mixing breast and formula bottle

[calcium]

I am currently giving my 10 week old daughter a formula bottle at the last feed of the day to help her sleep a little longer. I do find that sometimes this works but it also seems to give her awful wind which in turn wakes her up every hour. I am desperately tired and would love to know if this happens due to her not being able to digest the formula or is it just to us!

Given the time you posted this message, I can see you'll be tired

Some babies take in more air feeding from a bottle, there are some teets that are designed to reduce colic and you could try one of those.
10 weeks is too young for most colic medicines, but I found that a tummy massage with a little sweet fennel oil diluted in baby oil helped my boy shift his wind (he has a tendency to send it down rather than back up) though I don't know if it was the massage or the type of oil that was the effective one.
If you are uncomfortable about using aromatherapy oils on your baby the oil could be used to scent the room, and the massage done with plain baby oil.
Massage is also very soothing and generally seamed to help ds sleep better and longer.

I hope this is of some help to you.

Oopps, my memory must be going - just checked the Gripewater bottle, and it can be used from 1 month (I'd wrongly remembered min age as 12 weeks), though ds only ever spat this back out.

I didn't find that formula helped my ds sleep a minute longer. I think it's a myth, personally. Why not just breastfeed if that doesn't make him so windy?

Have to agree with Aloha - dd sleeps through the night at 11 weeks on breast milk. I did notice though that it helps if you're really patient in the evenings (so she gets lots of hind milk) - she feeds on an off for an hour and a half last thing sometimes.

If you want to stick with the formula though, tummy massage works and is even better if you also gently lift her knees towards her chest (midwife told me this puts pressure on the abdomen and so releases the gasses - seemed to work for me when dd had colic, though not completely)

Calcium - this is the downside of giving formula to a breastfed baby. The reason that babies MIGHT sleep longer is that it takes so long to digest formula milk initially. The more frequently the baby gets formula, the faster the formula is digested. It seems that what you are gaining sleep wise is lost in dealing with wind. I personally would stop the formula because ultimately it will decrease your own milk supply. It may also be that your baby is cow's milk intolerant hence the awful wind. Have faith - exclusively breatsfed babies sleep all night too

calcium, my DS2 is very windy after EBM out of a bottle. I would agree about keeping on breastfeeding if that doesn't make her so windy, although like you (DS2 10 weeks also) am waiting for the magic time I can rely on him to sleep all night!

thanks everyone, I am trying the massage but will add the fennel oil (janeway)

Interesting that none of you seem to think that formula makes the little ones sleep any better. do you think what we eat effects the breast milk therefore giving her wind??

Sleepless nights seem to be getting worse, I am taking her to see a Cranial Osteopath today so will let you know how it goes.

Calcium - do you take her off one breast to give her the second? Sometimes babies troubled with wind are best to feed from the one side only to get more of the fatty hindmilk. You could try feeding her and when she stops, wind her and put her back on the same breast.

I would cut out the formula initially and if she is still troubled with wind you could examine what you eat and see if there is a link. A lot of babies are troubled for the first 3 months then it resolves on it's own. Your baby may also be having a growth spurt and may need feeding more often to increase your supply. A good book to get is 'Breast is Best' by Andrew and Penny Stanway. You can find the answers you need easily and it is available at Amazon books online.
Good luck in finding a solution.

We found infacol helped (although I'm not sure if that was just making us feel better!) and also massage.
I'd echo that last feed at night breastfed does take a long time - I'd be spending nearly 2 hours at that stage, but she did nearly sleep through by 12 weeks (not any more at 10 months but that's another story).

If you are determined to stick with bottle of either formula or breastmilk for reasons that someone else can feed, I'd recommend variflow teats as stopping the baby take in too much air and we use some fantastic bottles called anti colic bottles (only available in Asda at the mo) which stop the teats from collapsing.

Our dd had terrible colic & we found the Dr. Browns natural flow bottles compltely brilliant. You can get them from Mothercare. www.naturalflow.net

Our ds had intermittent but terrible trouble with wind up till about 12/14 weeks even though he was exclusively breast fed. I eventually found a link to garlicy and spicy foods - the very things that brought on heartburn during the pregnancy. Cutting them out seriously reduced the frequency & severity of the problem.

Mears advice sounds good to me - if the bottle isn't doing what you'd hoped i.e. helping you both sleep longer, then perhaps taking a step back to breastmilk (not meant to mean anything retrograde) will allow a chance for things to be investigated - and at least you can do it lying down or even asleep!

On the formula helping babs sleep longer issue - ds is now 25 weeks and mixed fed (solids, formula & breast) I've not noticed that he sleeps longer after a formula feed - it generally knocks him out sooner as he can down a tummy full quicker, but a good draught of hinde milk lasts just as long.