Anyone had a premature baby who did ok on formula?

[Diveintoyou]

Baby born at 28 weeks. Pumped and exclusively breast fed via bottles and is now nearly term. I don’t have a great supply - will now need to start supplementing with frozen breast milk I got when baby was little and wasn’t taking much.

i don’t know what to do next - transition to formula once it’s used up and cut down the pumping? I don’t want to keep pumping as it’s very restrictive and taking up lots of time and I don’t know if it’s worth trying to teach baby to breastfeed when I don’t have enough supply to exclusively breastfeed (had the same low supply issue with other children and confirmed by lactation consultant).

HV and Drs/nurses are really hammering home importance of breastmilk for premature babies.

so I was wondering if anyone had a very premature baby they formula fed and how they were on it?

any advice?

Not born as early as yours but I had twins at 34 weeks also had another at 35 weeks all exclusively bottle fed Hasn't made any difference at all to them. They are all very healthy strong children.

Hey I had my twins at 33 weeks, both bottle fed using Aptamil and both 5 now, strong and healthy boys. Never breastfed.

Do what's right for u and the baby. Be kind to yourself x

Not as early as yours but DS was exclusively bottle fed (well tube at first) and started on a special formula for prem babies to get the cals in then was cow and gate. No issues at all.

You can also get preterm formula for prem babies.

You say you're babies are almost to term so you e been breastfeeding them for about 12 weeks already. You e done well don't beat yourself up if your body says no more xx

Mine was 5 weeks early. 3 lbs 15 ounces.
Had formula from the off. It's fine

Well done, you have done amazingly well to give breastmilk so far.
If you move to formula I recommend you introduce it in stages so have 1/4 of the feed as formula with 3/4 breastmilk for a few days then half/half etc if you can. This will help with tolerance and the change in taste.

You can get a prem formula from the hospital or your GP, they have more protein and additional vitamins. Once more than half total feeds are a prem formula you should be able to stop the vitamin supplements (multi vit, iron and folic) but discuss with your consultant.

You’ve done brilliantly getting to term, my DS was born at 34 weeks and I had to switch to formula quite quickly as he wouldn’t latch and I couldn’t get any milk from expressing. He is now a strapping 16 year old and i’m just back from watching him run provincial athletics. My DD was born at term later and I thought I would have similar issues, but she was so easy and I exclusively breast fed for 6 months - still could never express though!

My premature (31 week) twins had formula and are now 20 yrs old and at university and they are fine.

Formula is developed to replicate the nutrition of breast milk and is a totally acceptable replacement for breast. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to sell it.

Ds1 was born at 30 weeks, and was on special formula for prem babies. He's done just fine.

Babies can far more effectively feed from you than you can pump. Why not try breastfeeding, you can always supplement with formula too or stop a few weeks down the line if it's not working for you. Once you are established it is far easier than formula especially out and about

Not as early as your baby, but our daughter had been exposed to both smoking and drugs before birth, so was smaller than expected at birth, so a double whammy being premature. She was on formula from the off, she’s now three and fine.

Nutriprem 2 is made for premature babies post term. You've done your bit.

What an amazing achievement bfing for 12 weeks through a such hard time 🩷 preterm formula should be just fine now term xx

Wow that is amazing you've done so so so so well, please please take that on board. That's an astonishing achievement. Not as early as your baby but yes ours have done fine on formula. You superstar.

My eldest was premature at 34 weeks, formula fed and is now all grown up at 32 and absolutely fine, you do what is comfortable for you - Happy mum, happy baby xx

You've done so incredibly well op. It's ok to stop if you want to at any point. The staff pressurising me and hammering me over and over again with messages about breastfeeding being the best was a strong contributor to my ptsd after i finally got home. Wish id told them all to piss off seeing as i didn't have any milk and them guilt tripping me didn't make any suddenly appear!

Mine went home on nutriprem formula and they are now great strapping 8 year olds who love causing havoc. Do what is best for you, your baby will be absolutely fine on formula.

My DC was born at 26 weeks and I expressed breast milk for a while. In the end DC needed to put on weight for an operations so I swapped to a mix of breast milk and formula. I stopped expressing by the time DC was term and used up the rest of my breast milk, so then was fully formula fed.
This was 26 years ago and DC was a very healthy child.

My dd was born at 31 weeks and at the start I pumped using a hospital breast pump as the one I bought was rubbish. I'd pump when I was at home and freeze the little bags and take them to hospital for them to tube feed her.
She would fall asleep after tiny amounts of milk so the NICU said I should use a formula specifically for prem babies as it had more of what she needed to grow so I gradually stopped doing the breast milk and went over to formula.
She's now 25 years old, and does have various conditions but I don't think that's anything to do with her being premature or the milk she had.

50+ years ago I was born at 32 weeks and fed in evap milk and brown sugar or something mad! I have a PhD and (🤞) no health problems. O

Good luck to you and your baby!