Mixing breast & formula

[Iamtiredandsoismybaby]

Does anyone do this?
I try to express as much breast milk as possible so that my husband can bottle feed our 7 week old son at night. But he’s recently not been very kind to my nipples & they’re very sore & cracked again (kind of like week 2-3 of breastfeeding sore)
I also struggle to find the time to express milk & I never seem to get that much.
He suggested adding in some formula to give me a break & I was just wondering if anyone else has done this & how your baby was with it?

It sounds like his latch is poor if your nipples are sore, find some videos of getting a good latch or ask for help. It shouldn’t really hurt like that, use plenty of lanolin before and after each feed.

Milk production is best between 2-5am, to help milk production you probably should be feeding or expressing at some point during the night. Expressing can be hard work as opposed to just bf entirely, I understand why your trying to but you might find it easier just to bf and have your partner help with nappies, taking baby between feeds etc. You can of course combo feed and I’m sure someone will advise about that.

With my first I expressed a bit for 3months and DH did a bedtime bottle....till one day I realised I was doing the bedtime bottle as he was late working etc...madness I just have breast instead and we stopped with expressing and bottles! 2nd was breast all the time and easiest, 3rd needed top ups till 3months old so expressed a LOT, hard work and now we are on breast fully it’s so much easier!

Did it with my 1st. He was breastfed but had 1 bottle of formula in the evening so I could sleep & DH could feed him. I didn't have time to pump so formula it was.
Agree with the other .. might have a poor latch , you can ask your health visitor to have a look at his latch.
Either way I have 3 DC one formula fed & 2 breastfed .. you wouldn't be able to tell which one was which.. they're all thriving just the same so don't put too much pressure on yourself x

I was EBF until last week when we had Covid and for 2 days I struggled to feed our baby so we had to use formula. Like you I'd been battling to try and make time to pump as well so my husband can do an evening feed, and so there is milk available if I want to go out to something. Honestly...if the pumping is causing you stress/you don't have time just use some formula. I'm going to continue pumping as and when I can but am going to stop stressing about it and we'll just use the formula when needed. She will still be mostly breast fed but this way I won't be as stressed and my husband still gets to be involved in feeding. Win win I think! Wish I'd allowed myself to do it earlier!

There are lots of really great threads on the infant feeding board about combi feeding with some brilliant advice. I've combi fed my DD since she was 2weeks old and it has really worked for us. Also, check out the kellymom website. Has really practical tips as well.

I combi fed DD from day 1. I never expressed, just either fed her from the breast or she had formula from a bottle. We never had any issues or nipple/test confusion as she knew no different
She was 3 months old when I stopped breast feeding and she went solely onto formula.