BF experts - will one ff a day affect supply?

[Gidders]

My 16 week old has been ebf up until this week, when I gave her a bottle of formula. I did this because she has always been an unsettled, cry-ey, non napper and I wanted to see if perhaps hunger could be the issue - and the crying has got worse in the last few weeks.

Anyway, the formula made a huge difference - she napped for two hours or so, and barely cried at all the rest of the day. I have given her a bottle for the past three days now, with the same result.

I really wanted to breastfeed exclusively to 6 months, so I was very disappointed to give her the formula, but to be honest, it has made such a difference to her that I am now thinking I will continue. But I really really don't want to give up breastfeeding. I have been expressing every morning after giving her the formula (another reason why ff works for me - I never got a chance to express before because I couldn't put her down, and I like to have a stash in the freezer) and I hope this will mean my supply will stay up. But can anyone tell me if I am risking bf by doing this? Or what the health implications of one bottle of formula a day are? Obviously I realise it's not as good as ebf, but is it significant?

I'm feeling a bit guilty about this, but I would like to continue. But if it's going to endanger the breastfeeding I will have to find another way. I have tried in the past to increase supply by switch feeding, more frequent feeding, and expressing when I can (not very often!) but not with noticeable results.

I suppose I was hoping my body would just stop making milk for the morning feed, but continue the same for her other feeds - but do I need to give her the formula at the same time every day for this to happen - if I wanted to give it to her later one day, would it matter?

Sorry for all the questions - it's very hard to get info on mixed feeding!

Btw, she is 9th centile, so quite skinny, but has been on that since birth. Wees and poos fine.

My understanding is that the best way to ensure your continued supply would be to only give the formula once a day and only at about the same time each day.
Occasionally switching to morning breast and afternoon bottle would be okay, though (so friends' have told me)
But if that's wrong, I expect someone else will say so!

Thanks lljkk, that's what I thought, although I suppose there are no guarantees.

I dont think it will affect your supply but when i started to give DD a bottle of formula last thing at night (so DP could do a feed etc), she would be very lazy on the boob for her next feed and i'd have a bit of trouble getting her to suck properly for a while.

That doesn't mean to say that your DD will be the same, mind you!!

I was always told it would mess up the supply - and i think with my dd when i had no bf support or knowledge it did and i was on the slippery slop to ff. BUT with my ds, he ended up having a ff last thing at night between about 8 weeks and 9 months (when we went back to no ff ) and it was absolutely fine. for a large chunk of that i did express at that time, but looking back i probably would have phased that out.

ds is now 22 months and is still breast fed. i never thought wewould get this far and assumed that the ff would increase through my supply being ruined or him choosing a bottle - but we are proof that it is possible to maintain a good supply. I do know that it is different for every woman though.

good luck with what you decide.

alittlebitshy - do you know why it messed up supply with your dd and not your ds? Well done for getting to 22 months - seems a long way off from where I am sitting!

OP, I did the same as you at around the 16 week mark, and no it didn't mess up my supply at all. DS2 was EBF, with a small bottle of expressed milk in the evening, until about 4 months, and I then introduced one 7oz bottle of formula each evening. My supply adapted fine and I still had plenty of breastmilk for all the other feeds.

I found that by introducing the formula DS2 was much more settled in the evenings, and it also gave a lot more flexibility. As you say - not as good as exclusively breastfeeding, but it's a pretty good compromise as far as I can see.

Hope this helps

I think it could do yes. The best way to up your supply is to breastfeed more. If you're worried that she is hungry then you can breastfeed more often instead of offering formula if you want. Also, have you had her latch checked? Could she not be latching on properly? Formula takes longer to digest than breast milk which is why it can seem to fill them up more but I don't think it's necessarily actually the case.

It's entirely up to you but personally I wouldn't do it. I've ff and bf babies too so I'm not speaking from a biased point of view. I'm going to bf this baby when it's born and avoid formula if I can. I do know how tiring it gets though. I bf ds1 for about 8/9 months and just couldn't do it anymore as he was relentless, always feeding (literally) and I was exhausted and had dd to look after (only 20 months between them). I didn't have support either which made a huge difference.

I bf ds2 until he was about a year and a half and only gave up then because of abusive dh threatening me (now divorced and living a wonderfully happy life with dp and pregnant with his first) but I would have carried on otherwise.

This time, I intend to bf longer, assuming I can!

Good luck and sorry for the life story there hehe.

I have a friend who combi-fed (breast at night and on weekends, bottles during work weekdays) for about a year. So I think it can be done pretty well, but probably works better for some women than others.

gidders - it was because noone gave me nay advise and i had not discovered MN then. As a result i had poor suggestions (from mws etc shame on them) and i grabbed at any straws to try and make things better. My issue was sheer pain, (plus a big baby who fed lots and had a suck like a dyson), so expressed feeds delayed the next painful bout, then those turned into ff, then an extra ff cropped up here and there and noone told me (i know i know, i should have twigged) that my supply would suffer/that dd would prefer a bottle. I did keep mix feeding hr until she was 5 months when she self weaned. By then i could see exactly what i had done wrong but ti was too late!

when ds was born (5 years later), i had done a lot more research, was 5 years more experienced and very determined. I wa also very lucky yo come across a very good bf adviser when in hospital who believed i could do it even when i didn't think i could i knew that i had to feed feed feed, and we only introduced a ff at bedtime for my sanity. i had pnd with dd and was close to cracking with the sleep deprivation/ on offness of feeds and substituting this one feed helped me. I knew it was just to be the one feed. i never intended to top him up with any other formula feeds and am very proud of how i stuck to that.

for me that one ff a day saved my sanity and saved breastfeeding.

sometimes i am sad exclusive breastfeeding was curtailed, but i have a lot to be proud of that i kept it up and am still going (and have no idea how it will end now - ds would be a distraught little chap if i refused to provide)

Thanks everyone for your replies.

dietcokeandwine - I know what you mean about flexibility. It's not why I introduced formula, but I'm really enjoying that extra bit of freedom. Dd feeds a lot!

JodieO - I haven't had my latch checked, but I have no pain, she definitely swallowing properly and no funny shaped nipples or anything. I'm not an expert, but I think it's probably fine. Not sure how to go about getting it checked either - there is a breastfeeding counsillor at my hospital, but she is a bit bonkers (so far advice has included saying it is fine to breastfeed on 2 bottles of wine, and that bf provides 100% contraception, as long as you do it. So not that reliable a source! And my local breastfeeding cafe is run by health visitors, who aren't that great either, tbh)

Alittlebitshy - sounds like you have far better reasons for introducing the one ff than I have. You shouldn't be sad about not feeding exclusively, it's brilliant you are still feeding your ds. I would love to be in that position one day.