Hi, I’m wondering if anyone can give me any advice. (Sorry in advance for the long post. In a nutshell, ebf baby is not getting on well at all with formula and I’m desperate for something to work as I struggle with bf, baby is tiny and I’m worried she doesn’t get enough milk from me.)
Baby is 4 months old and I’m wanting to stop breastfeeding, so I’ve been trying to start to introduce formula but it’s not going well. I had the idea that I would start alternating bottle feeds and breastfeeding and work towards just bottles during the day and breastfeeding at night.
I started one morning with the usual breastfeed then for her next feed I tried her with a bottle of formula (Aptamil). She took it okay but only had about 2 ounces. I figured she’s probably just used to little and often with breastfeeding. I continued the rest of the day and the morning after alternating between breast and bottle and she continued to only have small amounts of the formula but I wasn’t worried as I thought she would just eventually start being able to have more as I reduced breastfeeds. She was sick on the first evening as well which is unusual for her as she’s not been a sicky baby at all so far. It wasn’t full on projectile vomiting but it was more than just a bit of spit up imo.
On the second morning she seemed a little unsettled compared to usual and I struggled to get her to go for a nap. She did eventually but when she woke it was as if she was suddenly really poorly; crying inconsolably, shaking, droopy eyes and just wanting to be cuddled and seeming sleepy and lethargic. She was like this the rest of the day and I didn’t give her any formula from then as I was worried it wasn’t agreeing with her. She’d perhaps had 6/7 ounces in total over the day-and-a-bit of trying. She seemed really windy (I had tried to burp her thoroughly though as I know babies can take in more air with a bottle), a bit more reflux-y than normal (she does get a bit of silent reflux) and also had two big poos which is unusual for her as she would normally go several days between poos. I got the impression she was in quite a bit of pain in her tummy.
She seemed loads better the next day and pretty much back to normal the day after that which was yesterday, so today I thought I’d give it another go with the formula. But this time I decided I would just give her 1 ounce today and see how she went. I gave her it this morning and she seemed fine but a couple of hours later she’s vomited again and is unsettled.
I don’t really know what to do now. I know that it can take some adjusting to formula but don’t know if this reaction is normal? I don’t want to try a different formula yet because I know that changing can also cause stomach upset but I’m wondering if she’s having some sort of reaction to an ingredient? Or do I just need to persist, slowly?
I would just go back to ebf but I’ve struggled with it from the beginning tbh and baby has only just been clinging to her centile for growth. She’s really small and I wanted to be able to know how much milk she’s getting so that I’m not constantly worrying I’m not giving her enough. On this note, is the fact that she only seemed to be able to have a couple of ounces at a time a sign that she's only getting small amounts of milk from me? Could she have become accustomed to this, hence her still being tiny?
I’m going to contact the hv on Monday to see if she can give me any advice but if anybody has any similar experiences or advice I would appreciate it so much!
Thanks for reading and apologies if formatting is a bit all over the place as I am on mobile.