Breastfed first baby, considering combi feeding or formula from birth for second

[Herewegoagain2026]

Breastfed my first for nearly 2 years, she refused a bottle from around 6 weeks old and fed every 1-2 hours for a long time (even when starting solids). When I went back to work, she refused to drink anything at nursery (even water) for the first month or two and would wait until she saw me. Tbh I don’t have happy memories looking back on breastfeeding, but she was a poor sleeper and I didn’t have the energy to force weaning her off until I needed to leave her overnight.
Am pregnant with number 2, not due until August but naturally have started thinking about feeding. I feel like I should breastfeed the second one, but I don’t think I can cope with another bottle refuser.
Has anyone else breastfed baby number 1 but combi fed baby number 2 (or a subsequent baby) from the start or even just formula fed straight from the start and if so how was your experience compared to breastfeeding?

Not exactly the same but I combi fed both mine from the beginning. They had 1 bottle of formula in the late evening from DH so I could get a little bit more sleep.

It worked well for us and I really needed that time in the evening where DH would have the baby downstairs and I could properly switch off and sleep undisturbed for a few hours.

With both of mine they started to have a bit of a fussy period at 3-4 months where they started preferring the bottle and refusing breast sometimes in the day (fine at night). I was happy to stop breastfeeding at that point anyway so gradually increased bottles and stopped breastfeeding.

So that would be the only downside that they might start refusing breastfeeding after a few months (from my experience). But if the choice is between that or not breastfeeding at all, I would say it’s worth a try.

Yes I combi fed my second and highly recommend. We introduced a bottle early on because he’d lost too much weight and was then re-admitted with jaundice. So I expressed and gave this via a bottle as a top up. Then from around 6/8 weeks we introduced a bedtime bottle of formula - it worked so well because my husband would give it so I could get some sleep. Best of both worlds in my opinion.
I felt as though all the professionals, midwives / HV etc were pushing exclusive breastfeeding, but I’m so glad I followed my gut and introduced some formula when I did. It gave me some time with my eldest too! I then went on to breastfeed for around 10/11 months and I don’t think I would have gotten so far if it wasn’t for the flexibility of the bottles as well. Hope that helps xx

You could express to get baby used to bottled

I breastfeed my first until 10 months when I had to stop due to having to switch meds. At this point she was a bottle refuser and stopping breastfeeding involved me going into hospital and her staying at home with dad and went 26h without a feed!

Her bottle refusal was intermittent, we started with a bottle at 3 weeks but reflux and allergies meant she often had feeding refusals - breast and bottle but more significant for the bottle.

My second was born in September. We and a difficult start to feeding as he was very sleepy at birth and was sleeping for 12h at a time during the first 36h which meant he was unable to feed and couldn't maintain his blood sugars. I was having to give expressed breastmilk and formula by syringe/bottle to get his blood sugars up. He had a 100% tongue tie which didn't help as he could only latch in one position and struggled with feeding. His tongue tie was cut at 8 days. For the first month of I express 1oz of breastmilk every other day to allow me to do bedtime and since then I express once or twice a week to give me an hour away from baby. He happily takes a bottle.

Breastfeeding him has been a completely different experience to my first. Feeding was a fight and a battle. It still is to be fair, she has very little interest in food and was 20 months before she ate enough for us to wean her off formula. She is 5 now and dropped 2 percentiles in the last 18 months as she barely eats. He feeds very contentedly and takes a bottle it has eased the pressure on me so much. He is also just generally so much happier to be in the world. I have been at parties and events and he has been quite happy to be passed around. My daughter struggled even to be passed to my mum or partner and up until 5 only had 7 adults she felt comfortable enough to talk too and 4 that she could be vulnerable with.

I was given the option of going back on the medication I went on with my daughter at 8 weeks and if I had been feeding her I would have done but at the moment feeding my son is so so different

My first was a bottle refuser. My second was way more chilled and would take a bottle no problem. Part of me thinks it was cos I was so uptight with my first but then with my second I had more confidence. I don’t think i treated them any differently. Like I tried to introduce a bottle to my first one early , he’s still stubborn AF now he’s 20 haha. I weaned him at 9 months though after he eventually took a bottle. Good luck whatever you decide.

I haven't been able to breastfeed either of my 2 but I am now combi feeding DD2 via expressing about 4/5 times a day, so she gets 1/2 bottles of breastmilk a day and the rest is formula, works for us!

If you do this, keep the bottle of formula or expressed milk to the same time each day. It’s just less likely to have an impact on your supply.

Loads of people do that successfully.

My first was a bottle refuser.
With my second, I gave him a bottle of formula every day at 10pm (from about 4 weeks) and he was fine going between the two. Also introduced a dummy earlier and had no problems refusal of breast or bottle.