Combination feeding whilst maintaining supply!

[Ashmum0304]

Hi!

I’m about to embark on combination feeding my daughter and would love to hear other positive experiences/tips to maintain supply of possible.

A brief summary -
Daughter is 8 weeks old, has been slowly gaining since initial 5% drop from birth weight BUT is dropping through centiles, born 91st and is now just below 25th.

I’ve so far been against adding formula mostly because I don’t want to begin the slippery slope to a fully formula fed baby (nothing against it if truly necessary but for health benefits and my convenience wanted to EBF).

Doctor today was very vague on giving any more advice other than “you’re obviously not producing enough milk for her, give some formula”

Everything else is good with her, plenty of wet/dirty nappies, seems satisfied after feeds, sleeps well (but not too well as in no energy from lack of food), lovely bright happy baby most of the time, meeting developmental milestones.

She already has 3oz bottle of expressed milk of an evening which I catch with a haakka through the day. I really don’t think I’ll be able to pump - I’ve tried and only ever pumped a few ml 🤷‍♀️

I was thinking keep the evening bottle and add a bottle perhaps before a daytime nap so her usual breastfeeding schedule isn’t disrupted therefore not affecting my supply and still getting extra calories into her??

Sorry for long post, if you’ve made it this thank you!

Oh should add I’m in process of trying to get a face to face consult with lactation consultant to check she is feeding as efficiently as she can!

Hi, I could have written this post myself, my experience was so similar. So my DD is 9 months now, was born just below 50th and was exactly the same in that she was gaining but a bit too slowly so ended up between 2nd-9th by 6 weeks. She’s my third and after two unsuccessful feeding experiences, I really really wanted this to work and avoid formula if I could. Both my other children had tonnes of the stuff and are so healthy so I’m obviously not against it either, i just wanted to prove to myself I could do it this time.
Anyway, I suspected a tongue tie as my son had one too and I was in some discomfort still so had this snipped at 4 weeks.
Dd was the same as yours, content after feeds, sleeping pretty well but not for too long like you said. Good nappy count, well hydrated, alert etc it was just the flipping scales that didn’t seem to match it!! It’s so frustrating isn’t it. I used a Hakka too as there’s no way I’d have had time to actually pump and gave around 3oz/day to start with (think I did it in 2 x 1.5oz bottles to start with As was nervous of it affecting her feeding directly). I also made sure I fed two hourly during the day as if she was in the sling, she’d happily sleep for longer. This initially got her weight up a bit quicker but looked to be plateauing again so I used the Hakka as much as possible and ended up giving 5oz/day of expressed milk (think I did 2oz on a morning when she seemed a bit distractible and Didn’t feed as long And kept the 3oz on an evening). This then kept her growing along the 2nd centile until I started weaning just before 6 months. Incidentally her length was also bang on 2nd too so she was in proportion, just dinky. Have you had your baby’s length checked recently? I also found it reassuring that as she got a bit older, I could see she was meeting/exceeding milestones so being on the smaller end of the chart wasn’t in any way holding her back (which is what I worried about when she was younger). She was crawling before 7 months and doesn’t look far off walking now at 9.5 months 😱 .
Since I started weaning (BLW), she’s now between 25th-50th and I was able to drop the top ups by about 7 months. I found that as she was eating more and feeding a bit less, I still felt quite full by the evening so seemed counter productive to give her a bottle.
Sorry it was a long winded one 🤣, I’d have loved to have spoken to someone in a similar position all those months back as it’s worrying and frustrating. Definitely get some advice from a LC, doctors as educated as they are, know so little about BF on the whole. The LCs I spoke with at the time were so reassuring and encouraging. Let me know how you get on! X

Thanks for your reply - nice to know someone’s been in a similar position and it all worked out!
Started some formula yesterday.....will see how things go!
Definitely want to see LC, I’ve kind of muddled my way through so far with limited/no support given we’ve been on lockdown since she was born. A couple of midwives had a quick glance while we were in hospital saw her feeding and left us to it. I’ve always assumed latch etc is ok because it’s not painful but it’s dawned on me recently that if I’m shes not getting enough calories it could just be that she’s not feeding as well as she could!
Her head circumference and length are right at the top of the centile charts (just measured a couple of days ago) so she is a skinny long thing at the moment. I’m feeling a bit guilty now that I didn’t start topping up sooner 😕

My situation is a bit different, we are combo feeding because my milk was quite delayed and we had to give formula to start with. We've kept a bottle a day just for ease. I was told to try and bf first and then top up with formula, but I didn't find that worked very well because he'd often fall asleep feeding and we'd have to wake him up and it was hard to know at what point to top up. So after a few days I ended up just winging it a bit and giving a bottle when he seemed quite unsettled after bf for an hour or so. I would often hand express when he had a bottle and sometimes when he was asleep, but just let it run away - never got much. I figured any breast stimulation/milk removal helped. I never give a bottle at night or first thing in the morning as I understand that's when the hormones involved at are there highest. We still wing it quite a bit, give one, occasionally two, bottles a day at different times, sometimes he doesn't have it all. My supply seems pretty steady. Hopefully by 8 weeks your supply is already quite stable.