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 :-)

Actually i would have breastfed for longer if I'd been supported to combine

Yes, this is how I felt. I know BF is best for the baby but honestly I really disliked it. I fed two babies to just over a year, mainly as neither would allow a bottle near their mouths (I stopped as soon as they would drink enough out of a cup) but it made me completely miserable. Especially after developing mastitis which led to sepsis and a stint in intensive care!
I already feel so much more relaxed knowing that I can give a bottle of formula, and think this will help me to continue breastfeeding for longer than I would have done otherwise. I know EBF would be nutritionally better, but I have to think of my mental and physical health too.

 @SoyDora

@SoyDora feel exactly the same

Alyosha I think you are referring to a small US study, that recruited infants who'd lost more than a certain amount of weight on day 3. Intervention group got small amount of formuka. Control had standard care. The ones who had the formula were BF longer than the standard care group.

This does not show that formula is a good intervention of course. Babies who lose too much weight by day three do well to feed more often and more effectively - this aims to stabilise weight loss and keep the baby hydrated. This can of course be done by hand expression of colostrum/breastmilk, and/or enhancing positioning for effective BF, and/or increasing frequency of BF. This was not part of the study. Formula might well benefit a poorly BF baby who's dehydrated and losing weight. But for the mother who wants to BF, she can be helped to BF 'better' without the formula.

As a result, suggesting that introducing formula is a good thing and helps BF, is a huge stretch. When this study was published, it received a lot of criticism for its methodology and its conclusions.

In any case, this is a prelacteal feed - not 'combination feeding'.

Sorry if I've got the wrong study.

Both of mine have had 1 or 2 bottles at night since 2 weeks. No problems except having to sleep with a towel down my top to soak up the excess (hate expressing!)

Of course any individual mother needs to weigh up effects on her mental and emotional well being, and her physical health - but she's also needs to know that formula introduction/combination may have effects she does not want.

No I think that is the right study. Unfortunately in real world circumstances few women will have access to excellent bf support right out of the gate, so seems to me feeding formula early probably would support bf in the long run! As exclusive bf on discharge is the largest risk factor for readmission... Anyway don't want to derail thread, so will leave it there!

Don't confuse US experience with UK experience, Alyosha. And as for risk factors, a major risk for a BF baby becoming a fully ff baby (with no bf at all) is supplementation in hospital (Uk figures), so supplementing in the early days needs to be done with care and on an individual, case by case basis, with mothers fully informed. I'll stop there too, so as not to derail 😀.

OP, hope it all works out well, whatever you do 😀

I started combi feeding at around 2 weeks. I was really struggling with my mental health as the pressure and lack of sleep was just too much.
It made the world of difference! I was managing to get a decent chunk of sleep, I made sure that the majority of the night feeds I did myself (particularly the one at around 3am as I was advised that's the most important).
My OH would have dd from around 8pm-12/1ish. Then I would take over.
It completely changed how I was feeling as things were getting pretty dark to be honest.
She was feeding every 40 mins/hour for the first month or two and I had sleep deprivation.
My dd is now 3 months and I am pretty much ebf! She may have 1 or 2 bottles a week max and those are just little top ups if she wakes up really quickly after I've fed her.
I know everyone will advise differently but in my personal experience it completely saved my bf journey. I would have definitely quit completely in those early days if I hadn't been able to have some decent sleep.
I didn't seem to get any information or advice on combi feeding. It seemed it had to be either ff or ebf. Which just isn't the case. In an ideal world I would have ebf all the way through but it just wasn't realistic for me.
I also didn't want to wait too long to introduce a bottle and then have a baby that refuses.
I hope that you find what works for you!

I know everyone will advise differently but in my personal experience it completely saved my bf journey

Yes. Having EBF my first two for over a year, I can guarantee that my third would have been entirely formula fed by now if I hadn’t mix fed from the start. As it is, he’s having one bottle of formula a day which gives me the mental and physical break that I need in order to continue BF.