Coming off feeding plan - stopping/reducing ‘top ups’

[Al991]

My 3 week old has been having top ups of formula after breastfeeding since day 5 after weight loss.

We’ve now been told it’s ok to come off the feeding plan and work towards EBF. This involves reducing the amount in bottles and not giving bottles at night.

Problem is, she is now constantly hungry and miserable - she fusses and won’t settle. I am worried about under feeding her! But have been told by breastfeeding support worker and MW that it is ok to wean off the top ups.

Has anyone else experienced coming off top ups? How did it work with the baby’s appetite?

@Al991 have they told you how to come off the top-ups? This article from Kellymom sjouke help

Have you had advice from a lactation consultant? Just wondering if baby seems fussy if the latch could be improved.
Also wondering if you have been paced feeding the bottles, maybe the fussiness is impatience at having to work a little bit harder to get breast milk.

I might be inclined to use a haakaa on the opposite breast while feeding and offer breast milk top-ups rather than formula.

Keep an eye on output and your baby’s presentation, and weight.

Go back to basics to build your supply, skin to skin and feed on demand (well I always would recommend feed on demand anyway but keep offering).

I managed to come off formula top-ups after a very difficult start to breastfeeding, if it helps to have encouragement it was so nice to do away with bottles and pumping and much easier to feed directly, still feeding beyond 18 months. Good luck.

How are you both getting on @Al991?

thank you all. No we were not given much advise at all for coming off them. I have contacted a breastfeeding support worker and we’ve made the decision to cut down the formula gradually over a couple of weeks.

I’ve been pumping when I can to build supply, though it’s difficult when she wants to be on the breast all the time and I want to feed responsively.

How did you go about coming off them @Missscarletintheconservatory

I was in your position a few months ago. What I did was kept giving bottle top ups but by using a pump gradually replaced the formula with breastmilk basically by pumping whenever I wasn't feeding which upped the supply (its a crazy full time occupation!). Then once I was on only breastmilk bottles I gradually reduced the top ups and got to only breast. It took a few weeks maybe 3 to drop the formula and I was taking baby to my local drop in weight in place to check she was still gaining.
It's important to address whatever was causing the low supply / poor latch from the beginning we had a tongue tie snip but also i think I was just stressed after the birth.
I was pleased to get to EBF but fed is best the most important thing is sufficient food so go slow and check weight.

This is really helpful and can see why replacing top ups with breast milk would be useful to feel secure in supply but I feel like she’s feeding so often - it never feels ‘safe’ to pump in case she wants to feed straight after!! Do you have any tips managing this?

I felt the same that if I pumped I was robbing the next feed, its a challenge fitting it in but if you think of breasts more like taps, rather than wells, the more you take out by turning the tap on, the more your body learns to produce. You're looking to take more out to make your body used to taking more out to replace the formula. If your baby is efficiently feeding then probably the best approach is just more time at the breast. In our case bebe needed time to get more efficient hence why we continues bottles and monitored things.

Thank you. I’m finding pumping really disheartening at the minute because I get so little, partially as I am feeding her a lot. If she doesn’t feed much I can get 40ml or so, but after a good feed it’s more like 10. Can’t imagine ever getting there with it and I am losing so much sleep staying up pumping at night to get those 10ml!