Why is mixed feeding not encouraged?

[PotatoPolly]

exactly that really, just wondered why bf and ff at the same time is frowned upon?

Its not frowned upon per say, its just the fact if you are trying to breastfeed, adding in FF will hinder your milk supply.
I bf dc3 exclusively for 2 months, then found the constant cluster feeding in the evenings a bit much, so added a ff in the evening, very quickly my milk supply dropped until I had to add more ff's in, until eventually at 4 months my mild supply was so poor I gave in and just ff.

Two reasons I think, the first being that at the beginning, you need to establish a supply of milk by breastfeeding initially, this is why newborns breastfeed a lot, to get things going and help your body determine how much milk is needed. If you start bottle feeding formula too early then your body will think it needs less milk and I think then the concern is your supply will dwindle and the baby won't get enough from breastfeeding, and therefore you'll need to supplement with formula more and more.

Secondly, people worry about 'nipple confusion' as bottles are quite a different technique for babies than feeding from the breast. However some bottles claim they are similar (medela, tommy tippee). I do know babies who haven't struggled with this at all though, and some that really have.

IMO, if you have successfully established a supply and breastfeeding is going well, there is nothing wrong in then either expressing a feed to be bottle fed by others or changing some feeds to formula. If you've got really good supply though you may need to drop feeds gradually however as you may end up with over engorged breasts (too much milk) and risk mastitis etc. I have friends who have introduced one bottle as early as a week in and managed to combine with bf successfully, and others who have done this about 6weeks and it's worked well.

I think health visitors and midwives try to discourage it as it can be quite hard to establish breastfeeding in the first place and therefore they want people to persevere and give themselves the best chance of it working before introducing new things like bottles.

This is my fairly basic understanding, hth!

That's great, thank you very much for your replies.

I think DH would like to be able to help out, so maybe I'll try expressing for him to feed to the baby.

It's such a minefield!

It does knack your supply up eventually. Personally I don't like the thought of tiny babies having formula destroying their virgin gut but that is an unpopular personal opinion I tend to keep to myself lest it unleashes snarling flaming bottles at my head

Hi there, I can only bottlefeed but two of my friends did a combo. One from after the first week with a bottle of formual before bed and the other because she couldn´t get enough milk so was expressing and feeding.

They both wanted to do that so the baby would be used to having a bottle as well as breast and made it much easier to wean as the baby was already used to having a bottle. Neither had any problems whatsoever.

We gave our DD an 11pm bottle from about five days old, mostly so I could get a chunk of sleep & also so my OH could feed her & never had an issue. Used Tommee Tippee closer to nature bottles so perhaps that helped?
She did just go through four weeks of bottle refusing but have now found that she'll take a bottle if I haven't been around for a while.

DH doesn't have to feed the baby to help out. He can wind the baby, cuddle the baby, change the baby, bath and dress the baby. And bring you tea and sandwiches.

You will be busy feeding the baby a lot. Why would you then want to spend time expressing as well? You'd be better off having a nice bath and half an hour for yourself. And whilst he's feeding the baby the expressed milk, what are you going to do with your full with milk and nearly exploding boobs?

It's one of those things that everyone sees as a nice idea without thinking through the logistics or seeing how much of a PITA it is for the mother. And that included me! I learnt from experience!

I introduced an evening ff at 10 weeks so that DH could feed and settle dd and I could get some sleep (before getting up for the night feeds). It messed up my supply almost immediately. I went from having excess milk to not enough, and had to start doing formula top ups. Bf-ing and then doing a ff top up is the worst of both worlds. I regretted it, and had to transition onto ff-ing before I was mentally ready.

I think the pros & cons of mixed feeding have been covered so far but I think & have in the past bf longer due to mixed feeding.

The problem I've always experienced is crippling exhaustion. So yes the dad can do everything except feeding but you still need to wake up to feed!

My biggest gripe with bf was that I ended up doing everything. I really will this time as dp & I have separated!

As for Virgin guts etc...

I say this a lot on threads like this, but please don't feel that you need to express or mixed feed so that your DH can 'help out'.

It is amazing how often on here you see well meaning men saying that the want to help out with feeds, leading to a more complicated regime for the mum (e.g. if you are giving an expressed bottle, obviously you also need to express when the bottle is being given, or ideally around that time, so the bottle is work for you and not giving you a break from that feed. All it might really be doing is moving the timing of the work around!).

If ff, mixed feeding, expressing or bf is right for you then that is great. Do what suits.

But if you solely bf and your DH changes, winds, settles, cuddles, brings drinks and tv remote controls, etc, guess who will be spending most time with the baby?

Also, too often, the 'helping' with bottles peters out once the dad is back at work. Or, also, men think they have 'done their bit' by giving the bottle and don't 'see' all the other jobs a baby needs. Not saying your DH is like this, but I see it alarmingly often, both in real life and on here.

Where I think expressing can help is once bfing is established sometimes expressing a bottle for the first night feed then getting an early night, leaving your partner on duty, can get you a nice chunk of uninterrupted sleep.

i think its frowned upon because the medical professional would prefer you to breastfeed. i dont know (or care) whether they are wrong or right about that.

they are worried if you do a mixture of the two you will drop breastfeeding, either b/c your supply never properly establishes/diminishes, you find it easier etc etc

on a practical level, i found using a bottle for the 11pm feed (either formula or expressed milk) a massive help because it enbabled me to sleep a bit longer.

but some mothers seem to prefer not sleeping than implementing methods (possibly not very mumsnet methods) of getting more ZzzzzzzzzzZZzzz.

Lol @ Suzietwo!

I have ended up sleeping in traffic jams due to exhaustion when my dc were little.

I'm dreading it again in a few weeks!!

I think it is discouraged because it can affect milk supply.

however, if you have enough milk to feed a small nation, as I did, thats not going to be an issue!

I gave DS2 one bottle of formula per day from 5 days old, just to help myself not feel so responsible! It gave us more options when he was older too.

expressing is more trouble that it is worth IMO

oh im not suggesting its not tiring!

but some of the angst and refusal to do those things which will make the child sleep/life easier makes me a touch unsympathetic!

What will make the child sleep Suzie? Seriously, I've had two non-sleepers and no. 3 is on the way. If you know something, share!!

Seriously, I agree that ideology isn't necessarily helpful. But equally I have had friends be very upset at being unable to sustain breastfeeding when, unknown to them, they had done things (like giving formula bottles at night from day one and so skipping key night feeds, or in one case enforcing a four hour regime from birth all day) which may well have compromised supply. If bf-ing isn't a big deal for a woman it's obviously a different analysis to if she will be really sad if it doesn't work out.

haha

no chance in hell am i getting drawn into THAT discussion! good luck with No 3

I mix fed very successfully twice. Got breast feeding established (which took a couple of months) and then introduced a bottle. It was only ever one bottle a day- I used to feed DC about 8pm and then go to bed, DH would do the 10.30/11.00 feed and so when I woke again for the 2-3am feed I'd had some good quality sleep. Once breast feeding was established I just produced enough for the feeds I was doing. In the great scheme if things it's not a long time-4 months? After 7 months moved onto FF and had no problem with bottle refusal.

It worked very well for us, we introduced one bottle of FF at 11pm when he was a couple of days old, the rest of the time he was bf, never had any problems with supply or confusion over nipple/teat.

If its something you would like to try, then give it a go, doesn't work for everyone, just like some people don't take to bf or are against ff.

With DS1 I expressed after a few weeks so DH could help but DS had his own ideas. He refused any bottle or cup until he was over 6 months and I was panicking about what would happen when I went back to work!

Tbh I didn't bother expressing with the next 2 babies - for about 3 months I did sometimes feel I did little else but feed but DH did lots of other stuff and I rather enjoyed not cleaning / changing many nappies. Sitting down feeding a baby while reading or mnetting wasn't a massive hardship

Given that everyone's experience is different tho GH, I think my advice would be to wait and see how things go. Yes, I would recommend bfing, but I think until you get there with DC1 you don't really know how everything else will go.

If you want to express to get a break, then the easiest way (for you) is to:

• express on the other side when you are feeding the baby anyway (you may need to do the "rugby ball hold" to do this so the baby's feet go behind you and don't kick the pump). If you pick one feed a day, at home, where you always do this, it can become quite easy, IF:

• put dp in charge of EVERYTHING to do with the bottles except making milk in his body. He should wash them, sterilise them, freeze and label milk, wash and sterilise the pump, etc.

If you pick the morning feed to express, you will need to have the pump sterilised and assembled, and a sterilised bottle, ready for this. If you get dp to do it as routine this can work. If you try to do it yourself, you will have to get up before the baby to get everything ready and not delay the baby's first feed when (s)he is hungry, which is not a net gain for you.

I never got dp to take this on, this is a do as I say not as I do post!

I'll tell you straight up that establishing breast feeding properly is the hardest thing you will do in the first year. I think combination feeding is perfect and ideal (would love to just combination feed and did achieve it well at 6 mts) but I think that 90% of people who set out to combination feed will fail and end up automatically on ff. those first 6 weeks building up supply to fully feed an infant are tough as hell in my experience and to introduce just one bottle 'to have a break' can at best make your next day or so tougher and at worst lead to a slippery slope of introducing more formula feeds. I'm not against ff at all, but if you want to bf, you need to stay away from formula completely for the first 6 weeks at least. Then once baby is satisfied and feeding well throughout the whole day, pic a feed to replace and stick to the same one every day.