Formula at night

[violetcuriosity]

Hi,

My baby is 5 weeks old and after another dose of COVID and struggling to function with breastfeeding exclusively my partner has started giving baby 2 bottles of formula at night, one around 12 and one around 4. This is working really really well for us, she is sleeping so much better, he is enjoying the time together and it's helping me recover.

Is this a bad thing to do? What will happen to my supply? Im breastfeeding all day and doing the 8pm bedtime feed. So far my supply feels the same.

Thanks

This is totally not a bad thing to do! Do you want to carry on breast feeding? If so just do it as and when you can and let your lovely partner do bottles when he can, you can successfully combi feed as long as you want, maybe look it up online to see how other people cope xx

Thanks for replying!

I'm happy to breastfeed during the day long term, its easier and cheaper 😂 but the nights were hard as she could smell my milk I think and then with COVID I just needed a break to actually get some rest. Ok thank you, I'll see how we go and see what happens with my supply, she feeds so much during the day that hopefully it'll maintain. I was thinking that after 5 weeks some babies must naturally go for longer stretches without feeding at night and the body must adjust?

Some babies do go longer but it's very normal and common for them to continue waking at regular intervals for months.

Keep feeding at every opportunity to keep your supply, but a couple of bottle feeds won't make a massive impact at this stage

You supply goes up and down to match demand so you will not make enough milk for 100% of baby's needs if you continue to suppliment with formula.
Your supply goes up as baby gets bigger and drinks more.
When you feel well enough you could start to express for the night feeds your husband gives.
Ideally babies are fed breast milk exclusivley for five months until they start tasting food and then breast milk and foods.
It's your choice whether to breast feed. Your question asks about your supply so I answered this way; please do not take it as a value judgement.

My 5 month old is exclusively breastfed, I have an event coming up which will have me away for 2 nights. I haven’t expressed enough milk for my time away. Would it be ok to give formula during this time then resume breastfeeding when I return. I will be pumping and storing whilst I am away.

Any advice would be great