Bottle Feeding Questions

[RosiePosie]

I thought long and hard about whether to post these questions, because I know in the past such posts have tended to spark a breast v bottle debate (yawn). Please may I say before I begin that I breastfed my dd for 19 months, in fact I have only just stopped since I found out I am pregnant again. So, I know what it is like to breastfeed. I know what it is like to breastfeed for quite a long time. However, since becoming pregnant again, the thought of going through it all again is making me feel weary. The breastfeeding was okay, I didn't love it, at times it got on my nerves, but I did it for 19 months. I just wanted to make it clear, that I'm coming at my idea to bottlefeed this time as an informed and experienced ex-breastfeeder, so please no trying to get me to change my mind! Anyhow, my decicion isn't a final one. I may well decide to breastfeed again once the baby is here. I just feel that maybe it will be easier for me emotionally and physically to bottlefeed this time ( the pregnancy was unplanned and I'm struggling with the two children I have already ). So, explanations and justifications over with, on to the questions:

1. If I don't breastfeed, what can I expect to happen to my boobs once my milk comes in? How long will they be engorged and painful for? Am I likely to contract mastitis?
2. Do I need to buy the little 4 or 5 oz bottles to begin with, or can I get away with the large ones from birth ( worried about all the extra air in the bottle, I guess ).
3. Bottle recommendations please. I'm not fussed about Avent - I think the silicone teats are too hard.

And if you have any other words of wisdom regarding bottle feeding, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

Hi RosiePosie

When I had my dd I hand expressed the day after as we had problems with the feeding and she didn't get much of that. Because of this I decided to bottle feed. My milk came in 3 days later. It was painful but with some bags of frozen veg it subsided after about 3 days.

I bought the big bottles. I did have one small one which came with either a breast pump or sterilser. We used that as well as the larger ones and didn't see a difference in them tbh.

I used Avent bottles which were fine for about 2 weeks but then dd started with colicy symptoms so we invested in the Dr Browns bottles (the ones with the vent and heat indicator in) They were very good, quite pricey. I think they were £20 for 4. You can put them in your sterilser too.

For me, deciding to bottle feed was a good thing. Having other people to help with feeding was great especially when dh did the night shift (felt like I could take on the world the next day!) I always think that is a real good point with bottle feeding.

It's very handy to have a few of the ready made cartons of formula in the house. Either for if you run out of powder or if you just can't be bothered messing with making them up.
I also kept a couple of small cartons and some disposable bottles at the in laws and my parents just in case we got caught out or dd decided she was very hungry and wanted more than usual (a rare occasion but it did happen)

Thats all I can think of. Sorry if I have repeated anything anyone else has said (haven't read everyones posts)
HTH and good luck.

Nbg, what you did obviously worked for you and that is great, but it's normal not to have milk the day after and for hardly anything to come out if you express - tiny newborns hardly need anything. Just thought I'd mention that.

KiwiKate, I don't object to women recounting their personal experience as long as it is labelled as such, and I think you are right that this is one of the strengths of MN, as long as it is given in the spirit of 'this is my experience, yours may be different.'.

The info you gave was generalised out from your experience, and was likely to be very misleading - and yes, incorrect. It is not helpful to state experience as if it is applicable to everyone - the statement that being pressured to decide about feeding method is just as likely to cause a drop in supply as introducing a bottle was dogmatic and plain untrue.

I haven't given any personal experience here; the info I have given is based on evidence from research, or from my knowledge of talking to many, many women about their experiences. I am positive your motives were good, but the fact remains that incorrect info will mislead.

For instance, the medication you are talking about is hardly ever prescribed in the UK, because of what are regarded as highly serious side effects. How helpful is it for someone in the UK to go to her doctor and ask about this medication, when it is only in the direst circumstances that it would be given to her?

I don't want to cause an argument - but you came back at me, saying all you had given was your personal experience, and that was what I was giving too. Neither of those statements is correct. I think it's best to leave it there, as I don't want to fall out with anyone

Nbg, aloha is right - hardly anyone has very much milk at all for the first days. What you experienced - not getting much out - was normal.

Regarding your question about whether you will get mastitis RP, it seems to be the luck of the draw. Some get it even if they continue to BF, and some don't get it at all.

As TT says, if you are in dire need you can get medication for drying up.

I have friends who swore by the frozen veg on the boobs. But their engorgement was not too bad, and problems subsided in a couple of days. Not sure if the coldness on the boobs had any effect other than a bit of localised relief, but it worked for them.

Was thinking about this today and I can see your point Rosie Posie, and also can see that it is even harder to get your head around breastfeeding if a/you have only just stopped and b/you didn't plan this baby. Only you really know what will help you cope. But I wondered, do you think having a time limit in your head would help? ie six weeks or three months or something? or six weeks then move to mixed feeding? I found that helped me psychologically when I've felt tired or consumed by the baby during growth spurts etc.
As I said, I did mixed feed ds from the start - bulllied into it by midwives - and it was fine and worked for us and I ended up breastfeeding for over a year (which seemed a really long time to me!). So I do know it can work and if you have lots of milk then it could very well work for you.
With ds, I found that sometimes I felt as if I had less milk after he'd had several bottles in a day, so I'd up my supply by deliberately breastfeeding more and so was able to regulate it that way. Does't work for everyone though.

KiwiKate, just to re-iterate, dire need in the UK is not very painful or even mastitus. Dire need is only something like your baby dies and you handle it badly.

I bottlefed dd from birth. My milk came in around day 5. it was very uncomfortable and I eased the pain with paracetamol and warm baths. I leaked milk for several weeks and it took months to dry up.

I bought both the large and small Avent bottles but it doesn't really matter which. Dd seemed fine with them.

If for some reason I was going to bottlefeed another newborn (I breastfed my 2nd child) I would now use ready made milk because I now know there are contamination risks for newborns with the powder but I didn't know this back then.

I can't really think of any other pearls of wisdom apart from once breastfeeding was finally established with ds I found it much easier than bottlefeeding dd. I never had to think about making up feeds and taking them with me when I was taking dd to her variety of activities.

Good point about the hassel of bottlefeeding Aloha. All that measuring, sterilising, running out of formula could be quite stressful. I found BF much less easier from that point of view (but then I had other BF problems).

RP you'll remember the difference, having mix-fed one of yours.

"If I don't breastfeed, what can I expect to happen to my boobs once my milk comes in? How long will they be engorged and painful for? Am I likely to contract mastitis?"

I couldn't BF with DS1, although we tried for about 3 months. Dried up quickly and painlessly when I finally gave up. DS2 was stillborn and I dried up in a few days without medication (the GP hadn't mentioned it). DD is breastfeeding well but I've had a few episodes of mastitis so far.

2. Do I need to buy the little 4 or 5 oz bottles to begin with, or can I get away with the large ones from birth ( worried about all the extra air in the bottle, I guess ).

I don't think it matters. The air shouldn't get in the teat, it doesn't matter how much is in the bottle (all size bottles gradually become empty as the milk is sucked out).

3. Bottle recommendations please. I'm not fussed about Avent - I think the silicone teats are too hard.

DS liked the Avent ones the most. We must have tried just about everything on the market at the time.

Good luck with your decision.

I've bottle fed my daughter from the beginning.

I think my milk came in about day three. I was expecting it to be painful, we had a savoy cabbage in the fridge ready . Boobs went hard but were only tender to touch. I didn't have any discomfort, but it did last about 5 days, which was longer than I expected.

Looks like I'm one of the lucky ones though.

We are using avent 4oz bottles, which is usually enough. Had some probs with the teats, the slowest one seemed very hard work for her, we switched to variflow but the slowest setting was too fast. We are now onto the number 2 teat, which seems ok, butI've got my eye on tommee tippee and dr brown!
I'm generally pleased with my decision, have had some much needed sleep since she was born

The new MAM ULTIvent bottles and teats are great, the teats can be bought seperatly from Boots/toysrus and fit into regular wide necked bottles and are soft and designed to mimic the breast.

The tablets are available privately [but not reccommended] and the side effects can be rough and they are best started ASAP after birth.

It is better to buy the larger size bottle as baby can outgrow the smaller size in weeks!

The best cleaning brush is the 'twister' for Bfree bottles it is sponge not bristle and is quick and long lasting.

If you have Avent bottles and baby doesn't like the teats try MAM teats. They fit the avent bottles but are softer and flatter. ds3 took these after refusing bottles (and so did popsycals ds2!)

snap, matnanplus, I think we should both get a job with MAM, don't you!

• • • • Hi-Jack Thread * * * *

OH for sure Chipmonkey, have to say think 'avent' teats are yukky tho bottles ok, many mums have avent as they see them everywhere and assume they are a must, once they experience other ones they realise that avent is often more expensive and you can be hard pressed to id your bottle in a group.
NUK is good also, tho their wide neck teat only fits their bottles as do the chicco teats, they lose out as parents aren't willing to shell out for complete set again, new teats are a diff matter.