Formula at night for bf DS 4.5 months please advise

[SilverSixpence]

I am exclusively bf DS who is 4.5 months old. he is a v hungry baby, hard to settle in the evenings because he just wants to feed, and waking at least 2-3 times a night, sometimes every 2 hours which is exhausting.

I am being encouraged to introduce a ff before bed by family and even HV but am not keen, mainly because of a strong history of allergies in DH's family, but also because i have been brainwashed into thinking formula is evil . I CAN carry on bf DS, its just hard work. Has anyone introduced formula just in the evening, did it help and did it affect milk supply?

IME introducing formula will always have some affect on milk supply. I found with ds1 that once I started mixed feeding I gradually dropped bf, stopped altogether by 3mths. With ds2 he just had the odd bottle if he was with relatives and I didn't have enough expressed and we stayed bf until he was 14mths.

Have you tried getting dh to give him a bottle of expressed milk for his last feed instead? You could be expressing while he's doing it so you've got the bottle for the next night.

I found with ds1 he'd feed for longer than he really needed to and more often because he liked the comfort. Ds2 is a more functional soul, some feeds only lasted 10mins because he'd get what he needed then abruptly stop!