Giving a bottle - as well as breast - as early as possible

[SleepBecomesHim321]

Morning all, this has been asked a gazillion times (so feel free to direct me to other threads if easier as I'm struggling to find an answer myself) but I'd appreciate some advice.

My second child is due in Jan and we'd like to do mixed feeding this time. I breastfed my first but ran myself into the ground with it, and did try bottles of breast milk but it was too late to be acceptable! This time, I'm determined to give the bottle a better and earlier go. I had a good supply last time.

I'd still like to stick to breast milk so would plan to express once per day for one bottle feed per day.

My questions are:

• From personal experience (not necessarily the NHS guidance of 6-8 weeks), when is it best to try first bottle? Is there a 'too early'?

• What's the best feed (time of day) to substitute for a bottle, in terms of supply etc?

• Is it best to express the day before for the next day's bottle?

• Finally, what are the best bottles to try? MAM anti colic?

Many thanks in advance.

I always advise starting bottles as early as possible. Dd had one from a few days old (Medela bottles that came with the pump) and we never had issues with nipple confusion / refusing.

Dd’s Dad gave her an evening bottle when she was in the throes of cluster feeding so I could get a couple of hours sleep. I then fed overnight to make sure I kept my supply up.

I found expressing easiest early morning, so would try my hardest to express a bit off before dd needed a feed, or just after. I never replaced a feed with expressing as such, so my supply stayed high.

Best bottles I found were the medela ones, although the nipples are quite stiff so some babies find them hard to use. The Minbie teats are really good also. You might have to try a few that baby settles with well. Remember to try use the slowest flowing teat, otherwise bottlefeeding becomes easier than bf and can lead to nipple refusing!

My ds was in special care and tube fed for the first couple of days, then moved to bottle with formula. I wasn't able to start feeding him until about day4, and had to top up after each feed for a few days after that. I never had enough to express. Never had any problems and continued mix feeding until 6 months when we switched to bottle only.

I bottle fed mine within 10 days of birth with expressed milk and then I froze any surplus milk so that DH could also feed them and always had some ready for when PIL babysat.

My DD is two weeks old now and I've bottle & breastfed since she was about a week old. It has been a huge lifesaver for me as I was getting completely worn down and was just miserable.
I was advised to wait 6 weeks but it just wasn't realistic for me.
I will breastfeed pretty much all day, then my OH will take her from 9pm-1am and bottle feed her.
I will then take over and breastfeed through the rest of the night.

We also occasionally will give her a bottle during the day if needed.
In terms of keeping up your supply the only advice I was given from my midwife was to make sure I do the night feeds, specifically about 3am as this is when you establish your supply for the next day.
We use MAM anti colic bottles and my DD has taken to them fine.
I don't have any advice on terms of pumping as I give formula in her bottles.

Combi feeding might not work for everyone but it really has been the best decision for me. I couldn't have carried on exclusively breastfeeding.