Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Pregnancy

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

Breast feeding or bottle feeding second one

56 replies

SnowWhite26 · 14/04/2018 20:36

I am 20 weeks pregnant with number 2 and thinking about feeding options. With my first I breastfed for 2 weeks but she lost a little bit of weight and i was never sure i was doing it right. I was so relieved she was drinking formula i never worried. She has always slept well and she is happy and healthy. Soooo with number 2 on his way i dunno weather to just formula feed from the beg. That way my partner can help and maybe the baby might sleep better or i could try breast again and hope it goes better. I have friends that breastfeed now and no where i can go for support. Do u generally think that breastfed babies dont sleep so well? I had so much milk last time as well. What are ppls experiences? Thanks x

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
BertieBotts · 16/04/2018 19:57

It depends how you do it. Generally the link between offering formula and struggling with BF is more to do with the parents' attitudes and fears than the milk feedback cycle itself.

If you offer bottles in a controlled way, increase the amount slowly and don't allow this to cross over with breastfeeding but have it as a separate thing it is unlikely to affect breastfeeding. Likewise if you mostly breastfeed but give a bottle casually/sporadically, not on any timescale, but just when you feel you want a break and this is about twice a week or less, the bottle is unlikely to affect supply. The pattern here is that breastfeeding remains the main method of feeding and the parents retain confidence in the efficacy of breastfeeding and expect that it will continue to work.

However if you give formula because you're anxious about supply, the patterns of usage tend to be different and here we see that introduction of formula tends to harm breastfeeding. This could be on the advice of a health care professional, family and friends or simply her own instinct that her baby isn't getting enough and so formula can help fill the gap. It can - but that's another story, anyway, the problem (typically) with introducing formula on this basis is that parents tend to supplement more at times when they feel breastfeeding is especially struggling, which is exactly the time when you need to breastfeed more. This creates two cycles - one where the breasts are mistakenly "given time to refill", which makes your body "think" it needs less milk and so will produce less, and one where the baby is frustrated by a slow or poor flow of milk in comparison to a bottle, plus learns that it is easier to obtain milk from a bottle and so may reject the breast, particularly if the breast is more difficult for him to get milk out of, due to low supply or transfer/latch issues.

Note that I mentioned formula top ups can help fill a gap where low supply or poor milk transfer is suspected. This can be especially helpful to give mum some "breathing space" when she is feeling anxious, is in pain, urgently needs to sleep, or in an infant whose blood sugar levels are causing concern. Best practice here would be to do this on a temporary basis and at the same time introduce a plan for increasing the mother's supply/addressing latch issues, e.g. dividing a tongue tie, and eventually reducing and/or weaning off the top ups, however this kind of follow up rarely happens in reality - parents are advised to top up and then... nothing. That solves the problem, if they are lucky, because the top up + breastfeeding combination works in itself and is either kept or is replaced with solids when weaning, some parents are more proactive and end up phasing out the top ups more quickly, either by pestering the HCP for follow up or seeking independent advice, but the majority once top ups are introduced slowly find that breastfeeding comes to an end. This is put down to the supply issues or latch issues which led to top ups being necessary in the first place. Baby is still fed, parents are happy (perhaps disappointed but generally satisfied) and so from the HCP's perspective the problem has gone away, and in reality in the current climate they are probably far too busy to follow up and check whether things are going well or whether the parents/mother would like to develop a plan for phasing out top ups.

In summary if you want to give a bottle because you just want to, do it in a controlled way as a separate thing from BF or just occasionally, and you should be fine. If you find yourself wanting to give a bottle because you're worried about feeding, it's fine to do this if it will alleviate stress or anxiety for you but also SEEK HELP ASAP, in order to get breastfeeding back on track, otherwise you run the risk of this pattern where formula undermines breastfeeding.

Situp · 17/04/2018 06:43

Doesn’t topping up with bottles when your baby is young affect your supply ? Because your body thinks your baby doesn’t need so much milk.

If it is done at the same time every day, your body will adapt in the same way as it does when your baby sleeps for longer.

However, I am absolutely not saying that people should do this who plan to EBF. It is just that it has worked for me and meant that I continued to bf when I would probably have given up otherwise.

Random top ups all over the place are a bigger problem.

I do feel that mixed feeding isn't pushed enough by mw as an alternative to giving up bf.

I was strongly discouraged from exploring the middle ground with DS and only managed about 6 weeks.

Feb2018mumma · 17/04/2018 06:56

My little man is breast fed, used to wake him every 3 hours to feed but now in night he will only wake twice. He gained weight from birth and has gone from 8.11 to 12.4 in 7 weeks on breast milk alone :) I know all babies are different but hope that eases concerns you had about sleep and weight gain :)

Messyone · 17/04/2018 07:09

I needed support bf my son with help and practice it does get better. Definitely have a look at breastfeeding support groups ( have a look at local La Leche league near you).

Also your local health visiting team should hopefully have a breastfeeding advisor (have there contact number stored and make an appointment to see them after baby is born).

userabcname · 17/04/2018 07:29

Hi OP, I have a 10 month old and bf - he is a terrible sleeper, hasn't slept through a single night in his life! If I have another, I will bf the first 2 weeks and then introduce a bottle a day. The reasons being that I found bfing really hard work for the first 12 weeks and DS is a bottle refuser so I couldn't have a break. Even now he bfs to sleep so I haven't had an uninterrupted night since he was born either!
With regards to the latch, make sure baby gets a nice big mouthful so that it doesn't hurt you and this will also make for a more efficient latch. Don't worry too much about what the latch looks like - the best advice I had was to focus on how it feels. Plus look out for signs baby is actively swallowing.
Good luck with whatever you decide!

LaurieMarlow · 17/04/2018 11:00

BF babies aren't necessarily poor sleepers.

My EBF baby slept through (10-6) from 10 weeks.

I agree though, that there's nothing wrong with mixed feeding per se and a friend of mine introduced one bottle a day from very early on, meaning that her husband could take a feed and she could get more sleep. Win, win. I left the bottle too late and ended up with a bottle refuser Hmm.

Pumping is a massive PITA though. I did some pumping first thing in the morning because I had over supply issues and I found it helped to take the edge off for DS's first feed. I hated every second of it.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page