Planning to FF, but would like DC to have colostrum first -any advice please?

[messylittlemonkey]

Hi

I'm expecting DC2 in 5 weeks time and following a rubbish experience trying to BF DD1 (along with my own personal lack of desire to do it), I have made the decision to FF this time.

HOWEVER, I am aware that my choice is not a popular one and that breast is best. On that note, I would like to BF DC with colostrum in the first few days, then switch to FF. This is more or less what ended up happened with DD1 so I know it's possible!

Just wondered if anyone else has planned to do this?

As I said, I don't need any lectures about BFing, I'm an educated person and know all
about the benefits of it, but just dont particularly WANT to do it long term.

Thanks in advance for any advice!
MLM

Why don't you just take it one feed at a time? I know several people who bf in hospital and switched to ff as soon as they got home.

What advice are you after?

I'm not sure what advice you're after either. Sorry.

I'd say take it one feed at a time and stop when you are ready.

If you already know how to do it why are you asking for advice?

Yes I am planning with DC2 to ff for the first 6 weeks and then switch to formula I'm guessing that it will be like when I switched to formula with DS1 by replacing a BF with a FF every couple of days.

Thanks, I think I will do that.

With DD1, I planned to BF, then she was born by EMCS, had one BF then found to have an infection so whisked to SCBU for 48 hours and fed glucose by a drip. During this time, I tried to express but produced a miniscule amount and by the time DD returned to me, she wasn't able to get enough milk to sustain her and her weight dropped quite a bit (she ws only 6lbs2oz at birth and went down to about 5lbs 8oz after a week, so not good!). On this basis, I gave up BF pretty quickly and she was formula fed from being about a week old.

I know that this is unlikely to happen again, but the other spect to this is that I don't actually much want to BF this time.

that of course should be BF for the first 6 weeks and then switch to FF.

Sorry, I suppose I'm not so much after advice as support!

Well taking it one feed at a time seems sensible. You may find that without the trauma of SCBU (2 of my DC have been in SCBU for the first week of their lives, and 2 haven't), that you may feel more positive about bfing once the baby is born.

I think tis great that you're planning on at least giving your baby the colostrum. Personally, I bf exclusively for 6 months, and then for about another year alongside solids, but with DC who were taken to SCBU I found it much, much, much harder for the first few weeks, and could easily have given up.

Just to say I did the opposite to what you are planning (not by choice), in that I had to FF after two days (the midwife told me too because I wasn't producing enough colostrum), and until day 6 she was almost exclusively FF with me desperately trying to express, she ended up with fairly bad baby constipation at which point my milk basically came through and I switched to exclusively BF. My DD started off 6lbs 3oz and by day 5 had dropped to 5lbs 8oz (-9%), but now she is being BF she is recovering well. This story isn't necessarily to help you, but possibly any other mothers to be who might read this thread and give up if their milk (or colostrum) doesn't come through. I would however state that I didn't have any problems with the birth, and therefore can quite understand why you weren't able to BF your DC1 (no judgements here :P)