Advice on bottles / combi feeding

[JED1990]

I have a 3 week old who is EBF. He has really taken to boob and it’s been easy and enjoyable. With my first, we had endless issues with latch / mastitis / her weight and so were topping up with formula early on. However, that definitely affected my supply badly.

I am keen for DH to be able to give DS a bottle so that I can spend some one on one time with DD who is just over 2 and struggling a lot with the transition. Would like to be able to take her out for a morning here and there.

What is the best way to achieve this? I am trying to pump to build a stash but am finding it a massive pain - uncomfortable, annoying and not producing loads, partly because DS is on the boob constantly. I am happy for him to have formula but would I need to pump while out and about to maintain supply? He has had a couple of bottles of expressed milk and will take the bottle (somewhat reluctantly) from DH but not me.

any advice so appreciated, thank you!

Just giving your post a bit of a bump as I can’t really help as both of my two little sods were bottle refusers.

Congratulations on your new LO and hopefully someone will be along soon

Thank you! ❤️

Congrats on the little one! It's not really recommended to pump before 6 weeks if you don't need to (for top ups etc) as it can create an oversupply which can lead to mastitis further down the line. However, I didn't get that memo until later on. I used to pump as he had a feed from a bottle, so I was only removing the milk that he would otherwise have taken himself. I did use ready to feed formula on the odd occasion we had to be apart if I didn't have enough expressed too.

Make sure that your pump flange fits well (measure your nipple) the flanges supplied with most pumps are too big for most people which will result in pumping being uncomfortable and less effective than it could be and that the duck bill and diaphragm have been replaced if the pump isn't new as these degrade over time and can also make the pump ineffective

Thanks so much! I had never heard about not doing it before 6 weeks so good to know.

Just give a bottle of formula at a consistent time each day (or get someone else to do it to really get the benefit!) Keep it at the same amount and BF the rest of the time. Your supply will adjust around it but will keep going at the amount of BFing you’re doing.

And the formula could well not have messed up your supply with your first - that’s the assumption made. But if you had latch problems and weight gain problems it sounds like your milk was delayed and didn’t fully come in in quantity, so using the formula was the right thing to do to make sure your baby was fed.

Very similar here with a difficult first journey and easier second. I loved the odd trip out with my eldest and so did he. I don't think the odd missed feed would affect supply, but I did pump immediately on returning home so that I had a bottle of milk ready for my next trip away. So I pumped a little after feeds here and there until I had enough for a bottle, left about 120ml at 6 weeks I think, then DH gave that when I was absent. Then that missed feed's milk I pumped on my return was ready for next time. I put in freezer as time out wasn't that frequent.

We did similar in the evening so I could do bedtime for eldest and DH put baby to bed every 2-3 nights from 8 weeks old. When I came downstairs I'd pump and leave in fridge for the next time. I will say, it did feel a lot like extra faff, pump parts to wash etc, sitting attached for 20 mins, but it was definitely worth it for that 1:1 time with eldest. And also for my DH's 1:1 with baby. We continued this all the way through and she's continued to absolutely adore her daddy. We've never had the mummy preference that many BF babies seem to go through, 95% of the time he can settle her just as well with a bottle as I can with boob. She's 15m now.

This is really helpful thank you! Did you find that you became engorged / uncomfortable when you skipped the bf and before you got home to pump? I had problems with engorgement / mastitis last time! I’m hoping that in a couple of weeks my supply will be fully established and I can avoid all that - not quite up for solo trips out with toddler yet post section anyway.

I was feeling a little full but not uncomfortable. Was only out about 2-3 hours though and sometimes my baby went that anyway between feeds if asleep in the sling, which my DH carried her in to keep her asleep as along as possible when I was out.
Probably more just being hyper aware of being out with baby and that feeling quite odd, freeing actually just to be able to focus on my toddler.
I made sure to feed right before leaving.

Thanks so much!

I just gave one bottle of formula per day at the same time and my supply regulated around that, as others have said. Didn't have any problems with supply until my baby stopped waking for night feeds at 6.5 months.

Good to know thank you! There’s so much scaremongering with bottles / supply isn’t there.

current update is that he’s having a bottle a day from DH in the morning while I get a couple of hours - bliss. Won’t take a bottle (or a dummy) from me but will from DH. It’s working really well as DH was feeling that he was struggling to bond as bubba just wanted boob 24/7, unlike DD who was combo fed almost immediately and has always been a daddy’s girl!