Trying to stop supplementing - am I being cruel?

[tirednewmummy]

My ds is 5 weeks old and has been mixed fed from 4 days old (breast, expressed breast milk and formula). Since then I have been trying so hard to ditch the formula, but it's been almost impossible. I think my supply has been fairly low from the start (milk did not come in until day 6, no let-down, no leaking) so I have been pumping/nursing really frequently. Things are improving in that I do at least now feel a let-down. So I've decided to try to go cold turkey on the formula, but it is a nightmare. Ds cries for food so frequently. We are now pretty much co-sleeping so I can feed him in bed. He was feeding pretty much every hour overnight.

I have some questions:

1. Is it possible to move to exclusive breast feeding after 5 weeks?

1. Am I being cruel to ds? He seems so hungry. Should I try again to reduce the formula slowly?

1. Anyone have any idea how many days the constant feeding will go on for?

I would be grateful for any advice.

Thanks.

I don't know whether it's possible - I tried at 5 weeks to do the same (well cut down formula not cut out) and DS fed loads for a week, I was hopeful he had increased my supply, but when weighed he had lost 2oz so I gave up TBH. Am now mix feeding properly (50/50) and he is gaining.
I don't know whether your supply could recover - mine couldn't despite everything (althogh i can't pump so you have an advantage there) but i just want to say, if you can't drop the fm, try not to feel disappointed/like a failure/guilty.....as i did. your baby benefits from bm in any quantities, it helps him digest the fm, and he will be happy and healthy either way. also the odd bottle can be a lifesaver and let you leave him for a couyple of hours!

didn't want you to go unanswered.
firstly well done for etting this far mix feeding and for increasing your supply.

tbh I think you need the advice of a good local breastfeeding counsellor on this one, but yes it is possible and sounds like, with his hourly feeding, that he is trying his best

If you call the NCT helpline they will put you in touch with a local counsellor who can give you one to one advice.

in the meantime, hopefully tiktok (she is an NCT BFC)will see this and lend you her wisdom.

Good Luck

frequent night feeding is nature's way of upping your supply - the hormones which make milk are at their most efficient.

You are doing the right thing by feeding as often as poss. Your boobs might feel empty but they probably aren't - at least not for very long. Some people (me included) do not leak much so do not let that convince you there is little milk.

Co sleeping will help too, as the smell of him close to your will send messages to your brain.

How long it takes to settle down depends on how much ff he was having.

Just one more thing - 5 week old babies generally cry alot anyway! As long as you keep him close and feed on demand things will get better.

Good Luck x

In answer to your 1st question it is definitely possible!

my sister managed to get back to exclusive bfing at 12 weeks, but she did do it gradually. she pumped after each feed and cut down top-ups by an ounce at a time every few days, i think. also, have you tried fenugreek? it's great stuff, really helps supply.

by the way, about the let-down and leaking etc. when i had dd2 i asked people on here about whether they'd had both, because all the books talk about it, don't they? anyway, the LOUD response was that LOADS of people who successfully bfed their babies for yonks never had so much as a squeak of a leak and never felt let-down so i'm not sure it's as relevant to supply etc as we are sometimes led to believe.

congratulations on the new baby, by the way. hope it'll all click soon.

Thanks for all the replies. I will continue to persevere. If it is too much then I may try to cut the formula down again ounce by ounce. It's just I sometimes find that a little bit of formula is as bad as none at all - it is as if he gets a taste for it and then screams until he is given a full feed of it (about 4oz). I really want to get him off the formula as I'm beginning to think it is upsetting his stomach. He glugs it down so fast and then is very unsettled for a couple of hours afterwards. I prefer to supplement with expressed breast milk, but when I am feeding constantly it is impossible to express much. If I express after a feed then I get virtually nothing out. If I leave it an hour or two then I usually get 2oz. At the moment I don't get an hour or two spare.

How often should a breast fed 5 week old feed? Should it be about every 3 hours, which is about how often my ds goes between bottle feeds.

I'm not an expert, but afaik formula takes longer to digest tham bm does, so maybe you'll find he feeds more often than you're used to. My DS (11 weeks) feeds at least every 2 hours, sometimes more often. Do persevere though - It's so worth it when you get it right. but if you can't get to eclusive bf don't feel guilty - at least he's getting the benefit of your milk.

I would say at 5 weeks a baby needs to bf at least 2 hourly through the day and will often cluster feed in the evening as if in preparation for a (hopefully) longer period of sleep.

dd cluster feeds in the morning and in the evenings but only has one or two quick feeds in the afternoon cos she's sleeping. when they're wee they quite often tank up so they can sleep and grow, i'm told.

Thanks again for all your advice. Just a quick update. Completely giving up the top-ups was not successful. Both ds and I ended up very upset on Monday evening and the result was he had loads of formula. However since then things have much improved. On Tuesday he only had 4oz and yesterday only 3oz. Also last night we managed a whole night on just breast milk (first time since he was 5 days old). So, I'm hoping we have turned a corner. I definitely feel like I have more milk. I now get a let-down reflex and I can hear ds swallowing which gives me a bit more confidence. I will see if we can do without any top-ups today.

well done so far; I think the key is confidence!

I tried the same as you early on as DD was 50/50 breast and formula and she ended up screaming with hunger and we were both miserable.

We are still mixed feeding now, but as she has grown she has taken/needed less formula. She now has one 6/7/8oz bottle at bedtime and that's it. So I would say we are now at 80/20 and to be honest, I am happy with that.

I guess what I'm saying is even if you can't cut out formula completely you might find you can cut it down quite a bit later.

I'm currently trying to wean ds (6 weeks) off a nightly top-up bottle-- supply not so much of a problem for me as getting sore with his long evening cluster feeding. I had the same with dd and she eventually dropped the top-up bottle on her own. If you can bear it I would just try to keep offering the breast and hopefully that will build up your supply but I know how exhausting it is when they're feeding constantly!
If it's any consolation I have a book which says that their fussiness peaks at about 6 weeks after which they calm down a bit and can go longer between feeds but I can't vouch for this yet!

i am having the same problem and am on the verge of giving up now. My baby was given a top up from week 2 (he's now 7 weeks) and he's developed a liking for the fast flow of the bottle, so going from almost exclusively breast feeding - I am only managing to feed him once or twice in the day and rest is all formula.

I have been trying to relacate, but its been difficult and the baby cries so much if he's not given formula / bottle that i have to reluctantly give in to his demands. I'll probably be able to stretch my breast milk supply for another week max and then i think we'll end up completely bottle feeding ds. My supply was also v. low to begin with and i never got more than 1.5 oz from one breast. I tried fenugreek and it has helped increase my supply, but with ds rejecting the breast, it hasn't solved my problems.

I'm just trying to come to grips with the fact now that my child will not be breast fed and it might be down to my mistake of introducing a top up.

best of luck to you !

Well done, keep it up. The worst feeding time is always the evening so that's the hardest to drop the top-up. You could always express and give him that in the evening. The more times you take milk out of the breast over 24 hrs, the more milk you make. So this would just help your supply. Good luck, hope it continues.

Watch out for the 6 week growth spurt!! He'll want to feed all the time. Go with it and your milk supply will keep up. If you start to supplement again, your milk supply will not keep up.

Just popping in to say that I did it after 12 weeks of mix feeding. It happened quite by accident in the end, although I had been preparing to do it by expressing her top ups, as she suddelnyl refused the bottle. Tiktok really helped, but I think the main thing I did was expressing after a feed to increas supply.

My baby was feedinf easily every two hours at 5 weeks. In fact, we were wkaing her up to feed her ever y two hours.

Good luck.