Has anyone succesfully mixed Breast and Bottle

[drosophila]

DS had polycythemia and Jaundice in Hosp and increasing fluids is an important treatment. This means I have left hosp with a baby that is taking about 230mls of formula and the rest breast. Not sure what to do. Had same issue with DD but she made the choice that she wanted breast only.

I am tempted to continue mix feeding but interesed to hear some success stories.

I would echo what starlight says. You may be lucky in that everything works out ok...but with such a small baby, really they need to feed whenever they are hungry in order to establish a good supply.

Now, in your case your baby has been ill and truly needed those top ups. I can see why it would be so tempting to continue but doing so would mean you may well end up giving more and more formula and less breast milk. Now if this is ok with you, then theres not a problem...if you do want to carry on breastfeeding in the forseeable future, for now at least I think you need the support to reduce the formula and up the breast milk.

Most people would suggest that bottles shouldnt be introduced until 6 weeks. I would suggest if you really wanted to keep giving a bottle, to do it as little as possible and when you have given that bottle to make sure you are expressing to keep your supply up. Very simply, the more you feed the more your body realises it needs milk. If you dont feed, it thinks you dont need the milk so it makes less. This can happen at any time (my supply has really dropped recently going back to work and DD is 7 months) but in those first few days it is critical to just feed, feed, feed.

Someone may well be along in a minute to tell you that everything was great for them...and fantastic. It might well be ok for you but it is a real risk to take. If you choose to cut down on the bottles you may need the support of a HV who knows what they are doing or more likely a breastfeeding counsellor. Obviously you need to make sure DS is getting enough milk..but also increase your supply at the same time.

Hope everything works out for you

i have successfully mixed fed DS2 whose nearly 8months old. he was given formula in hospital as he didnt feed for over 12hrs after he was born and because DH "wanted to help" he has had bottles since although i have restricted it to one bottle a day.

our key has been the timing of the bottle of formula. DS2 has been breastfed all day. he cluster fed in the evenings from about 5pm til 9pm when he was tiny waking then around midnight which was when he had about 4ozs (about 120mls). we co-slept so he had access to boob all night.

i know that the advice is to wait until breastfeeding is established but i do sort of believe that to go with what works for you and your baby. DS2 is still a boob monster and but will suck anything (me, dummy, bottle, fingers, toys etc etc) and even at nearly 8 months, has days when all he wants in boob.

HTH

i'm sorry I don't know what polycythemia is, so none of this may help...

My sister did both bf and ff on her 3rd child. She breast fed during the day and night, with a bottle each evening so she could do other things/take a break/go out, etc. and dh could feed the baby. She was so laid back the third time around, she was happy bf feeding and ff, and saw it as no detriment to do both, but plenty of benefits.
She made sure that the bottle was the same time each day, so her body knew when to expect bf and when not.
It might have been harder if she had mixed the feeding more.

I had a very sick baby 3rd time, I was trying to bf, but ended up back in hosp, tube fed formula at day 5, and some expressed breastmilk. We finally left hosp and after a lot of effort managed to get her bf only. It was hard work and intensive but worth it and I then bfed her for 14 months.

I wish you luck and hope you have plenty of help at home so you can spend the time with your dd.

What does established breastfeeding mean? I seem to be producing lots certainly more than with previous babies.

DS was 10lbs 4 oz so perhaps that helps.

Polycythemia is having too many red blood cells which leads to the blood being too thick and then severe jaundice as the body breaks down the excess blood cells. It is important to flush the system and the baby needs to be getting enough fluids to do so. So I am a little nervous about dropping the feeds as he is still a little jaundiced. Although he is deffo much improved.

i'm sure that someone will have a better (proper) definition of established breastfeeding but my understanding is when your body adjusts to your baby's requirements which is about 8-10 weeks. i think its about this time that your baby and your boobs are in sinc if that makes sense

I'm glad to hear of others who have switched with no probs - there seems to be a real anti-ff or anti mixing feeling out there on other threads, or am I being too sensitive?

i think in general, mixed feeding isnt recommended as stats indicate that once a baby starts getting bottles, breast feeding is more likely to suffer and fail (that is just my understanding btw i dont have any real links to back that up). Breast feeding rates are really low in the UK and there are some fantastic people on this site that will help anyone with BFing

i personally FF DS1 and have mixed-fed DS2 (although he is 90% breastfed even now at 8months )

I think mixed feeding can be done but approach with caution. I did it with twins, for same reasons as Madame Deathstare. But I completely agree with Starlight that it was a very difficult job to sort out the supply and demand after that, I think I struggled to get the breastfeeding back on track for months really, and it would have been a lot better to go full guns at the beginning rather than try and drop the bottles later.
Do agree with idea of making bottle a fixed item in day, not just willynilly when losing confidence...In my case I found 6pm was the time that it suited me to give a supplement. Definitely NOT in the middle of the night as that affected prolactin.

Hmmm. Thanks lots to think about.....

Good luck with the jaundice etc too, hope that all gets sorted out.

yes i did - had trouble starting with dd1 so used bits of formula but when i had recovered/rested/relaxed the bfeeding worked better and i could carry on

i then introduced a 'dream feed' at about 2 months and did all other feeds myself with no problem (and she was a big baby 10.4 at birth)