Baby sick after formula - scared new mum

[Lanzy]

Hi,

I wanted to breastfeed and did for first week, baby was born on Christmas day. She was earlier than expected and when midwife done weigh in she had lost 12% they put me onto a plan of 20 min breast then 30ml formula. Life became stressful as had just hoped to BF but then latch difficulties and tiredness.

I done the plan for few days then it became overwhelming and MW brought express pump out as they wanted that on top of the above plan. When I seen how little and MW, agreed to switch to just formula of 60ml. I felt worried over stopping BF suddenly but was given no advice so stopped for day and done formula soley. Then next day boobs were leaking so put back on and formula feeds too.

I didn’t notice her be so sick with BF, but notice more so now that she is throwing up every feed. It’s like she guzzles the formula down and with BF I have very little so she is hungry after.

1. When she is sick do I refeed? As it’s been brought up
2. How much max should they be on? She was 5lb11 at birth and she is earlier baby
3. I like with formula I can see how much she is getting but the sickness scares me especially when she’s on her back. I’ve tried winding her and breaks and sitting her upright. She is on cow and gate ready made stuff at the minute
4. if I was to express soley do they get same benefits ie immune, lower risk for sids?
5. If I formula feed what tommee tipee is best and easiest for prep etc and what brand formula?
6. BF I like closeness it gives and benefits but very sore and tiring and partner can’t feed
7. any advice would be greatly appreciated

MW discharged. Health visitor says sickness is norm xx

Can't answer about formula I'm afraid but I breastfed and the first three weeks were really painful and sore but then it was fine and I think that's quite common so light at the end of the tunnel at least. Hopefully someone comes along with answers about formula stuff soon ❤️

It's pretty normal to vom up a bit with formula, it looks like more than it is! I'd expect a couple of mouthfuls of sick after every feed, very normal and there is no need to offer her more.

Drinking from a bottle is much easier than drinking from a boob so they tend to gulp it down faster than breastmilk and can get more air or just too much milk for their tiny tummies.

Don't panic about the sick. Wait a week and have her weighed again and hopefully you will be reassured that she's doing well.

It is VERY normal to worry about everything when they are brand new, it sounds like you are doing a fantastic job.

You need to have a look at pace feeding OP. If she’s used to boob mostly this will be a bit of a change for her. Make sure you’re on the smallest teat possible and winding well after. My first had reflux and the dr actually made me make up an oz of milk and pour it out. It put into perspective how much my girl was actually being sick!

Oh and yes, if you express she will get the same benefits as breastfeeding. You can also hold her close when bottle feeding so you get the warm snuggle time too.

If you're able to breastfeed then do that first and offer her a top up with formula afterwards. You can never know how much milk she is getting breastfeeding so don't get too fixated on the quantity of formula she's having afterwards. If she's generally happy and gaining weight then she's getting enough to eat.

The ready made stuff made all of mine sick, the powder was much better for them. The texture seemed to be different.

It does get better!

Maybe use a slower teat on the bottle?

Expressing is a poor indicator of supply. Formula afterwards is like pudding, you have it whether you are hungry or not. Hence the spit up. A newborn baby has a stomach the size of a walnut, so needs refilling little and often.

Hi OP, I had to mixed feed DS2 after total plain sailing with breastfeeding DS1 and it was a bit of a shock!

Sounds like you're doing great so don't fret.

Something that really helped with the vomiting for us and eased my worries about formula interfering with my supply was learning about paced bottle feeding and following that. It basically means holding the baby in more of an upright sitting position and holding the bottle horizontal instead of tilting it up, so that baby can control the flow of milk and giving them lots of little breaks. It's slower than standard bottle feeding so it's not very well known about (because I suppose it probably isn't practical if you're bottle feeding all of the time) but it is perfectly safe and I found it really helpful.

If you wanted to continue with breastfeeding/increase supply I would look into local breastfeeding support - you might have an NCT group locally (don't need to be a member) or ABM (I don't know if this is up to date: abm.me.uk/find-a-local-breastfeeding-support-group/), or you could do the IBCLC search: lcgb.org/find-an-ibclc/ - a lot of IBCLCs do charge but some run free or low cost support groups if cost is an issue. You could also ask your health visitor if there's a breastfeeding support person/group, but don't give up if they say there isn't - unfortunately they simply don't always have the info and I have seen it often that they say there is nothing when really there is. It should not be up to you to find it yourself, but it is definitely worth looking for.

As a total coincidence I have just seen this graphic (attached) on FB and it is exactly what I was going to say next - expressing is not a reliable indicator of supply. Not being able to pump doesn't mean you're not producing milk. It might be that now you've got baby back on the breast you want to reduce the formula down a bit - paced feeding will help with this as you can still offer up to the 60ml but let baby tell you how much they want. If you want to build up your breastmilk supply in bwtween then it's still fine to stick to the 20 mins active feeding plus formula top up, but you can put baby back on the breast after this if you want to and continue with breastfeeding. I was basically doing that "proper feed" 20 min plus bottle about every 3-4 hours but I would have DS2 at the breast any time he wanted for as long as he wanted in between. I also tried to do an hour or so of skin to skin contact every morning.

Babies do get a lot of the benefits of breastmilk through expressed milk but the downside is of course it's not as convenient as feeding them directly and to me, that was the big draw for BF. If I hadn't been able to feed directly, I would not have kept expressing, it didn't seem worth it to me personally.

All formula sold in the UK is subject to very strict controls and so they are all pretty much as good as each other. Any differences are really just marketing. Use whichever is the most convenient format for you and that is sold in your regular supermarket or local shop.

Any pain while breastfeeding definitely 100% get your feeding looked at by a real life supporter. It's such a shame that the midwives discharged you without properly supporting this for you - they are very overstretched at the moment unfortunately.

With breastfeeding it might seem she's hungry more but it's normal. She's cluster feeding. Helps your supply. It settles after a while.

Just to say you are doing an amazing job and to hang in there.

We had a similar experience with breast feeding/christmas/timing and ended up formula feeding. My DS would be sick a lot and we eventually moved to cow and gate anti reflux powder using a mam bottle and this was the winning combination for us. Try different things and eventually something will work.