Breastfeeding/formula

[Maggiejags]

Hello!

Looking to hear others experiences...

My little boy is currently 7 weeks and breastfed only. I started a course before I went on mat leave that, if I continued, would mean leaving baby for a day when he is 14 weeks, and for two days (not overnight) when he is 5 months. I want to try and finish the course if I can, but I'm trying to work out the feeding situation. I do express so my husband can do the odd bottle, which he takes, but I'm worried about being able to express enough for the times I've mentioned above. What are others experience of this? I'm thinking of leaving formula for him to have on those days, but worry about whether he will take it/if it will upset his tum/my supply/feeling guilty etc etc etc!

Thoughts?

You will need to express to keep your supply up and prevent mastitis so will this be possible whilst your away? I’ve given my baby the odd formula and it has not caused any upset to his tummy and lots of people combo feed with no issues. If you already express it might just be worth expressing before you go so he gets breast milk when your not there. Keep getting your husband to do a bottle as we stopped and when we tried again he rejected it at 3 months. He also had a meltdown and wouldn’t calm down until I got home so trial feeding whilst your out the house too

Have you tried one of the silicone pumps? Like a hakaa or the naturebond? You can put it on the other breast when feeding to catch the let down so no need to pump in addition. Really useful!

And yes, you will need to pump when away from baby for comfort. Can that be accommodated? It's probably best to start the ball rolling on that early from my experience.

You won't need to express a huge amount of milk. Babies only need 1‐1.5oz of milk per hour.

The kellymom site has lots of great advice for expressing/being away from baby.

My DS physically couldn't breastfeed so I exclusively pumped breast milk for the first 3 months. When I switched to formula he had no tummy trouble whatsoever and actually, for one with quite a modest appetite, he guzzled it right down like it was the best thing in the world. As long as you keep up the expressing formula is very unlikely to do your dc any harm.

Going back to work in 4 weeks. DS is 13 weeks and have done 4 KIT days so far. Whilst at work I express and he takes formula from other people and we revert to boob for morning, evening and during the night. No stomach problems. We introduced a bottle of formula a day very early on to get him used to it. We have about 10 secs of face pulling as he realises it's not his favourite stuff, then he downs the bottle as if to say "this will do!".

Your DC will be fine. Try it out before you do any course days - you'll soon spot any issues

Thank you so much, everyone. Your comments are really helpful. I'm going to try a couple of formula feeds with him and see how he goes with that.