Breastfeeding/Bottles

[Tweetypie95]

Hi Ladies,

I'm looking for advice as a first time mum to be...

I'm really keen to breastfeed once little one gets here. Although under no illusions that for whatever that sometimes it just doesn't work out. I don't want to put too much pressure on myself and just have a fairly relaxed attitude towards it. I'll be disappointed but don't want to beat myself up about it.

So I get that I'll need to have some bottles for backup. I do like the idea of being able to pump (when I am comfortable) and letting my partner have the bonding experience of feeding baby himself. (Maybe this is a more of an idialistic idea and maybe not that practical. New mum so I will learn as I go). So for this reason I'm looking at the Medala bottles.

Obviously these are quite expensive so don't want to buy more than I need (as I think this is a typical new mum thing, getting excited and overbuying). Can any of you suggest a good amount to get me going? I can always by more if needed once baby is here but a good starting point would help.

Worried that if I have issues with breastfeeding and have to bottle feed that I may not have enough bottles. How many realistically do you suggest?

Ohh Rambly. Sorry.

Thanks in advance!

Hiya was in same boat as you are and BF just didn't work out so we invested in some MAM anti colic bottles and haven't looked back since.

Realistically you will need two to three bottles and MAM do them in sets which makes it easier and starting with smallest size of bottle and teat and let baby take it from there.

Easiest cleaning imho is Milton as it's fast and simple and cheap.

I also bought the MAM breast pump set! Comes with everything and just bought a couple of extra bottles!

I probably wouldn't buy any bottles until you need them actually. They advise you don't use bottles until 4 weeks if ebf anyway, and if you need them before then the shops will still be there!

If you buy loads you might end up like me, 2 kids in, realised I hate expressing, and that neither of them could/can drink from bottles anyway. Honestly, some people can't bf for whatever reason, my babies can't bottle feed - like, AT ALL!!!

And if you go on the actual MAM website, they are sending a free bottle for you to test with the newborn teat at the min! Just pay for delivery. . Hope that helps!

If you are planning on bf then I wouldn't bother buying any bottles until (if!) you need them.

I will go against the grain and say even if you breastfeed, express and get baby usd to bottles early on. Dd had expressed milk from a couple of days old, and we never had a problem if I wanted to sleep or go out for an hour without her. And we’re still breastfeeding 13 months later so no nipple confusion!

Lots of people I know waited longer to introduce the bottle and really struggled.

I actually found the bog-standard Tommee Tippee bottles were the best for Dd, we tried Medela but the teat was too firm for her. Trial and error!

Agreed, I wouldn't bother with the bottles for now. You may not need or want them and if you run into any trouble feeding from the breast, it's perfectly easy to cup feed (and less of a faff to sterilise) until you decide you do want to move to bottles. My first had all sorts of latch issues and I used a cup to feed her when she wasn't on the breast for the first 6 weeks. After that I started to express (and we used bottles) and eventually switched to formula. But we had plenty of time to buy bottles once we realised we needed them.

After my experience with dd1, she came early and I was on medication that upset milk production, we were completely disorganised and my mil had to go buy bottles in the night as the hospital stopped helping us after day 4 (in for 10 days). We were better prepared for arrival of dd2!
I would recommend medela we used them for our first to feed and express into and have ready for dd2 (breastfeeding going well so will be to express/feed when ready). We found 6 big bottles were enough to keep the expressing rotation for dd1, for dd2 we found a kit that had 6 big, 6 small and lids that have day and time on for expressing. Not really using them yet but she is only 2 weeks old so still establishing supply, but will be soon.

My friend bf and expressed so her husband could feed baby and she said it worked wonders. Her husband and baby could go out and not worry about feeding as the baby was used to both. She said it helped baby to ween off breast earlier and go into the bottle

MAM here too.

Agree with Teddy above. For me the surprise was that we absolutely needed the bottles right away. DS wasn’t getting enough milk out at first so I pumped and bottle fed after every breast session for a few weeks. Pumping turned out to be essential to making the whole thing work.

For me, I only had 1 bottle. I used the Mam one which can be steralised in the microwave so no special equipment needed. Use it, wash it and steralise it and it is ready to go again.

I would also say have realistic look at your breasts and nipples and chose one which is a similar shape. I am sadly much more of a Mam than a Tommee Tippee for example

Also, you can have a look at planned combination feeding as an option. We did it with dd using formula so i didn't have to pump and it made the first few weeks so much less stressful for me and then I was able to drop the bottles and go ebf.

@TeddyIsaHe I totally agree with this advice. I'm close to having my second and will definitely be breast feeding again but will introduce a bottle of my pumped milk much sooner for sure. It was a nightmare getting my last to take a bottle when she was a few months old.

@Tweetypie95 your having a March baby too aren't you? so exciting now

I have the medela swing electric pump with calma teats for newborns so I plan on using this. Really good reviews and I actually brought mine on eBay second hand (though brought the teats new).

It came with second hand bottles too but they can all be sanitized. I wanted to try electric this time, but the medela have a few settings so you can have it very slow and methodical, which will mimic your own pumping action/baby sucking speed.

My advice is combination feeding, breast and bottle, and also have formula just in case in the house. We actually gave my daughter formula occasionally before bed when she was a few months old too.

@Fakingit36 this is such good advice too, it happens to a lot of women so having a pump (literally any kind) is actually essential I think with somewhere for the baby to sleep and up there with nappies.

I could not continued to breast feed without my pump all those years ago, it basically kept the whole thing working. My baby would have been formula fed 100% if I hadn't had one

I agree with don’t worry about introducing a bottle too early. 1 bottle a day won’t affect your supply.

But equally I’d wait and see, there’s no need to buy bottles until you want/need them.

You could always buy a starter pack of formula - you get 4/6 small bottles of ready mixed formula with disposable teats.

I hoped to breastfeed but prepared to bottle feed just incase. I bought 6 of the tomee tippee closer to nature bottles. Five of them are still in the packaging. I was given a second hand steriliser (loads for sale cheap on Facebook marketplace).

I use a Madela swing pump and the lasonish milk storage bags and pump about 3oz out each day to keep a supply of milk in the freezer so that DP can do a feed if I'm out or he wants to.

I went on a breastfeeding course (4hrs, £25) and asked for a lot of help in hospital and now 12 weeks later DS is ebf.

I'd say get 2 or 3 so you have some in, but hopefully you won't need them

Go and scout your local 24hr tesco/ asda/ Sainsburys and take photos of whats available and what you like. Then you can send your OH to get them if the need arises. There is so much a partner can do with baby to bond other than to feed baby. On the whole you won't easily keep supply just pumping you will need to put baby to breast to keep a good supply especially in first month or two. Breastfeeding is really hard to begin with and there will be days you have felt you haven't put baby down and you may convince your self you don't have enough milk. These are the days you will be tempted to get those bottles and maybe formula out of yor cupboard. Sometimes its better to not have them in as often the best way to up supply or calm an upset baby is to boob boob boob.

OP I am in the same boat, trying to work out what (if anything) I need to buy before baby arrives (39+2 so running out of time). As it is I've got no bottles etc and think I am going to go for sending DP out if BF doesn't work!

Also, to the PP above - the free MAM bottle/soother is out of stock on their website, but if you join Boots parenting club you can claim the same thing in store, which I am going to do tomorrow! Not sure if you need the Boots app, but you can load the offer to your advantage card from there (or you can claim a box of Boots nipple pads as an alternative).

My baby is 5 months and FF. We have 8 bottles. He takes 6 bottles a day and our dishwasher takes about 1.5 hours to run and we put it on once a day, so 8 is about the right amount for us.

I bought 2 bottles before he arrived, then when I realised BF wasn’t going to work for me I amazon primed the other 6.

Amazon prime is a must have with a new baby!!

Good tip to check out what’s available on the shelves of the local supermarket. You don’t need to buy, store etc anything.
I bf’d and didn’t have to pump until I was back at work. Didn’t want to, didn’t have to.
Ff is nutritionally fine.
Bf is an awful lot easier as a delivery, storage and transportation system for most of us while you are on maternity leave. (Easier once bf is established I mean)

Personally, having struggled to breastfeed I wouldn't buy bottles in. I would have cracked and used them if I had them. Unless you live really far away from a shop!

My DH bonded really well with my baby despite not being able to feed. He did a lot of sling time and did baths. They have an amazing relationship and he's screamed for more when she has bad dreams or whatever.

Hi OP. I intended to mix feed last time and waited two months to introduce a bottle (based on advice), however my DS wouldn’t take it. He eventually took a NUK bottle (it has a soft nipple like teat) at 7 months and mixed fed.
He also took a DR Brown as 1 well. I didn’t really get the hang of expressing as my milk would go soapy tasting (TMI) very quickly and baby didn’t like it so I mainly occasionally used a cheap manual pump to relieve engorgement.

This time (currently 37 weeks) I plan to mainly breast feed and introduce a bottle of formula in the evening when I feel he is ready. Bought 4 NUK bottles and a MAM manual breast pump to get started.

What ever you do, you’ll find what works. You don’t have to buy/plan everything straight away. Also try not to put pressure on yourself if possible.

Thank you so much for all of you great replies! An interesting mix of advice! A lot to think about. I think I'll get a couple of bottles in anyway as a lot of you suggest potentially trying them a bit earlier on them but again not too soon! (we are moving a little further out so will be peace at mind if anything was to go pear shaped, although we do have amazon prime).

Hopefully I won't crack as we are going away with baby so I'll be using that as my motivation to get me through the hard times. Much easier than carrying all the bottles ect.

Again lots of good advice regarding bottles so I'll delve more into that and do some more research.

I appreciate all of the non-judgemental comments! I don't know anyone close to me who breastfed so It's been lovely hearing your experience. I'm staying hopelessly optimistic!