feeding formula at night

[bruhaha]

can i formula feed during the night? i bf during day and express as my son needs to get infant gaviscon for reflux. just spent the last 2 hours feeding, him falling asleep and then him crying for more, feeding him again etc until now i have given him formula and he seems to have settled. i'm starting to lose the plot and verging on completely formula feeding. he is 10 weeks old but was 8 weeks premature. does anyone else bf during day and ff at night?

I don't, but a huge amount of people do. I think better to do that than give up bf altogether.

can you express more? what about mixing a bit of formula and expressed milk and also gaviscon?

My ds was on infacnt Gaviscon for a year and with his reflux keeping up bf was really hard but you have made it to 8 weeks and the toughest part has passed now. IT will get better I promise.

The problem with ff through the night is that is when your milk production is at its best so missing out the night feeds can affect your daytime supply. HE was 8 weeks prem as well so he is still probably at the stage of a younger baby.

Feeding a baby with bad reflux can be such a hard slog at times I know that and in all honesty I was glad I never had the extra work of bottles on top of the reflux. I ff DD and when I look back on her feeding -and she was a very laid back little girl- I thank god I managed to bf ds because I didn't have the extra hasle of bottles on top.

you can, but it might affect your supply, i thikn more prolactin is produced at night, and as it is still early days, you might need to feed at night still to make sure your supply is in line with baby's demands.

if he was 8 weeks prem, then essentially, is he not still considered a new born ? i might be wrong about that.... he might be having a growth spurt in which case it is really importnat to put him to the breast a lot so supply is boosted, and also, his tummy will still be so small, so frequent feeding is to be expected.

have a look at the kellymom site, or google jack newman for excellent BF advice

ds is feeding every 2 hours then i have to hold him upright for 30 mins because of the reflux. he is getting 3 bottles a day with expressed milk and i'm expressing at least 3 times a day - i don't think i have the time to express more.

he won't take the gaviscon in water or from a syringe - so i am spending my day sterilising, expressing, feeding and changing him.

ineedacleaner - how did your lo take the gaviscon? also did he groan and grunt a lot?

developmentally he is considered 2 weeks old because he was prem - although i don't know if that includes feeding as he takes the 115ml of ebm that the gaviscon has to go in to.

Yeah, he groaned, grunted, burped and coughed a lot. I believe the grunting was to do with the sickess he was kind of pemenantly congested with it.

He took the Gaviscon eventually off a spoon with water. Another thing I did was he would take a bottle and it was such a small volume of milk/water that it needed to be mixed with I never bothered expressing for a full bottle each does I just tended to express in the morning and use that to mix the Gaviscon then fed him as normal.

I totally know how you feel I did have so many wobbles in the early days but looking back especially as his reflux went on right up until he was the year I am so glad I never added anything else to the mix. We went on to feed for 15 months in the end because it really did get so much better.

If you are finding the keeping him upright after you don't have to actually sit and hold him, a bouncy chair, the pram or a sling are all ways of doing it just obviously keep an eye on him in case he is sick.

I personally think 2 hourly feeds in a baby that is essentially 2 weeks old is pretty good and I would cut out most of the expressing and bottle making and just put him to the breast when he needs it and keep the ebm for mixing with Gaviscon.

My ds2 (11weeks) is just about sleeping through at night. so i'm going 6ish hours at least without doing a bf - this has had no effect on my supply. so surely ff at night would have exactly the same effect - that is none!

Good luck - reflux is pants!

The difference between ff feeding at night and your baby starting to sleep all night is that your baby has "chosen" to sleep all night and your supply has adjusted accordingly to the babies demand but ff through the night the baby is having feeds the breasts don't know about so the supply is adjusting but not to the baby's needs if that makes sense. The amount of milk your baby takes from the breast through the night can and does makes a difference to daytime produciont.

bruhahah, a baby born at 32 weeks is gonna have led to a of anxiety and stress for you, and you have done fantastically well to have maintained bf throughout these challenges.

I am not going to say much here, except to say a talkboard is not really the answer for you....you need to speak to a support person, probably see them, over a period of time, and this should be someone you like and who knows about bf.

What you are doing now will lead to full formula feeding, that's for sure, and giving formula at night will speed this process. If you are ok with that, then there is no real issue. If you are not ok with that, then you need to get real life help to turn it round. You can call one of the bf support lines or if your midwife is a good one, she may be the person.

Hope this helps and you end up doing what you want.

thanks for all the help. i think i had a bad night tuesday. I'm going to persevere and try giving the gaviscon on a spoon or try the syringe again. I still want to bf as i do enjoy it - i just wish he would sleep longer in between. I went to bf support class yesterday and they said the same thing - he is really only 3 weeks old tomorrow and to keep trying.