Combination feeding

[Dlah]

So I really just want to know people's different experiences with the above. There are so many do's/donts but whose actually trialled/error'd!

Particularly interested in those who have combination fed from day 1 (as opposed to the common 'wait 6 weeks to establish breast feeding' that I keep seeing'

What are your experiences - good and bad :)

I can't answer your question as DD1 is due in the coming few days. But watching with interest as it's something I'm interested in doing.

I've heard/read the same about only approaching combination feeding at 6weeks+ (so as to allow milk flow to establish and not cause nipple confusion) so had presumed that was the only sensible approach.

What are your reasons (if you don't mind me asking)? I'm keen just to allow just a bit of flexibility/ take the pressure off a bit, giving us another tool in our armoury to help in those early days and giving DH a route to being part of early days feeding.

Have a few reasons - firstly, whilst I'm happy to breast feed, I've never seen it as a long term thing, I just want her to have the initial goodness to get her started. Also want my partner to get involved and form that bond from day one and from a slightly more selfish/practical point of view, I'm retraining starting next week (2 weeks before due oops!) because it's the most logical to do during maternity because of my normal job, so it means on a Monday from 2 weeks she'll be with my sister from 10-5, so she needs to be fed and I dare say I'll be expressing enough to sustain during that time

So yeah, a few reasons overall that it just makes more sense :)

I combine fed a single baby and twins from the second week. It worked really well and husband was able to take a feed whilst I slept in the early evening, so I had a four hour stretch to get me through the night.

Found it worked for us and will be doing the same again.

Wait until you have established your supply. I combi-fed dd because my milk didnt come in, then it never came in. The GP prescribed 'lactation failure' but bf support groups contridict this by saying that the baby needs to suckle as much as possible to stimulate your supply. I'll never know if I could have sucessfully bf'd dd as I gave formula when I had no milk and then no milk came. A bit of a vicious circle. If you want baby to get used to the bottle then I'd recomend expressing first. Good luck!

I didn't combi feed from day one as such, I did however give a bottle of expressed breastmilk from day four, one bottle in the evening, as I wanted my DD to be used to having an occasional bottle. Then at three months decided to exclusively breastfeed, no idea why, a guilt thing I think. After that she refused a bottle and it took me two months and a lot of wasted milk to wean her off the breast.

Two of my friends have combi fed from the start and had no issues. Every baby is different, as is every Mum, so do what makes you happy, as they say happy mummy equals a happy baby.

I breastfed until eight months in the end

I combination fed for 3 months then switched to formula. No problems.

I combo fed from day 2. My baby developed very early onset jaundice, which worries the doctors of it develops in first 24 hours and was very dehydrated. He was prescribed 30ml formula top ups every feed and I was to try to feed him for 20 minutes each side first, with a max of 3 hours between start of one feed and start of the next.

I ended up maintaining some level of formula feeding from then on after the jaundice cleared. It worked fine for us though I went through a crazy phase of feeling like a failure and following highly demanding pumping regimes from BF websites to try to move to exclusive breastfeeding. I honestly now don't quite know why!

I combi fed from 3 weeks to 15 months. Supply was never enough to get DC back up to birth weight as was growth restricted and had a long way to go. There was no nipple confusion (I was told by a lactation consultant that's a myth, they just get used to the faster flow of bottles and the milk coming out quicker, nothing to do with nipples per se), DC was happy with both sources. I did both at all feeds though not alternating which might make a difference. I suppose the question is why do you want to mix feed? That would help identify the best strategy.

All reasoning above, 3 fold really :)

Thanks for comments so far