Has anyone introduced a bottle of formula a day at 6 months

[claireybee]

And if so did you manage to continue breastfeeding?

And did it make any difference to your baby's sleep?

for background see here

Not six months, we did it at around 7-8 months. It made absolutely no difference to DDs sleeping pattern.

continued BFing until 10 months, but gave up as I was pregnant and there were a combination of things making it difficult to BF....so not quite answering your question really.

As far as I'm aware though, if babies start sleeping through after they have had a bottle of formula then it is probably just coincidence and they would have started sleeping through anyway.

From your other thread, it doesn't sound like you want to give formula, and you don't need to if you don't want to. This will probably pass, but be aware that it might not. My DD's sleep pattern is much worse now (she is just a year and has three meals a day and snacks, plus cows milk in the morning and mid afternoon and a bottle of formula at bedtime) than it was when she was exclusively BF.

Your DH could be a little bit more supportive imvho......fine, he's fed up being handed a grizlly unsettled baby, but surely he realises that you are fed up with no sleep and that this early morning is the only time you get to have a decent bit of sleep. Maybe he could get up with your older DC as well rather than letting you do it all?

also....could you express so your DH could do a night feed and let you get some sleep?

I did at 5 months - no difference for sleep and continuing breast feeding no problem

Hope your baby settles soon

the goodnight milk with DD does make a difference we find - could you try that if you do introduce a bottle?

flossih, the goodnight milk has added potato starch in it to make it harder to digest ....why not just feed potato then give a bottle?

My HVs have always maintained that "first" milk is all that's needed for the first twelve months.

Because when your DP keeps having micro sleeps in the car as he's kept up all night and working 2 14.5 hr days in a row being woken every two hours for up to two hours at a time you will try anything. And it works for us. She often does have potato but if she doesn't have the milk we can be up at least twice still in the night.

I introduced a bottle of expressed milk at 8 weeks, then switched to formula once a day at 4 months (for various reasons). At around 9 months DD started having 2 bottles of formula each day. She turns 1 next week and we are still BFing for all other feeds- most days though this is now only the long bedtime feed (unless she's poorly when she nurses more).

I think so long as for a while you only offer 1 bottle of formula each day (and try to be consistent with the time you offer it) you should be fine with continuing BFing (and just feed the other times on demand like usual).

I don't think DD's 1 formula bottle before bed made any difference to her sleeping unfortunately- but once she started eating 3 good meals with lots of carbs in them she started spacing out feeds more and settling better at night (for us that was around 7 months). She still though quite often has a midnight breastfeed on top of her bedtime feed, and often co-sleeps half the night with us!!

Good luck xx