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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

6 wks. want to drop 10pm feed/express for formula. affect milk supply? positive stories?

20 replies

munteria · 25/03/2009 09:41

Hi

DS is 6 weeks old. i am desperate to go to bed early so i can deal with night time feeds (i dont go back to sleep afterwards).

I asked both my health visitor and doctor whether i could drop the 10pm express and go to bed early and leave my DP to give him a formula bottle. they both said this was ok and that at 6 weeks BF was established and that my breasts would get used to it, especially if it was regular and DS was still feeding at least once in the night. I dont want to start expressing in the day as I dont have time with a toddler and also i believe when i have done this in the past it has reduced my milk for the rest of the day.

has anyone else done this and has maintained their milk supply?

thanks

OP posts:
Heebychick · 25/03/2009 14:57

Hi, i had a similar experience when my DD was a few weeks old, there was 2 reasons for my decision - 1) so that i could get some sleep, like you i found the middle of the night time hard and 2) i wanted dad to bond with DD. I tried expressing during the day to build up a supply but to be honest i lasted about 3 days before just stopping that night time one and letting DH give her a bottle of formula. my supply didn't change at all, i had sore (and leaking) boobs for a few days (nice wet patches on sheets overnight!) but this soon got better and my breasts got used to it, i would have plenty for the night time one and the next day.

In fact i went on to reduce my bf over the next few months and ended up just doing the 7pm bedtime one, and my breasts got used to each change easily, i did the once a day a bedtime one for ages before finally having to give up when i went back to work shifts.

It is easier than you think and although a few days might be uncomfortable you should adapt fine without your supply changing, good luck!

x

MarlaSinger · 25/03/2009 15:01

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Original poster
munteria · 25/03/2009 15:39

heebychick thanks so much for posting your experience - certainly eases my worries. With DD I started expressing very early and topping up with formula. i def think this affected my supply, but this time i am not topping up any other feeds or expressing so think it will be ok

marlasinger - what are the potential risks you talk about, are they risks to your supply? I have started co-sleeping during the daytime nap - and i must say it works like a dream! tho worried that DS may get too used to it and not want to sleep in the cot. i havent fed whilst sleeping though - tried it lying down and couldnt get the latch right. got mastitis last time so very vary of getting it (i.e. the latch) right

OP posts:
StarlightMcKenzie · 25/03/2009 15:59

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Original poster
munteria · 25/03/2009 16:03

during growth spurts if i continue to bf at other times - and not offer formula at these times - will i be ok with just the one formula feed?

OP posts:
StarlightMcKenzie · 25/03/2009 16:16

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Original poster
munteria · 25/03/2009 17:29

crikey - thats a bit scary. so basically if i give one formula bottle it wipes out the immunisation benefits of all the other breast milk feeds i give him!

OP posts:
hunkermunker · 25/03/2009 17:34

Munteria, some breastfeeding is better than no breastfeeding, but not as good as exclusive breastfeeding, from a health outcome for baby and you POV.

Why are you expressing at 10pm? Do you feed him at that time too?

Would you consider co-sleeping, so you don't have to wake yourself up as thoroughly as you do if you're getting out of bed?

StarlightMcKenzie · 25/03/2009 17:37

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Original poster
munteria · 25/03/2009 17:55

Hi

i only express at 10pm (i dont feed) so i can get to bed at 10.30pm and my DP can give him the milk in the bottle which takes 15 mins as opposed to the hour it takes to feed him at that time as he is so sleepy.

he is currently in the moses basket next to my bed so i dont have to get out of bed (though i do need to to go to the loo!). i suffer fromn insomnia and anxiety generally so once i am awake i am awake! changing him also doesnt help but he has nappy rash so i need to do it. intro a formula feed in the evening was a way of getting a few extra hours sleep.

yes, its hard being a mum isnt it! whatever you do you there are pros and cons. Ideally i would exclusively breast feed but i need to look after myself in order to look after my family. i just dont know what the best thing to do is!

OP posts:
mookickkick · 25/03/2009 19:18

well you asked for others' experience so here is mine. around 12 weeks dh started feeding dd some ebm at 11pm. one night i only expressed a teeny bit so we offered her some formula. she downed the lot - way more than the usual ebm. thereafter we offered her ebm and then a formula top-up. after a few weeks of this, i simply stopped expressing. as far as i could tell, my supply was not affected. once we started weaning dd naturally took less and less until we cut it out completely. i still bf dd at nearly 9 months and she's huge!

Original poster
munteria · 25/03/2009 19:31

thats great news mookickkick! once you started the formula were there more or less night wakings?

OP posts:
handbagqueen · 25/03/2009 19:43

We introduced a bedtime bottle of formula with both my DD's and it worked a treat. They were both pretty young - I think around 3 months. This was primarily to give DH some bonding time with them, it was a bedtime bottle of expressed milk from 1 week to 12 weeks, then formula after that.

It did help them sleep better as they started sleeping through pretty much at 12 to 16 weeks - I think it started with 8 hours sleep and then went onto 12 hours sleep.

The bedtime bottle was after bathtime and around 8pm for DD1 and 7pm for DD2.

All their other feeds were breast milk and I continued to breastfeed until 6 months when they were weaned.

I didn't do co-sleeping with either as I felt that they would become to dependant on my nipple to get them back to sleep so they have always been in their own crib/cot and moved them to their own room at 3 months which may have also been a factor in them starting to sleep through. To ensure I don't give a false impression when they were teething or unwell the nights were terrrible with them waking all the time, but on the whole they slept really well once we introduced the bedtime bottle. Also neither of them have any allergies.

Hope this helps

Original poster
munteria · 26/03/2009 08:33

thats great handbag. i assume you didnt express at the bedtime feed when you replaced it with formula?

all pretty positive stories about dropping one feed - although DS is a lot younger (6 weeks) than some of the other babies in this thread but this shouldnt be a problem should it? i understood that BF takes 6 weeks to become established - so hopefully this is ok.

DD doesnt have any allergies either so hopefully DS will fare the same way. i believe that if there are allergies in the family then it is more important to exclusively BF (although it is preferable for every baby).

x

OP posts:
giantkatestacks · 26/03/2009 08:49

munteria - I think 6 weeks is quite young to start with the formula both for supply issues - they need to feed in the middle of the night to increase supply during a growth spurt for example...

I think its not just a supply thing but a mindset one as well - once you do one ff feed it becomes really easy to think to yourself that you will just top-up after another feed when the baby seems cranky for no reason - but if you were exclusively bf that wouldnt even occur to you - you would take the baby out in the buggy or whatever - does this make sense?

IME - I had to get more sleep to aid recovery after dds bad birth and we used a loose routine to do that rather than use formula - I saw it as the best compromise for me and the baby.

Original poster
munteria · 26/03/2009 08:56

hi giant

DS will still feed in the night (3am/4am) its the evening (1030pm) i would be dropping. would that make a difference?

also, Did you have any other children when you implemented the loose routine?

OP posts:
giantkatestacks · 26/03/2009 08:59

Well it would make a difference if the result of the ff was the baby sleeping through - which is both the wanted thing but also a danger isnt it...

Yes I had a 5 year old ds to fit in as well - with all the school runs and everything so it worked out well for that too.

We also at that age used breast shells to collect the letdown from the opposite side each feed and store it in the fridge iyswim and then fed that after the bedtime feed - it was about 1-2ozs a day...

Original poster
munteria · 26/03/2009 12:21

fair point re: sleeping through and affect on supply. cant see him sleeping through for a while yet though!

breast shells - thats a great idea, although i dont really leak. only really in the morning

OP posts:
handbagqueen · 26/03/2009 14:09

I used to express in the early evening, just because it fitted in with my routine.

I don't agree with giantkatestacks as I think if you breastfeed and your baby is cranky you are tend to feed the baby to calm them down, as with a ff baby you wouldn't mix up a bottle just in case they want it. I know when I was breastfeeding I used to feed my dd's at the drop of a hat and it was hard to break out of that and try to get some routine to feeds. My SIL who ff used to have a 4 hourly feed routine from day one.

giantkatestacks · 26/03/2009 16:14

no I see what you mean handbagqueen - I meant its quite easy to ff them as a one off when they are cranky and then you do it more and more often - does that make sense?

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