Combi feeding - Mixing formula and expressed breast milk

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Does anyone have any experience with mixing formula and expressed breast milk? DC (1 week old) and I are not gelling well breastfeeding and have now been bottle feeding formula (80ml per feed) but would love to incorporate my expressed breast milk in some way.

Does anyone have any experience with this? If so how did you do it? Do I just swap out a formula feed for some EBM?

Thank you!

Basically yes!

Yes, just do some feeds with formula and some with BM. Don't put too much BM in the bottle in one go because it's disheartening having to throw undrunk BM away after all that pumping. Also don't literally mix the two in one bottle - you can of course, but formula needs throwing away sooner, so again, you could waste the BM.

Final bit of advice from someone who pumped for two babies... BM isn't everything. Spend time with your baby, don't sit chained to a pump all day. I did that with DC1 and swore I wouldn't do it with DC2. I still did it with DC2 because it's hard to let go and hormones and guilt etc etc. Really wish I'd gone for formula and used the five hours of pumping time a day for baby cuddles instead.

Thanks! Do you put the same amount of BM as you did formula?

I definitely need to stop beating myself up, ended up having an EMCS and since then my mindset is all over the place 😭

A IBCLC called Lucy Ruddle released a book last year called mixed up to help breastfeeding mums combination feed alongside breastfeeding, this could help you? It's on Amazon or kindle x

You can mix them in the same bottle, but as pp said, you do not want to waste the breatmilk. It doesn't matter when you give the breastmilk, but I prefer it for nightime feeds (my baby sleeps very well; if that wasn't the case I would propably give formula for the nightime as it fills them up more). I give formula in the daytime so if we aren't home I don't have to worry about bringing the breastmilk, heating up etc.

At Every feed I'd always offer expressed milk first (if available) and in small quantities (so you don't waste any of it) and then formula.

Basically whatever you prefer your baby to have offer that first.

I’d offer the expressed milk first, then give formula as needed.

Not sure if anyone else has read this or can link, but I remember reading something when I did this that said breast milk is different at different times of the day.

So milk expressed in the evening will be better for helping them sleep etc. so if you are expressing and storing before use, might be worth putting time of express on the bottle so you know when best to use it?

Yes, I think I did the same quantity regardless, once I was in a routine. I expect others would say babies don't need as much formula as breast milk, but in practice it's all trial and error - see how much you can pump first and work with what you've got.

When to give formula vs BM... Whatever works for you. Once I was in a routine and pumping enough to give BM for most feeds, I would feed BM during the day and then at night we would take a 200ml ready to drink bottle of formula upstairs to bed, with a sterilised bottle. Then you're not faffing about with fridges and kettles in the middle of the night.

Having said that, you will still be faffing about in the middle of the night because 2am is prime pumping time.