Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

Planning on breast and bottle feeding. Doable?

41 replies

TallyHoAndToodlePip · 01/01/2017 15:14

Just wondered if anyone would mind imparting some feeding wisdom on me please.

I'm due my first baby in April (so weird to think it's now this year! ) and had planned to breast feed and also express so DH can do some of the feeds with bottles. I'm hoping that'll give me a break occasionally and give him some extra bonding time with the baby.

Is that doable, realistically? Or is there a whole downside to this plan that I'm not aware of, due to my lack of experience?

Thanks in advance!

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

buckyou · 01/01/2017 16:56

I BF and expressed last time but I ended up totally hating the bloody pumping! It's really annoying and doesn't really feel like you are getting a break but obviously a necessity if you want to leave baby with someone else and don't want them to have formula.

I can't see that my toddler will be very impressed with me either having baby or pump attached to my boob.. So I'll probably just give some formula this time but not planning on BFing that long this time.

MoonlightMojitos · 01/01/2017 17:12

Thanks for all the replies re going back to work. I do plan to go back at 6 months (would love to have longer but finances probably won't stretch any longer) so I guess that will be fine and it will only be 5 hour days at first so not too long without being able to feed anyway. I've just never heard personally of a baby refusing a bottle so didn't realise! I used to work in a nursery, we took babies from 3 months and I'd never come across it myself, all the babies took bottle (a few expressed milkers, mainly formula) but I guess they were all lucky mums!

Original poster

TallyHoAndToodlePip · 01/01/2017 17:34

Thank you very much everyone for all of your thorough and weighted responses. I really appreciate your thoughts and opinions

I always wanted to at least try breastfeeding but wouldn't be upset if I had to switch to bottles or formula completely. My only aim is that baby is fed and gaining weight, however that may be and however works best for everyone. I'm not out to make things any trickier than they need to be.

It's nice to know my plan isn't impossible but I honestly hadn't realised how much of a faff pumping could be potentially. You just naively assume it'll be easy to do because of all the fancy pumps available!

Thanks also for saying DH will get other bonding opportunities. I guess that was the part of the plan that appealed to me the most but you're right that it's not the end of the world if he doesn't get to do the feeds 🖒

OP posts:

laulea82 · 01/01/2017 17:58

It depends on baby. Go with the flow and do what's best for your baby!
Dd had expressed milk and boob for 4 months and had no preference either way. I expressed once a day in the morning it wasn't a pain it was well worth it - to get a long bath knowing if she needed a feed I could stay relaxed for example. We stopped for unrelated medical reasons.
Planned to do the same for ds but he had tongue tie and jaundice and generally a fatty so mixed fed til 8m. Need their baby refused bottle or boob ever. Maybe I was lucky. See how you get on. Just one bottle a day expressed or formula is usually fine. For me the expressing was worth the short break.

laulea82 · 01/01/2017 18:06

Neither not need the

PeachBellini123 · 01/01/2017 18:27

I plan to do this OP as I'll also be going back to work at 6 months.

I plan to breastfed for 6 weeks then introduce an expressed bottle feed. HV is very supportive. I suppose it's best laid plans as who knows what the baby will do!

I have read that it's better if mum's not in the room when baby is offered a bottle as they will be able to smell the mum and milk. So I plan to get DH to offer the bottle and I'll stay out of the way..

DixieNormas · 01/01/2017 18:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

TallyHoAndToodlePip · 01/01/2017 18:51

Peach thanks for the tip on leaving the room when DH gives a bottle. That sounds logical!

Genuine, possibly daft question, but if baby can smell milk on mum does that mean a baby won't settle as well for her? As in would they settle better for dad because he doesn't perpetually smell of delicious milk??

OP posts:

Twinnypops · 01/01/2017 18:57

Not sure of the feasibility of this (I always had a baby on both boobs!) but could you express from one boob while feeding from the other? Expressing is quite a faff to do loads of, but it doing it once/twice per day might allow a crucial few hours of sleep while you OH takes over :-).

Spindelina · 01/01/2017 19:10

Twinny yes, you can - you often get a better let down too! But it does take a bit of juggling and practice, so sort out the baby's latch first and when it's all going great you can try to get the pump on at the same time.

You still have the faff of cleaning the bottles and pump, but you are right - that saves the pumping time itself.

Spindelina · 01/01/2017 19:11

Tally, my DD settled just as badly for either of us .

RedCrab · 01/01/2017 19:16

I always needed two hands for either - was never a hands free feeder

Chloe09 · 02/01/2017 10:24

I successfully breastfed my DD and expressed for bottle feeds from day 4/5! I started just having an extra bit ready for the cluster feeds to make the demand a little less for myself and so my OH could feed and bond. Then once she was settled I would express every other feed so other people could be involved and to ease the pressure on me etc, plus it also worked well when we were out too. She happily switched between boob and bottle cause it was something she was used to from very early on!

I plan on trying to do the same with this baby too and fingers crossed it works again. My advice would be to listen to your body and your baby and do what's best for you! If breastfeeding doesn't feel right for you express and bottle feed and baby still gets the same benefits of the milk.

WormitTheDog · 02/01/2017 10:57

Did this with our second with no trouble. she had only one bottle a day but that was enough for me. We used formula for that one feed as honestly I found expressing to be a grim task. It's completely doable, just start as you mean to go on.

HeCantBeSerious · 02/01/2017 11:01

That was my plan, so I bought a set of breastflow bottles and a pump. BF didn't work out though (lots of physical issues) so I ended up expressing full time (9 months each child). Both children used the bottles (which mimic a breastfeeding latch and the need to work for the milk unlike other bottles).

geekaMaxima · 02/01/2017 14:20

Kellymom has a useful guide on bottle-feeding breastfed babies so as not to negatively impact bf itself. It's basically various tips to prevent a baby developing a preference for bottle over boob, or one side over another etc.

Some babies will be fine regardless but DS1 did develop a bit of a bottle preference at 4-5 months (despite only having one per day) and these tips helped persuade him back to bf.

Flip

1 2