certain benefits such as autoimmune diseases aren't protected if you mix feed.

I had to mix feed both DD's.

DD 1 had a severe posterior tongue tie that wasn't diagnosed for 6 weeks so had to give her formula while I sobbed in pain and pumped to keep up my supply.

With DD 2 I had gestational diabetes so baby had to have formula as they are more likely for their sugars to be unstable, so it was medicated until my milk came in on the third day.

im sure there are still many benefits to Bfeeding for baby and mum, but it's very circumstantial. It the sense it can be damanging for some mums who struggle to BF to hear all the benefits knowing they're unable to. I definitely had some sort of PND because of my feeding issues first time round. I'm trying not to dwell on the bit of formula DD2 has had, it might have stopped her from getting poorly so I'm grateful for it and enjoying Bfeeding this time round.

The main benefit of my mixed feeding my baby (ebm and ff) was that it enabled him to grow big enough to bf. He later dropped the ff.

Without that mixed feeding he would have been 100% ff. Which would have been problematic when he had swine flu at 13m (kept nothing but bm down, not even water) and chickenpox at 24m. And I wouldn't have bothered trying to bf DC2 or DC3.

That mixed feeding led to another six YEARS of breastfeeding.

Mixed feeding rules. Every drop of bf counts. Virgin gut theory is extremely unhelpful. It's equivalent to saying if your child has one chocolate button you might as well give up on vegetables and just feed them McDonald's for the rest of their life.

@MrsHathaway awesome post! Love the analogy.

I mix fed for the first six weeks then moved to just breastfeeding out of choice when my milk supply was enough. My mother mix fed me until I was weaned. I topped up after every feed, my mother gave me a bottle at a set time every day. The Uk is very anti mix feeding for some reason but it is very common in other countries.

There are still benefits, the mw is entirely wrong about that.

However as i’m sure you know skipping feeds at this stage can be tricky especially if you have a tendency towards blocked ducts - if you want to keep the bottle a day i’d be inclined to stick to just that one bottle at the same time every day for now & and try to bf on demand the rest of the time to get feeding well established.

Hope that eases your anxiety a bit - if you have any feeding groups, breastfeeding counsellors etc near you maybe just give them a call to talk it through

Bollocks.

Give baby what breastmilk you have whilst maintaining sanity.

@betterbemoreorganised yes I agree with that. I worked as a MW in a very culturally diverse city and lots of women from other countries mixed fed through difficult periods of time (exhaustion, illness, struggling baby, or ‘just because’) and I honestly never saw it not work.....in fact it increased longer term breastfeeding. But in the UK it’s seen as a big no no). Clearly that’s hardly a clinical trial but all the same I feel it’s valid....

For a full term healthy baby, the benefits of breastfeeding are pretty trivial anyway. If mixed feeding works for you and your baby, go for it. If you want to move exclusively to one or the other, go for it. Your midwife is ill-informed and seems to be basing her practice on rubbish spouted on the internet rather than evidence.

Don’t think it’s true about autoimmune problems .......

I bf all four of my dc till 4.5yrs/2.5 yrs/2 yrs and 4 yrs

They all have various autoimmune conditions the most serious being type 1 diabetes. Dc1 was weaned at 4 months as per advice then and the other three at 6 months. All also have allergies
I had to start mix feeding dc2 with neocate at 5.5 months.

As far as I’m concerned mixed feeding isn’t given the credit it deserves. It should be be bf or ff. mixed feeding should be an equal option. In a lot of cases I think it could actually help to boost bf rates as any breast milk is better than none! It give the opportunity for mums to have a rest if needed and I’m those early days when you have shredded nipples it would be a godsend just skipping a feed letting them heal a bit and then carrying on next feed. I have a few friends who successfully combined bf and ff and in all honestly I wish I’d done the same

Thank you so much everyone for your replies...feeling really emotional now. And so much better. I'd never heard of virgin gut theory before and if I had I'd have tried a bit harder with bf in the hospital despite the pain. So glad to hear other ppls experiences of mixed feeding. Sometimes you're made to feel like the only one. Thank you x

I mixed fed after ds was rushed to hospital at 48 hours old and then needed fed ASAP so was given formula. After that it worked out great to be honest. Formula feeding means someone else can feed. And breast feeding means no faffing with bottles and measuring in the middle of the night. The HV visitor said he’d get nipple confusion, he didn’t. He decided he’d had enough of bf at 5 months. I would always try and mixed feed.

Keep doing what you are doing love. It sounds like it is working well for you. I believe more support is needed for women to breastfeed and/or combination feed. Just ignore her.

I think the thing about one ff stripping the gut of good bacteria is old advice, but it was certainly something I was taught in midwifery training (10/12 years ago).

Even if it was true, there’s a lot of other benefits of breast milk which mixed feeding would still convey.

The virgin gut theory is all very well but I’m
sceptical. It sounds amazing but the experience I had makes me doubtful. I think with dd2 (she bf from birth and never even lost weight and was weaned at 6 months) but out of them all she has the most issues so I truly think it’s hyped up.
No doubt bf is really beneficial but I think some healthcare professionals are a bit militant about it to the detriment of the mh of new mothers.
Mixed feeding sounds like the ideal to me

Ds had one cup of formula when he was a day old - he was premature and his blood sugar dropped too far. Other than that he was breastfed for two years... I really don't feel like that one cup of formula ruined everything!

Having heard the "virgin gut theory" and gone to pubmed to actually check the scientific references I can tell you it is a load of rubbish. There was not one decent scientifically sound study to back up the idea that small amounts of formula actually harm the gut. Most of the bf studies show continued bf of any type continues to provide immune protection. Generally the degree of protection is linked to the proportion of milk intake that is bm - driving the recommendation that exclusive bf gives most immune protection but mixed feeding definitely continues to give some. Small amounts of ff do not wipe out bf benefits. Totally agree with posters who have said, continue with what's working for you; that's the ultimate arbiter. If it's going good for you, this is a successful feeding relationship!

Virgin gut theory is absolute horse manure. It was invented by a mummy blogger with absolutely no science to back it up. Please do not give it a second's thought. It is literally nonsense.

If you and your baby are happy, and if the baby is gaining an appropriate amount of weight, then do exactly what you are doing.

In any case, I think feeding method has minimal outcome on anything, as long as the baby is getting enough. I mixed-fed both of mine. If it helps reassure you any, I moved country when my child was 11 months old, his new doctor (a paediatric specialist) took an enormously detailed history but guess what she didn't ask me - whether he was or had been breastfed or not. That should tell you something.