Breastfeeding

[LauraElizabeth92]

My little girl is 4 months old and I've been exclusively breastfeeding since she was born. Recently she has been making it increasingly difficult. I would still like to breastfeed for her first feed of the day and last feed before bed, but was considering using formula in between. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

How is it getting difficult? Could it be related to teething, or is she easily distracted?

How has she been making or difficult?

I combi feed. My little girl hasn't had any issues with it but I did start her fairly early around 2-3 weeks old. I am flexible with the formula feeds so they fit into where it makes my life easier that day. I don't think there would be any issues with what you are planning to do, your boobs might just get a bit over full at first.

My little one and me have always had issues with breastfeeding, had quite a traumatic time when he had his tongue tie cut too which I don't think helped. we've had numerous people help us to no avail, he cries when I have a let down so it's been so difficult, we've combination fed from about 8 weeks, he is now nearly 5 months. I want to get to 6 months with him (I pump too, just in case he doesn't take the breast) we've managed to get a feeding routine that works, and that my boobs can keep up with, but it's been a little difficult at times , so I would just say maybe get some help first depending on what the issues are, but then just go with what works for you :) xx

I have been working towards a similar goal with my DD who is nearly 6 months old. She had the odd bottle of expressed milk since around 7 weeks and then I introduced formula after a nasty bout of Mastitis around 3 months.

I then dropped one day feed a week so now she only has formula between 7am and 4pm (ready for my return to work). She goes happily between breast and bottle and I never felt too uncomfortable either.

Has your LO drunk from a bottle before?

She just gets really fussy and arches her back and starts squealing, even when she's latched on, she'll come off and start making a fuss, when we're out it just really stresses me out, because I'm trying really hard to be discreet and she makes that difficult to. I definitely still want to feed her on the boob first thing in the morning and her last feed at night. She's really good at taking the bottle, I express occasionally when I know I'm going to need a couple of bottles.

4 months is a classic 'difficult phase' for bf babies. They often get fussy during this stage. If you want to continue bf then hang on and things should settle in a few weeks or so. I remember my baby being crazy squirmy and making weird noises whilst nursing at this age but it did pass and is really common!

It sounds really normal tbh, and will probably settle down soon.

If you want to swap to formula though, then it's best to do it gradually. Swap one feed a day for formula, and when your supply seems to have settled down you could then swap another one until you're doing all formula feeds.

Ah okay thank you zzzz1111 thats good to know!

DD1 went through this too - just as I was returning to work. I was so worried that after expressing so that she could be bottle fed during the day, she'd be happier using bottles and we'd end up switching to formula eventually (were very very skint at the time so this was worrying). Day 2 of being without me all day and she suddenly stopped all the shenanigans! I have always wondered if it was coincidence or if she suddenly quite appreciated that mummy time and it relaxed her. Maybe taking a nice leisurely day out for a pamper could do you/her good!

It does sound normal from my experience, and possibly wind related. When my dd used to do the back arching it was usually because of trapped wind. Infacol and doing the "bicycle legs" helped with that.

Dd was always bf but I do have a couple of friends who mix fed successfully for a while. I remember one of them saying she started by replacing one breastfeed at a time with a bottle, so it was a gradual process. I know she had to try several different bottles and teats before she found one her ds would take, so that's something to bear in mind. Try searching for advice on Kellymom, they are a fantastic resource. If you put 'Kellymom combined feeding' into Google I think you should find some related pages. Hope that helps!

It sounds your baby has silent reflux. Mine was doing the same and was diagnosed with silent reflux. Ped put him on babies magic tea (I was mixing one oz tea in 8oz expressed milk) and this thing worked.