Is it ok to give breastfed baby a bottle of formula?

[Topazbutterfly]

I have a 2 week old and I'm anemic. I'm totally breastfeeding at the moment but when the babies feeding very often, I feel exhausted. I'm on iron tablets but the midwifes have said it's going to take time for my levels to build up, so I was thinking of giving the baby a bottle of formula at night but I don't know if I should or persevere with just breastfeeding. I have had a word with them about this and their very keen for me to stick with just beastfeeding and I do understand that it's better for the baby but would supplementing with the formula be okay? Many thanks

Mixed feeding is fine. I did this and baby went happily from boob to bottle

Gave me a break and meant dad could help feed and me rest

Sadly many hv think formula is the devils work. It isn't

Yes if you want to carry on bf and getting supply up then try and express

Many say to get supply up need to only bf and no bottled to 6w

I have found as A maternity nurse that some babies reject bottles at 6w as never had once introduced

In the end you have to think about you. You are tired

I did an evening formula feed from day 2 with my DC2 and 3, wish I had with the first too.
it was great for us, I mixed with bf til 6 months and stopped then out of choice.

A word of warning, which may seem a little random.

We gave my BF baby one bottle of formula at 4 days old and no formula after.

He developed a severe dairy allergy at 5 months old, and the allergist told me this can happen when the body becomes sensitised to the single formula feed.

So they advise to use a hypoallergenic formula if it is once off.

If you give the formula regularly (at least 3 times a week), it is thought that this should be enough to avoid an allergy.

I did it. It allowed me to rest properly whilst dh took over baby duties during early days. I used to express a little to get them used to the bottle first. Your health is the most important thing here, to be able to look after your baby properly you have to loom after yourself. HV can be a little ott evangelical about bf sometimes.

Absolutely fine! I think it's best to introduce a bottle within the first 4 weeks as otherwise they often reject the bottle. If you plan to feed a bottle of formula every day there is no need to express milk as you don't need your body to make up the lost milk. I got my husband to feed my babies a bottle around 11pm which meant I could go to bed at 8pm and sleep til 2am. Getting that block of sleep did wonders for my physical and mental health.

Give yourself a break and give some formula. I recommend Hipp Combiotic - my midwife thought I was still giving my son breast milk when she saw his poop! Unless baby actually has a milk allergy then ignore ththat advice to give HA formula - it smells and tastes absolutely vile and my son rejected it every time (I too was told that I must only give HA. I later learned that was total rubbish).

Ignore the breastfeeding mafia. My poor son slipped off the percentiles for weight because I was so consumed with the idea that he had to be breastfed (he had a tongue tie and I was later told that his palate was so high and tongue coordination so poor that he probably never would have fed directly from me) - I pumped to the schedule I was advised and then developed terrible mastitis three times because nobody quite seemed to believe that I had a huge oversupply and I knew no better.

I switched to formula at 12 weeks and never looked back. My son is thriving and I have my mental health back.

It is so emotive and I wish you well.

My first was combi fed from early on due to weight loss, up until about 15 weeks when he started refusing bottles and went on to breastfed for a couple of years. My second has been having a bottle before bed from early on and again has caused no issues to breastfeeding.

Its worth looking into pace feeding and also expressing is an option if you don't necessarily want to give formula - but again, nothing bad will happen if you do decide to give formula!

There are lots of mums advising that a bottle won't affect supply, but at 2 weeks and with a medical issue that is known to be associated with supply problems, it's not a good idea generally at this stage.

Most important is for OP to rest and eat well.