Should you mix breast and bottle feeding

[powwow]

My Little girl is 4 weeks old and lost 11 percent of her birth wieght within 6 days. she has now gained weight but always wants to feed and some feeds can last up to 2 hrs on and off is this normal. Also can anyone advise if it is ok to mix bottle and breast of should I only do either or?

hello, firstly it is quite normal for a baby this young to feed for this long..and if you introduce a bottle of formula now this will be the beginning of the end to your breastfeeding...is that what you want to do? i hope an expert will be along shortly..

I feel that my little girl is not getting enough as even though it seems that she has finished feeding and falls a sleep sometimes she is them awake and serching again even though she has feed for the last two hours on and off. I don't want to stop but at times all this feeding and start to take its toll.

Do you have a Breast Feeding counsellor you could talk to?
I found my NCT one VERY useful for the first few months as my lo was not very efficient at feeding either and would often take 2hrs plus to bf with a half an hour gap between feeds.
Could be for many different reasons.....from reflux (and them wanting to drink as it stops the burning) to crainial osteopathic stuff (I took my lo to one and it seemed to help all sorts of issues - as he had quite a traumatic birth). Could also just be simply because they want to be close and find it comforting.

In my humble opinion (and that is all it is!) YES it is ok to mix if you choose to - just as long as you are aware that it will affect your supply. I started to mix at 6 weeks - and he didn't sprout horns or anything!

There is LOADS of help on here re bf'ing - I'm sure you'll have plenty of people to chat to about it - Just do whats right for you though - some people have very strong feelings about this kind of thing.

Good luck

Powwow - dont scare monger - it's not the beginning of the end!
I mixed fed for ages!!!

powwow (good name) it might be a bit late for lots of people, so do re-post or bump in the morning if you want more.

sounds like a growth spurt, so she is feeding more in order to stimulate more milk. this means that she is growing and so it is all going well

giving a bottle will mean that demand for your milk won't happen, so supply doesn't correspondingly increase and the whole process is intefered with.

Mine both went through a growth spurt at 5-6 weeks and fed constantly for a few weeks. It will settle down so don't rush to bottle feed yet if it's not what you want to do.

She could also be comfort feeding.
I didn't introduce the odd bottle of formula till DSs were 3 months old at least, and that was early enough.

Just remembered a little tip from my bf counsellor..............
when feeding - try and gently massage the palm of her hand with your finger (or thumb). It is supposed to stimulate the suckling!! I remember - it did work for me!!