Time to move to formula- advice please!

[Lou234]

Hi everyone,

My baby is 4 months today. We have been through repeated nursing strikes ..it takes ages to get through them then she lasts about a week back on the boob and then she's back to refusing. I am defeated, ive called the FAB helpline and another breastfeeding specialist and unfortunately there's no answer...nobody can force my baby to boob and shes hungry so I am now going with fed is best.

I dont want to exclusively pump because its too time consuming and we only have a hand pump and unfortunately my maternity pay won't stretch to a fancy electric pump!

First question has anyone else stopped breastfeeding and felt enourmas guilt? I can't shake it!

My next question is how do I make the transition? Although she won't take breast...she only seems to drink 2 or 3 OZ of formula from a bottle at a time? I'm now worried she's not getting enough? The tin of formula says she should be on double that for her age? I preferred it when I didn't know how much she was getting 🙈

Formula feeding is totally new territory to me so I'd be grateful to hear anyone else's experiences switching from breast to formula? And how do I deal woth my milk supply? She won't feed from me so all I can do is pump? Do I gradually reduce pumping sessions or just express for comfort?

Thank you in advance everyone!!!

When I transitioned to bottle I did it one feed at a time, dropping one every couple of days.
And don’t feel guilty about stopping the breast, in a couple of years she will be eating nuggets at McDonalds !

Yes the guilt is extreme, but please just try to remember that when your child starts school you won't be able to pick out the breastfed vs bottle fed. Babies do absolutely fine on both!

I probably wouldn't do cold turkey if you can avoid it, but if you do then just hand express a little every so often to relieve the pressure.

Don't worry about how much formula your baby drinks. All our different and the numbers on the box are just a guide. Also check your teat size, you might have to play around between size 1 and 2.

Just to say the guilt will go away breastfeeding failed for me and my dd and it really affected my mental health but now I regret worrying so much about it.

I continued pumping but found that very stressful so gave up and basically dropped one pump a day to the point where I would just pump when I felt full (making sure to avoid mastitis etc) and eventually just stopped altogether once I felt comfortable.

in terms of amount of formula my dd would only accept little and often and was on 3oz bottles till she was around 6 months (7 months now) bigger bottles would give her wind and I think she still has issues from her tongue tie (which is what led to breastfeeding failing). Just keep offering and she will take what she needs, little and often was tough (so many bottles!) but necessary. You’re both learning so just take the pressure off yourself and see how it goes.

Very true!! I keep telling myself this time next year I won't even be thinking about what milk she had! 😂

Its an awful feeling!!! I've been so down and my friends and partner just doesn't understand! Everyone thinks its great that she only wants bottles but to me I feel like I'm not giving her the best and that I've lost a bit of closeness with her. Which is absolutely ridiculous I know!!

I will keep pumping for comfort to avoid mastitis but I've tried pumping also and it is very stressful I can't do it full time!

Thank you, that makes me feel better, I'll just have to trust she's taking what she needs 😊

We also dealt with a tongue tie but it was cut quite early on but never made a difference..she could never keep a latch even after so I do wonder if it wasn't separated properly 🤔 breastfeeding has never come easily to us!!

Thank you!! So true, there's no difference in breast/formula fed children! I myself have never had a drop of breastmilk and I'm fine 😂

I cant her to feed from me but will carry on pumping and drop it gradually so its not full on cold turkey as such!

Thank you, ill just keep offering it her and let her take whatever she wants and trust if she's hungry she'll eat 😊

Ahh she's had a great run of it! My baby is also 4 months and we finished our transition from breast to bottle last week due to constant nursing strikes, I couldn't deal with the anxiety of her screaming for boob while we were out then screaming, arching her back, turning her head and clawing at me when I offered it to her, I would be dropping in sweat and close to tears. It affected my mental health so much that I noticed I was going out less and less and that's just no way to live! I still feel sad and Miss feeding her but actually am loving formula feeding and getting a break. We just did one extra feed every 3 days, I still have milk now but haven't felt engorged at any point. While cutting down I was pumping a bottle of breast milk for her to have before bed each evening which made me feel better but have stopped that now too.

You can find great info on this page:
https://www.instagram.com/theformulamom/guide/starting-formula-from-bf/17854032479671266/

This is exactly what was happening to me! I'm getting so worked up about feeding and so is she then it comes to it and she screams at my boob..claws at me and I end up in tears!!

I too have become scared to leave the house! I am so sorry you've been through the same thing but it is nice to know im not alone!

I always Imagined breastfeeding would be so easy..just pop the baby on and they'd feed! How naive i was haha!