Combi feeding - formula and expressed breast milk

[SarahB88]

Baby is 10 days old.

We have been formula feeding due to poor latch (no tongue tie, just a shallow latcher) making breast feeding painful and stressful. I have been pumping breast milk as I’d ideally like to reduce formula and give her more breast milk, we may also move back to the breast and I’m getting support for this.

My question though is how much pumped breast milk should I be giving my baby? I tend to get around 30ml from each breast when I express but this is obviously less than the volume of the formula feed. Do I need to give my baby the same volume of breast milk as formula or can she take a smaller bottle of breast milk and still feel full? I have been saving up the milk to get the same volume as formula but find baby doesn’t always want to finish the breast milk but will finish her formula at that volume.

I'm not sure at 10 days. I know that by 6 weeks they take roughly 25 floz of BM a day but they do take time to build up to that and won't be taking anything like that at under 2 weeks.

Have you spoke to a BFC? They should know. The helpline number are here.

And congratulations on your new LO

My midwife came to see us for our final visit and has suggested 60ml of expressed breast milk if baby is having 90ml or 120ml of formula and see how she gets on.

She’s finished the 60ml of breast milk and isn’t asking for more 🥰

That sounds about right

We did the occasional feed around 2-3 weeks as expressed breastmilk, other feeds were on the breast. I could express 60-90 ml and she drank all of the 60ml and left a little of the 90ml

@Superscientist Just found the same thing today when I tried her on 90ml