Combi Feeding a newborn

[WinterPine]

Due baby #2 soon and would like to combi feed if possible.

Our first was EBF but I would really like the option of a break this time.

In an ideal scenario baby would have a bottle of formula last feed / two feeds at night and then maybe one other time a day if my husband is looking after them.

Has anyone managed this successfully? If so, did you go straight into this routine or establish breastfeeding first then try and introduce the bottle?

With #1 we tried to introduce a bottle at about 6 weeks but it was too late and baby was having NONE of it so definitely think we need to get the ball rolling earlier...

I did this! First night home from the hospital, we gave one very small formula feed (<20ml). This wasn't by choice - I was exhausted and miserable. But it then became our routine - around 9pm, I would go to bed after BFing the baby, and my partner would give the next feed as formula.

During middle of the night cluster feeds, we would also do formula top ups if the baby was still giving hunger signals after 45 mins of breastfeeding.

We used the ready sterilised mini bottles with teats to start with, because we found the Tommee Tippee stage 1 teats were too big. Gradually LO grew into them (maybe around 3 weeks?).

The NHS don't advise combi feeding from the beginning, but the health visitor said it had probably helped the baby be bottle-accepting.

I also did various things to preserve my supply, like making sure I was feeding between 12-6am - once the baby started spacing feeds, it meant that the formula feed had to change time of day, and meant I was still doing night feeds at 6 months (but by then it was only one night feed and I didn't mind). I also kept the formula feeds to 2x day for a long time because I didn't want the baby to develop a bottle preference. But it did make it easy to transition to formula once back at work (we're now on 1xBF 4xFF + solids).

We started doing this from about 10 days old, with DH giving a 10pm formula feed so that I could get 3 hours of unbroken sleep. It worked brilliantly (and saved my sanity, since my baby fed 2 hourly like clockwork).

My friend combi fed from about 6 weeks and it worked really well for her. She waited until she had breastfeeding established and her milk supply secured then introduced a couple of bottles a day from about 6 weeks in.

Yes we did one formula bottle per evening from birth with dc2, so I could have some guaranteed time with dc1 at her bedtime, and I didn't need to express as it was formula. It's been working really well. It's so good to get that 1-1 time with dc1. Also when dc2 started nursery he was familiar with bottles.

It took me until 10 days post partum to start a milk supply and I had to take a prolactin and use a pump to get things going. I had to bottle feed with formula from the start. Once I had a supply I used to make up formula with water then I would give the babies a mixture of the water/formula mixture and breast milk.

Obviously don't use breast milk instead of water to make formula, that can stuff up a baby's digestion and would make them ill.

Although, as I didn't express, the formula bottle was "extra" to my supply, so dc2's weight gained a bit rapidly...! He shot up from 50th to 95th percentile within weeks and has stayed there ever since. (Although you could argue that this is just where his weight is meant to be, it's in proportion to his height).

We also mix formula and expressed breastmilk in the bottle, it's what ds has at nursery. We call it a cocktail lol. He seems to prefer it to either separately (and I never quite express enough for a full feed at once, always expressing in a hurry at work, so it has to be topped up with formula)

We did this from 3 days old, no issues at all being BF, having expressed milk or formula.

I combi fed my twins in the early days. Never had any issue with bottles and they were offered both from day 1.

I think it's crucial to pump whenever they have a bottle in the first few weeks to keep your supply up.

Think about which feeds you swap for a bottle. Night time feeds are important for establishing supply. Ours had an afternoon bottle and that worked well for us. I preferred to breastfeed through evening fussiness though.

Not sure what "nipple confusion is". Not group went on about it, but I didn't really listen as I planned to ebf eldest. Certainly my twins had no issue swapping between breast, bottle and dummy.

Combi feeding worked really well for us - it allowed me to have a bit more sleep, and DH enjoyed feeding the baby. We used it when cluster feeding became unbearable too.

We waited until breastfeeding was reasonably established at 3 weeks. DD didn't want to take the bottle at first, but DH wore my pyjama top and persevered!

I was worried she would prefer the bottle, but she always much preferred breastfeeding. Would happily take a bottle if need be though

Thanks all - I'm saving this thread for when the baby arrives so I can follow some of the advice.. really hoping we don't get another bottle refuser 🙈