Is combination feeding actually possible??

[ThisSharpNavyRaven]

My nearly 3 weeks old was exclusively breastfed for 10 days, until we realised she was still losing weight. I began 'topping up ' with expressed breast milk twice a day, and giving a bottle of formula in the evening and she's now gaining weight and is much happier. However I'm struggling to express enough breast milk for her, not because of supply but time and logistics! I've got a 2 year old and a 4 year old and it's just so hard expressing, sterilising and constantly breastfeeding. I'd love to just do formula top ups, but I'm worried about my milk supply. Last night I had my newborn and 2 year old on my own and I couldn't deal with the toddler whilst the baby cluster fed, so I gave her a bottle of formula and she slept all evening - it was heaven.

I'd love to hear from anyone who made combination feeding work from such a young age. How did you do it? How many bottles a day?

I can feel myself sliding towards her becoming formula fed, but I would like to continue breastfeeding in some capacity, especially as my older two were exclusively breastfed.

Thanks!

I got told by a private lactation consultant that my baby wasn’t falling asleep because he was full, but because he was exhausted from inefficient feeding 😟

@Island2513 sorry to hear that :( I do think there's an awful lot of misplaced advice about exclusive breastfeeding out there (just feed feed feed, don't pump etc) which doesn't take into account situations where the baby isn't able to transfer milk effectively. My baby would definitely have been admitted to hospital very unwell if we hadn't started bottle feeding when we did. To be honest even with all the top ups we're doing she's still not gaining as quickly as we'd like, hence me seriously considering introducing more formula.

My DC are all secondary school age now but DC3 had a lip tie rather than tongue tie which made breastfeeding more difficult for him and I used to pump as he fed. So I would feed him on one side and pump on the other then when he started getting tired I'd give him the milk I'd just pumped and do a bit more as he had the bottle.
I found it meant I wasn't wasting time pumping later and it worked for me until about 8 months when I went back to work. It did mean I did all the feeding though!

My son nearly got admitted too. I had the midwife and health visitor telling me all was fine and to just keep feeding. I had his tongue tie first cut at 4 weeks. At the 6 week GP check she wasn’t happy at all. She said I had to do top ups and I think she was really unhappy with what the midwife/HV said to me and was going to call them (I think it’s the nhs way of promoting breastfeeding but not actually knowing how to support when there are problems!). At a later follow up she told me she was close to admitting him. If he hadn’t done the formula top ups she would have.

I was so badly let down by the nhs. They go on about breastfeeding but don’t even properly support the ones that so desperately want to do it. I was heartbroken I couldn’t EBF. And we even had a proper feeding team at the hospital/community and they STILL got so many things wrong. The manager of the team saw my son about 7 days in as I had so many concerns that something wasn’t right and she didn’t even diagnose tongue tie. And said everything was fine! Just keep feeding!

People really don’t understand that sometimes hours and hours and hours of cluster feeding day in day out is just not enough for some babies, if they can’t feed efficiently. And everyone that told me just to keep doing that ultimately compromised my supply.

anyway rant over!

I've been combi feeding with formula top ups since 4 weeks and I'm now at 4 months and still going!
My issue seemed to be a supply one as she lost a load of weight at 4 weeks hence starting top ups. I was told to pump for them initially but I never get much pumping and I had a baby that wouldn't be put down plus a two year old so it was almost impossible. I kept up struggling through pumping twice a day until 8 weeks when I'd had enough and stopped all that.

So I started with a couple of 2oz top ups a day and found I had to increase the formula every couple of weeks until she was gaining well and maintaining her centile. She's now maybe 50-66% formula fed and the rest direct from breast. We haven't had to increase further since 8 weeks. We do top ups after 4 of the feeds in the day (I put 3-4oz in the bottle and she usually takes 2-3oz) and two feeds as just bottle (still only 4oz max, she's a snacker!). Then just boob all night. Works beautifully for us so far and I'm amazed to be honest as it was a real struggle at the start.

I've combi feed since the beginning (now five months). We started with one formula feed at around 7pm to give me a break, and then gradually transitioned to adding night feeds/night top ups - if I was still feeding after 45 mins and she was still crying that she was hungry, she would have extra formula. We got to a point where every other night feed was formula. I can't hand express so have never bothered to try pumping.

As she dropped some night feeds, we spent about six weeks giving only one bottle of formula, at 9pm sometimes a breakfast bottle so I could sleep in a little. From four months, we've been slowly swapping out BM for formula as I get ready to go back to work.

So our day now looks like:
4am BF
7am BF
8.30am BF
10am FF
1pm FF
4pm BF
6pm FF

Sometimes an extra BF on the go or if she's having a growth spurt and caught me out by being hungry expectedly.

My little one is 3 weeks old and i have been EBF since birth. We had some ‘teething issues’ initially with a bad latch which have largely resolved. I use a nipple shield on one side as she badly damaged this nipple. We began introducing a bottle of formula once a day when out the house for convenience. I’m really struggling mentally with the relentless responsibility of cluster feeding and feeding on demand, I feel like I can’t get out the house or do anything and I also have a 6 year old to attend to. I’ve read so many accounts of people’s experiences with combi feeding and I just want to know what that looks like in a typical day. Do you replace a full feed with formula or do you top up with formula after offering the breast? I don’t want to quit breastfeeding, I’m determined to make it work, but my mental health is currently declining and I need to find a balance for myself, my baby and my relationship.

@EmmaB25 Did you breastfeed your older child? At three weeks you are really in the eye of the storm with cluster feeding. When people want to move to combination feeding it’s usually the evening cluster feed or the middle of the night feeds that are replaced. The issue with that is that cutting those feeds has the most impact on your supply, which makes people lose confidence in breastfeeding and then they stop altogether.

I would recommend you think about how you feel about breastfeeding as a whole. Do you want to continue? If you knew the tough time you are having now will pass, would you brazen it out? Is it important to you? It’s ok if it isn’t.

Your relationship with your older child and your partner will withstand you having a newborn on your boob for a few hours in the evening. But if you don’t want to do it anymore, you are allowed to stop. I recall wanting to stop a lot at this stage, and someone pointing out that newborns are hard work even if they are formula fed. It’s not an off button. It sounds like breastfeeding is going well for your baby. It gets easier and there is even a point where it’s 10 times easier than sterilising bottles and cooling bottles at 3am. It’s just that right now it’s harder.