Breastfeeding and expressing?

[Chococat]

Just hoping for a bit of advice/experience please.

Am bf ds (7wks) and want to continue until either one of us gets fed up (but hopefully for at least a year as would like to skip formula entirely if I can). We also started introducing a bottle of ebm in the evening - I express in the morning and dh gives it in the evening.

Have just been to a mother's group meeting and some of the other mums were saying that with their older lo's, they introduced a bottle and it quickly happened that their lo's started refusing the breast, so they gave up bf around the 4 or 5 months mark. Does anyone know anything about nursing strikes caused by bottles of ebm (the mums guessed that as it's easier to drink from a bottle than a breast, then their babies preferred the bottle and refused the breast?)

We started giving ebm because with dd, she refused to take a bottle - I fed her for about 14 / 15 months, but there was a black period where I hated bf her (long story but she refused solids from about 7 months til about 10 months, would only bf, I started feeling 'trapped', she dropped a couple of growth curves and the hv was convinced I was starving her which made feel awful and frustrated, there was other stuff going on too and everything basically descended into a bit of a mess and a vicious circle).

Does anyone have practical advice/experience on long-term bf with the odd bottle of ebm? Have made my peace with bf and am enjoying it with ds so far, so don't want to jeopardise that, but am also enjoying that break in the evenings and the knowledge that I could leave ds with dh for a few hours if need be.

Thanks in advance!

I gave one bottle of ebm each day from when my daughter was about 7 weeks. She did not reject the breast afterwards, and I went on feeding her to 8 months.
One thing I did was always have the slowest teat on the bottle to make my daughter work a bit more for the milk (rather than going up the sizes as she got older). I think often the bottle was slower than my breast and I think this may have made a difference.

yes to sticking to slowest teat - the TT Closer To Nature ones are blardy hard work and dd didn't have trouble switching.

but a regular bottle every night is very different to the genuine 'odd bottle' once a week or so for you to go out - don't kid yourself.
And if a baby starts refusing the breast in favour of the bottle you can either go with them and let the bottle take over, or ditch the bottle and get them back on the breast, which is harder work... but worth it if you want to keep on bf long term.

You may also find with an older baby you have less time to express and it ends up being easier just to take the evening feed back over.

TBH I have a lovely break in the evenings while DH does bath / songs / story etc and then I just go up and do the last feed - no expressing necessary...

Hi Chococat. I wouldn't exactly call by experience of bf long term but I did what you are doing and introduced a bottle of ebm in the evening to avoid the difficulties you had with your first. It took a bit of persistence but it worked. DS accepted a bottle (usually given by dh) and when we came to introduce the bottle later he took it. I bf for just under 9 months. Still had the odd refusal of bottle when ds was tired or fractious and I resorted to bf, but I'm really glad we did it.

Each to their own but IMO if you get on ok with bf and it is well established then it's better to get them used to a bottle (even for one feed) than store up lots of hard work by introducing one later. Anyway, I think babies love the comfort of the breast and it's familiar. One bottle a day isn't going to turn a baby off bf.

I will probably get told off for saying this, and I accept that it doesn't apply to everyone, but I think that many mums who say their babies refused the breast at 4 or 5m are wanting to stop then anyway and might cite other reasons for fear of criticism. Good luck.

My best friend did an expressed milk bottle feed from about 6 weeks old for a night time feed by her husband. All of the other feeds are by breastfeeding. Really successful for all of them and not affected the breastfeeding.

The book "What to do when you breastfeed and when you can't" explains how to do offer a bottle as well as breastfeed.

Could try not mum but dad or other people offering bottle is more likely to be taken by baby as they can't smell mummy.

I express for my 14 week DS to have a feed occasionally (DH and I run our own business so I work a few hours a week), but as I have to express twice to get a full feed, I definitely wouldn't do this regularly. IME though, its great that I have the option to go out, and DS doesn't seem to mind either way!

I'd beware of expressing in the morning and using it in the evening though, as its going to give you a very long gap between feeds and, AFAIK that is bad for your milk production. Hopefully someone who knows more than me will chip in, but I have been told that you should express at (around) the same time as the missed feed would have been.

I express after DS's first feed if he's had more than a couple of ounces when I've been out (once, he didn't even ask for food in 4 hours!), but as its normally only once a week, I don't worry about it too much.

Thanks for all your replies - a few things I hadn't considered, so am very glad I posted!

We're using the TT closer to nature bottles and will bear in mind about the teats.

ChairmumMiaow (great name by the way!) - so far, ds has been clusterfeeding in the evening, so he's been attached to my boob on and off for a big chunk of the evening and then dh has given him the bottle afterwards (say, bf from 6 or 7-ish til 9-ish, followed by the bottle, but each evening is a bit different and we've only been trying this for just under a week). We haven't really settled into much of a bf pattern yet (well, only a very vague one), but can see what you mean about the bottle replacing a feed and going for too long between feeds.

I suppose thinking about it, an older baby is much easier to feed (well, from my experience with dd - we really turned a corner at about 10 months or so when she started properly/regularly eating other foods), so am not so worried about expressing and giving a bottle then, it was more for now until that point where breastmilk isn't the only food source. I think I had it in my head that if we gave one bottle a day, then ds wouldn't forget how to take a bottle - but it sounds like ds still wouldn't forget if it was a weekly bottle instead, so I can (should?!) tone down my expressing enthusiasm a bit?

(Sorry - am a complete novice to this!)

Am in the figuring-out-process myself, but this are my experience: I have to express since I had to return to work. With this in mind, we introduced regular bottle of EBM at week 5. Around 14 weeks DS refused the bottle and the only way to get him again interested was to increase the flow considerable (we are using NUK teats now). I do every feed I can, e.g. go home for lunch, and am happy to say that at 23 weeks we are still going strong. DS has never refused the breast, although we have the fast flowing teats. Hope that will stay this way!
Good luck.

glimmer: having said what I did about DS and his bottles he now seems to be refusing them too. He wouldn't take his milk last week but he had lots of trapped wind and that seemed to be his problem, but again this week he refused!

We're going to try cups now, but I guess alternative teats are an idea! We were wondering whether he's not getting his bottle often enough - but I hate to bother with a bottle just for the sake of it!

Aren't babies fun!

DD had bottles of EBM from a very early age, sometimes out of necessity as she would fuss over the breast and couldn't get a let down. I would say that she would have one once every 3 days. We are still bfing at 10 months and now I have gone back to work she takes a couple of bottles of EBM while I am out. Expressing is a real chore but as soon as she started sleeping long stretches at night I would express in the morning and always have done, it's just part of my routine now.

Kellymom has an article on bottle feeding a breast fed baby.

here