Mixed feeding once milk is in

[Nightlights]

Does anybody have experience doing this? I'd like to give a couple of bottles of formula at night and BF at all other times. The baby is only a few days old so I'm worried it might be too early but as it's a supply and demand issue I'm also hoping I should be able to adjust to this no problem. Any advice/experience very welcome and thank you :-)

3/7 of my nct class have done this, even before their supply was in with no effect on their supply. 2 are now ebf and 1 still gives formula at night and bfs in the day. No idea if the commonly repeated trope that night feeds are crucial for supply has ever been evidenced either.

Love this response @Alyosha , thank you

I combine feed and it's amazing. As long as you do breast more than bottle it's fine. I make more milk at night but that's when she has the most. We do formula feeds during the day so that other people can help out and I can spend time with my three year old. I wish I'd combi fed with my first it's worked out really well for us.

I did it from birth and still going at 6months.

This info is making me very happy!

I did this for a while too. My DS struggled to feed at first so I had to top up with formula. I then breastfed for 3 months (it was a struggle but I kept going until I just couldn't anymore) but DS had bottles of formula last thing at night and through the day if we went out etc. Worked well for us. Switched to fully formula feeding at 3 months old but I would mix feed again next time! Takes the pressure off a bit.

Just a word of strong caution...breastfeeding through the night is crucial for supply, especially in the early weeks. That is when your milk-producing hormone (prolactin) levels peak and if the breasts aren't being stimulated then it can seriously impact on supply.
At the minute your supply is driven by hormones and will only fully establish with frequent feeds. Supply and demand doesn't start kicking in until supply is established.
It depends what your breastfeeding hopes are. Missing feeds so early on, especially through the night, could honestly mean no breastfeeding at all within a few weeks.
Is there something specific you're struggling with? Could you use some real life support?

Would feeding once in the night for the first three weeks be enough to offset the gap?

I should add I am feeding constantly In the day - doing absolutely nothing else but

No one can tell for sure what your body will let you do. Most need to get to around 750mls per 24hrs before your supply is established. Engorgement reduces supply whilst feeding and reducing milk available increases it. Before your supply reaches 750mls ish the significant gaps /low out put are enough for some women’s supply to start to reduce significantly.
It isn’t that night feeds are especially essential but rather that feeding needs to be spread across the twenty four hour period so the local action within each breast doesn’t reduce supply too far. In the first six weeks unless supply grows then your body can be very efficient at withdrawing it.

I introduced a bottle of f when dd was around 3 weeks old. The ff was at around 10.30 at night and I bf all of the rest of the time. I didn't feed her in the night as she didn't really wake during the night for several weeks. I bf her for a year when she decided that she really didn't want any milk at all during the day so was just left with her bedtime milk, which was cows milk after a year. I am really glad I mix fed as I got the convenience of bf during the day (and during the night when she reintroduced a night feed)but I knew she would take a bottle if I wanted to go out/time away etc.

If you’re planning on combi feeding please make sure you pace feed the bottles that baby gets - it mimics the milk flow of a boob so they’re less likely to get frustrated when boobing.

Yes @ClaraLane I'm doing that

@InDubiousBattle sounds great, exactly the kind of experience I'm aiming for

I did for dc1. He was fed a bottle of formula the day after he was born. He then got one bottle before bed and was fed formula only at night. While he was in bed I pumped once on either side to reduce the engorgement during the night as that hurt. Eventually I decided to pack the bottles in as they appeared to be making him sick and was able to do that with no issues.

Not feeding at all at night until he was around 4 months never impacted my supply, he weaned himself off at 13 months when I was pregnant with dc2.

That's brilliant to know, thank you @GummyGoddess

Do be careful, OP. Notice that @InDubiousBattle waited for three weeks before introducing a bottle and even then, I'd say her experience isn't typical at all. Most women would find their supply compromised feeding like this.
And @GummyGoddess pumped during the night which would have gone some way to keeping up supply.
It would be a good idea to discuss a this with a breastfeeding counsellor so you can really work out which way you want to go, are able to weigh up the risks and make an informed decision either way. Good luck!

Thanks @Chickchickadee555. At the moment she is feeding approx four times in the night. I think I will do the first and third feeds as breastfeeds for at least the next three weeks and then consider making the switch to all formula. My main aim is to breastfeed more and for longer than I was able to last time so this is all in the service of attempting to keep breastfeeding going. Really appreciate the advice - it is unbelievably complicated!

I haven't fed from 7pm-4/5 am since ds was about 4 weeks. Chickdee, I've seen this claim a lot - where is the actual evidence night feeds are so crucial? Yes prolactin might be higher but has anyone actually looked at supply and night feeds in some kind of study? Equally exhaustion from night feeding could plausibly hit supply!

I didn't pump at night, I pumped at 8 in the evening once he had gone to bed and that was enough to prevent the most pain from engorgement. He fed from me at 7ish before bottle and then not until 5-7 the next morning.

DC2 was EBF (now weaning) as it's easier than bottles once it's all established. I'd definitely recommend getting rid of bottles once it's all going well and settled down, so much easier!

I have a 3 week old and am combi feeding with no effect on supply... in fact I have over supply and can easily pump 7oz in 10 mins!
I EBF my first two and neither would take a bottle ever, it was exhausting and I was keen not to be in the same position again, so we’ve done a bottle of formula a day since day 2.

Oh and he doesn’t often feed between 10pm and 5am (either BF or formula) and that hasn’t affected supply either.

I second the suggestion to speak to a BF counsellor in real life to work out pros and cons of what you want to do, OP.

There is a lot of evidence that early intro of bottles of formula reduces the chances of establishing happy and effective and longer lasting BF. Obviously individual experience can vary, but we know, from both theory and practice, that night feeds are especially important in this. Missing night feeds means the breasts can go several hours without being 'used' - this is uncomfortable, even painful and even risky (mastitis) in the short term, and in the medium term it drives down milk supply.

Put bluntly, women who combination feed are more likely to have their choice to BF undermined, and they end up fully formula feeding. It's not inevitable, and some women manage it and maintain BF for as long as they plan to. But you can't predict if you're going to be in that camp....

Please talk it over, if BF is important to you. The health outcomes of BF versus ff versus partial BF have also been compared in a number of studies. Guess which wins out 😀😀....again, this is impossible to predict in individual babies, though. But one easily accessible study to look at is Quigley et al, UK Millennium Cohort, infant feeding (if you google using those terms, you should track it down).

hope this helps 😀

Doesn't the most recent evidence show that a prelacteal feed of formula is associated with increased duration of breastfeeding?

I take the point but one of the things I regret last time is not doing the mixed feeding because I was made to feel it had to be all or nothing. Actually i would have breastfed for longer if I'd been supported to combine. I'm keen not to make that mistake this time and to do the thing that will enable me to breastfeed successfully for a longer period rather than give up or cut it short.