Mixed feeding...what's that all about?

[abbierhodes]

I'm currently pregnant with DC3. I tried to breast feed the other 2, but gave up after less than a week.

The two main reasons for this were:

1. I found bf incredibly painful, despite being told that babies were latched on correctly/there was nothing wrong.

2. I like to have a routine (this is the main obstacle I think).Don't get me wrong, I'm not a follower of she who must not be named, but I found that when I formula fed my babies they slept through the night early on, and I was able to plan things around their feeding routine. I know that sounds like a small, insignificant reason, but I think it was the one thing that saved my sanity.

A good friend of mine successfully bf'd her baby to 6 months, and I'd love to do the same.

My friend says that I could do a mix of ff and bf, which might help me to have a routine. Clearly, I don't object to formula, I was happy to give it to my older 2, I'd just like to give this baby the best start possible, as there are some other health issues to consider.

So, any advice from MNers? can I have the best of both worlds?

I have more of a rhythm to the day than a routine and I've bf both ds1 (until 8 months) and still feeding ds2 (5 months old now).
For DS2 it goes something like this:
around 7 - 7.30am get up and bf
play etc, in bed again for nap around 9-9.30
(when he's ready)
sleeps for about an hour, sometimes more.
bf, play etc
back to bed about one and a half-2 hours later. Continue pattern til 7pm when he has a bath with DS1. Sometimes he goes straight to bed then, others he's quite awake and joins us for storytime, then I put him to bed. Feed around 10.30-11pm (ish), he also wakes around 3am for a feed.

However, for the first 2 months he fed much more frequently than he does now and I had to 'go with the flow' a bit more. I like to have some idea of how my day will go, so this works for me. It is possible to bf and have a regular feeding, playing, sleeping pattern but you will possibly find that it takes a few weeks/months to happen.
On the sore nipple front, I've had real issues with this with both boys despite the latch etc being declared fine by lots of people. I've used nipple shields to get over the worst and they are fab. Some people are against them but personally I'd recommend them any day!
Good luck

Hi - congratulations on your pregnancy.

If you want to bf your baby then I would advise exclusively bf for as long as possible. Certainly in the first few day/weeks, you need to have that baby attached to you A LOT in order to stimulate your supply so he/she is getting enough milk. I understand that ff may result in a more structured routine, but I think that you need to accept that while a bf baby settles into a feeding pattern, a routine is not so easy to establish.

Saying that, I am currently bf my 18 week old son and have had to managed to get into a routine around my dd's school and nursery times, so it is possible!

The trouble with mix feeding is that your breast milk operates on a supply and demand basis - the more your child demands, the more you will make - so fewer feeds during the day will mean less milk produced which in turn may mean that baby isn't satisfied at the breast and you may turn to more formula to compensate.

However - there are a lot of mums on here who have successfully mix fed so it is possible - it's just I've always found that introducing formula has had a negative impact on my breast milk supply

Have you got any local breastfeeding counsellers you can see/speak to to help you address the issues from last time so you can bf longer this time - try the NCT, La Leche for starters.

Good Luck

Should add, DS1 slept from 11pm ish until around 6am from about 10 weeks so you may still get a decent nights sleep! I'm only up for about 20 minutes in the night with DS2 though, and I don't feel tired but I am hoping he'll learn to sleep through sometime soon.

I did mixed feeding but only for 8 weeks as after that I started to get less and less milk and my daughter simply preffered having a bottle. The 8 weeks were fine and I had no problems breastfeeding her but as I say it just didnt last very long! perhaps if I had tried MORE breastfeeds it would have been better for supply- I dont know!.
I was doing roughly half an half.

I fully bottle fed my first two and mixed fed my third. I Initially chickend out altogether and didnt start trying to breastfeed until about day 4 or 5 cant remember now! At first on the advice of the midwife I just stopped with bottle and tried breastfeeding totally but within 24 hours my daughter was in hospital jaundiced. I have no idea if this was anthing to do with the feeding but it was scary and I was advised by another midwife that I could mixed feed. This was the main reason I mixed fed

I want to exclusively breastfeed number 4 (due in August) but I do have many many many worries!.

Thanks for all the replies! Mixed feeding does sound difficult. Does anyone have any positive experiences?

A friend of mine introduced a bottle last thing at night when her son was about 6-8 weeks old. She continued to breastfeed during the day (and for night feeds) until she went back to work, and then fed morning and night, and eventually was just doing a bedtime feed which she dropped at about a year.

It can work, but you need to be very clear about when you are going to give a bottle and when you are going to breastfeed. You need to breastfeed on demand for the first few weeks if you want to prime your supply to see you through any growth spurts etc, and learn how breastfeeding works (ie the supply/demand system) so that you can get through growth spurts.

There is a danger that the baby will "prefer" the bottle and reject the breast, or that your supply will suffer, but even if this does happen, you will have done a lot of good by breastfeeding in the beginning. Even if you only ever give one breastfeed, that is of huge benefit to your baby.