About to give formula for first time - urgent advice needed please

[ElmMum]

Need to test if DD is allergic to cow's milk before we give her any formula (my niece is toxically allergic and had a horrific reation first time she was given formula).

If we put a bit of formula on her lip, how long should we wait before it seems okay to go ahead and feed her??

Also, how much should we give her? She's about 11lbs and 8 weeks old. Hoping this is just a last feed tonight, to give me the chance to express (long story - sore nipples blah blah) so hoping it won't be the start of formula feeding.

Advice????

elm - in the last week I've had to occasionally give a carton of ready-made formula (ie. I've used 3 in a week). I did have a supply of frozen EBM (saved from those early days of excess!) but I've used it all up.

I'm expressing 5oz first thing in the morning and then between 2-4oz for the rest of the day. Baby was taking 4oz at each feed but is now taking nearer 5 and my supply isn't keeping pace.

I b/f twice last week (I thought the thrush had cleared but it hadn't ) and he latched on brilliantly and it really boosted my milk supply.

Take comfort that it won't be long before the b/f is either working out fine or is a distant memory!

Thanks everyone. My plan is to express as much as possible and bottle feed her either EBM if I have it, or formula if I don't. Hopefully, it will most often be EBM.

And I plan to try and put her on and BF every now and again, just to see if it's miraculously got easier/less painful, and also to boost supply and properly empty breasts. Will prob do this for night feeds as she's nice and calm at night and usually goes straight back down. Not sure she would after a bottle.

Re expressing...

I've been using an Avent hand pump for expressing but a friend is going to lend me a more super-duper pump she used when she was feeding her twins - apparently it's very efficient at emptying boobs. HV reckons I should try hand expressing. I thought that would take too long but she reckons if you get it right, it pours out that way.

Anyone got any advice about the best way to express long-term?

I expressed for over a month until ds began to latch on.

Hand expressing was great in the early days when it was mostly colostrum and it was also great for starting off but I would not have managed to sustain the feeding (I expressed all feeds except for 1 middle of the night feed which was formula) without the use of a double electric pump. I think it was Medela. The Avent hand pump was great for when I was out or when I went back to work but I couldn;t sustain long term expressing with it. I'd have got RSI for one thing!!!!!

A local breastfeeding support group lent me one for free. To begin with I expressed every 3 hours around the clock. That built a great supply plus at the time ds was dehydrated. I then went on to a regime of expressing every 4 hours but not in the night to give me a break.

The best advice I can give is to take each day at a time. Don't make any long term plans, just get thorugh each day and don;t make any rash decisions at 3am. Wait until the cool light of day and you are thinking rationally, you are more likely to be happy with what you decide then.

Ds did get the hang of it however I didn;lt use bottles, I used a cup. He just needed to grow a bit we think so he could open his mouth wide enough.

Well done, any breastmilk is better than none at all. Each day you manage to give at least some is one more day of all the wonderful immunity benefits etc.