Breast Feeding - Did you buy back up bottles

[GingerRH]

Morning All,

For those who intended on exclusively breastfeeding, before your baby arrived did you buy bottles etc as back up incase breastfeeding didn't go well?

I did and barely used them, my baby only took expressed milk once then refused so I've got 6 tommee tippee bottles just sitting gathering dust! I still think it was a good idea to have them though just in case, I'd just recommend not spending too much on bottles if you're planning on exclusively breastfeeding.

I did. And used them quite a bit. We had patching problems from the get go. And I used them for expressed milk as well as formula.

I did and also some small bottles of ready made formula. So glad we did as baby started showing signs of dehydration early on as couldn’t latch and used for a few days with expressed milk and formula until we got the breast feeding going.

Oops. Latching not patching.

Yes but not so much as a back up (I felt having a back up was a bit planning/expecting to fail, and I wanted to have a planning/expecting to achieve mindset) - I had them for expressing in case I needed to or wanted to go out without baby etc.

If you have a 24 hour supermarket near you, then the argument is you can always pick some up in the event that they are needed.

I didn't and had no intention of bottle feeding. But I didn't produce any milk after weeks of breastfeeding (no thanks to PCOS) and DC1 was losing weight at a dangerous rate, so I had to buy bottles and formula. Don't assume you will be able to breastfeed (I know that's the point of this thread and I wish I'd known that there could be a problem as 14 years later I still struggle to accept my shit body).
I learnt my lesson and the second time around I had back up bottles for DC2 when I had the same issue sadly.

I'm sure I got a free one from somewhere so I had one but never used it.

I didn’t and I didn’t need them for either of my boys (that’s not to say bfing was easy because it wasn’t but I didn’t have a supply issue). I bought some a few weeks down the line when I tried expressing (which didn’t go well)

I think if you don’t have any but need them it’s not the end of the world, while you are in the hospital they will provide them if need be, and if you have a 24 hour supermarket nearby then you can always send dh out to get one in an emergency.

I bought bottles, steriliser and breast pump. I hoped to breastfeed, but knew I would need support with feeding (had depression not long before having dd1 and didn't want to feel that it was all my responsibility with no chance of a break at all). My aim was to express so dh could do 1 bottle a day. I also bought 6 premade bottles of formula each time in case we needed them.

I ended up breastfeeding both dds for a year. They had a bottle of expressed milk every day for the first 6 months, then we swapped that to formula. I'm still glad I had formula in for the beginning, especially with dd1. It really helped when feeding was hard at the start to think "I'll try this feed, theres always formula for the next one if I need it." Nipple shields were also a lifesaver until we got the latch sorted, I used them on one side for about 2 weeks.

My parents got me a steriliser that came with 4 bottles as an incase. It was a godsend as we couldn't get breastfeeding to work (he distracts easy, chews and pulls) I've been expressing since 3 weeks, so for 4 months now and plan to do it to 6 months.

We did as well as a tin of formula. I wasn't that keen on buying either but my fiancé was so I went along with it.

This sounds silly but while pregnant I made my fiancé hide the formula so that i couldn't just cave in on a bad day and reach for it. Seemed like a good compromise to us as my fiancé was happy that we physically had some in the house but I still had my 'can't just be tempted by it on a tough day' thing which was important to me.

My baby never had a bottle or a single drop of formula at all in the end and still has one breastfeed a day now (16 months old).

Each to their own re. feeding / buying stuff but that's what worked for us.