Can I give occasional formula and still sucessfully breastfeed?

[spiderpig]

Hello, any help would be much appreciated!

I am currently breastfeeding my ds who is three weeks old . Things seem to be going pretty well, but he is feeding very frequently which I do understand is to build up my milk supply but which is also pretty exhausting!

I have been trying to express when I can to give my DP a chance to do a feed or two but I havn't been doing it often as the baby has been constantly attached to me.

So I was wondering if introuducing an occasional bottle of formula would be ok? As in would it affect the breastfeeding?

TBH it would really help if I could especially since I have other young children so whilst I am happy to feed him for hours on end when I can it just isn't always possible.

Any advice much appreciated

Thank you Sabire and Canugess, I feel quite that I didn't know that.

Ok I have one more question, sorry but I really do appreciate the help......

When I had my little boy he had a 'top up' of formula from a cup in hospital, about 20mls (though he seemed to throw most of it up again!) Would that have been enough to expose him to the risks in your earlier post?

I read about a similar survey to the one sabire quoted, but the rates were 16%, 5% and 2% respectively, which gives a very different view on mixed feeding.

There is so much widely differing information out there that it is hard to know what to believe.

I successfully combined the two for six months. He had one bottle a day from two weeks. I think if it encourages you to breastfeed for longer it can't be a bad thing.

spiderpig

"there is just no way I will be able to feed him for two or three hours while I'm there"

I think it would be a really good idea to get a sling that you can lie him down in - either a wrap or ring sling - and then he can basically be latched on for as long as he wants, while you can get on with whatever YOU want, and nobody will actually know or be able to see that you are breastfeeding him, as the sling covers his head and your breast

you might find this a big help in the evening even if you aren't trying to go out - it would mean you would be more hands free in the evening and might feel less pinned down to the sofa, with your arms getting tired from holding him

have a look here for instance
the pictured captioned 'peapod' - you can stick him in the sling like that and more or less forget about him
it's more discreet than it actually looks from that picture, as well - they've positioned the sling and the baby so you can see what is happening - otherwise you would just basically see a sling with a lump in it and some baby's feet sticking out you wouldn't see his mouth or the woman's body at all

Nighbynight - do you remember the name of the survey you saw?

I'd be interested to read it. The study I referred to is widely quoted. Those figures appear in the Royal College of Midwives 'Successful Breastfeeding' - which is a textbook on every student midwive's reading list.

It was second hand information, published in something like the bounty handbook or similar. Would have been around ten years ago.

Franny - I have had one of these ever sucking babies with 2 or 3 older children, and it really is not as simple as just buying a sling.

Some people get away with mixed feeding, in the sense that they can continue with bf, others don't - ie formula takes over.

Think hard before you introduce something other than breastmilk to your baby's gut. Allergies and intolerances can be caused by doing that. Formula is modified cow's milk. If you introduce it you will notice the difference in your baby's nappies. Your baby will get fewer antibodies against disease and so will be open to more infections.

It is not so much the superiority of breastmilk, but the hazards of breastmilk substitutes which need to be borne in mind.

do you not think trying a sling is worth while then Nigh? before we all decide she has no hope of carrying on breastfeeding and should jack it in now?

I don't think anything about having a 3 week old baby is 'simple'. There are things that she could try to get through this very tricky period, though.

Mixed feeding is not the same as jacking in breastfeeding. Loads of babies do perfectly well on it, after breastfeeding is well established. there are times when exclusive breast feeding is just impractical.
A sling is worth trying, but may be a solution only for a short time, or not work at all.

I don't think breastfeeding is well established in a 3 week old baby, that's the thing
what we need is to help the OP find solutions to enable her to get to the well-established bit
then she can consider her options again

"there are times when exclusive breast feeding is just impractical",

... and yet, astonishingly, it was how 99% of human babies were reared for the first 250000 years of human history... until commercial formula became available 80 years ago.....

1. many of them died.
2. mothers have to live in this world, not some idealised pastural past where the rest of the tribe was there to rally round.

oops pastoral

oh god I mean that word that art historians always use about 18th century landscapes, I just dont speak enough english any more.

I think you are right with pastoral Nigh!

I agree mothers have to live in the real world, but sometimes it is worth looking at making changes to your lifestyle and to the way your family life works when you have a very small baby
it's worth making bfing a priority - your main job if you like - and putting everything else possible on hold - of course depending on your family circumstances this will be more possible for some than others!
I think we should expect it to happen though - not that mothers will more or less carry on as normal while struggling to bf - which is what does seem to happen to a lot of people IMO

lets campaign for breastfeeding breaks from paying the mortgage lol

I have a 13 week old and mixed feed. I had real supply problems at the start due to anaemia post-birth amongst other things. So I introduced a bottle early on (2 weeks) because I was absolutely shattered from the anaemia on top of post-birth stuff, and becoming unhappy, and because my supply was so ropey I had a very very unhappy baby from 2pm onwards every day and he wasn't gaining much weight (didn't get past birthweight until 4 weeks and then didn't gain much weight at all until 8 weeks).

I tried to express but I could never get much out so the bottle is sometimes mixed EBM/ff but is mostly fully ff. I think doing it this early may have made it harder for me to establish a decent milk supply (but then I was having supply issues anyway so it's a bit uncertain which was chicken and which was egg...), and I was very close to adding in more formula but managed to avoid that just through sheer will and effort, and am very glad I did as that would have been a slippery slope to fully formula feeding. However because of the circumstances it is the only thing that kept me from giving up breastfeeding completely so it has actually been better healthwise for my baby than the alternative of full ff.

So, I'd say that it is possible but you should think very carefully about introducing a regular bottle at this young stage as it could affect your supply, and you would need to be quite strong-minded to then persist with establishing it properly and not moving towards full ff. But if it is what will keep you breastfeeding and make you all happier as a family then it is worth considering.

We're now at 13 weeks and his weight supply is now up at 6-8oz a week rather than 3-4oz which it was once he finally got over birthweight. He gets one ff at 11pm because this is when I am most shattered and also this is the feed that will eventually drop when he starts to sleep through the night so I feel a bit better knowing he might go back to being a fully breastfed baby at some point I generally reserve expressing for building up a supply in the freezer for when I am away from him for a feed ( not very often) because it takes at two to three expressing sessions to get enough for one feed.

One other thing - the statistics on ff versus bf are just that - statistics. It doesn't mean your baby will or won't get the illness it is just a population level trend: I know a 2 year old exclusively breastfed to 16 months who has had several bouts of stomach upsets and a 2 year old ff who has not. So you are not condemning your baby to these illnesses, although you are increasing their risk - but everything in life is a balance of risk versus benefit and you need to decide what works best for your baby, you and your husband taking all things into account. Also the problem with stats on mixed feeding is that a) there are very few stats available and b) mixed feeding varies hugely - one ff per day or one bf per day - so it is very difficult to say what the risks are of doing it one ff per day because the stats may well be based on a completely different routine.

Good luck! It is a tough tough time at the moment as everything is so new and you are making so many decisions and experiencing many new things on a daily basis. For me it took to 9-10 weeks for things to calm down and me to feel happy, but we got there in the end and he's now a great feeder, finally getting chubby thighs and has a very happy mum!

Well, in Sweden I believe you can have roughly a year off and be paid 75% of your salary
their breastfeeding rates are phenomenal, so I think you are right Nigh

I am so sorry for the delay in my reply but please believe me I am so grateful for everyone's input

I find myself agreeing with both sides of the 'arguement' on this one....(fickle moi? )

On one hand breastfeeding my little boy is very important to me and is indeed my main 'job' in so much as my dp/mum are happy to do all the normal household stuff and I have been able to 'babymoon' a lot at weekends...... BUT

I also don't my desire to exclusivly breastfeed upset my family dynamic, I have four other children and I don't want them to feel pushed out because of this, we have never had any jealousy problems with them and I would hate for that to start now

So I am still undecided thank you for pointing out the possible problems of introducing formula, it's nice to be able to make an informed decision.

And thank you for telling me your experiences of sucessful mixed feeding it's great to know it can work out ok

Oh and thank you frannyandzooey for the sling reccomendation, I have a ring sling I am going to experiment with but I'm not sure how sucessful it's going to be as I am huge up top so will probably suffocate him

Well by frequently I mean quite often hourly he does sometimes go 2 and a bit hours in the day, but it's really the evenings that are a bit tricky as he feeds from about 5pm to 8 or 9 pm non-stop!

As I said before I'm happy to do this when I can, and my dp cooks the evening meal and sorts the others out when he gets in from work, so mostly I just sit feeding all night while chatting to and doing homework/reading with the older ones, but I'm just worried that there are/will be times that it is just not possible to feed him for this long.

Wow 16 hours out of 24, sounds like our ds's are definatly milk monsters I'm glad introducing a bottle a day worked for you, I know I'll feel a bit guilty if I do (though I'm not quite sure why!) but it's great to know it can be done, did it help?