How do you formula feed from birth?

[BBQueen]

I know this could sound like a stupid question... I’m currently pregnant with DC3 and breast fed my first two. For various reasons, I want to exclusively formula feed this time.

How soon after birth do you offer a bottle? Do you take sterilised bottles and ready mixed formula to the hospital with you? Will midwives be OK providing hot water to heat bottles until I’m able to get out of bed?

I've also heard hospitals don't tend to give out formula where I am either and a lot of the midwives are shirty when you even ask for it and try to push you into bf.
So I will be taking some of the ready made bottles with me in my bag to avoid having to ask!

I have bought the tomee tipee closer to nature set to use for formula feeding, will these bottles be suitable for baby in the first days/weeks of feeding or will the tests be too big?
Saw the big bottles of the ready made formula which I think would work out better value than the boxes of 6 pre made bottles that you just use for single use then throw out the bottle.....

I planned on bf but had ready made cartons with me - bf didn’t work out the evening I had my DTs, so the midwife cup fed the babies for me, and my husband bought the sma bottles in the next day. I’ve attached a pic because I find it easier to search for something if I know what the packaging looks like, sorry if it’s blindingly obvious for you!

Agree, get the premade mini bottles. Don't need to be refrigerated or heated up, just give at room temp.

unicornchaser the normal sized bottles and teats are fine for a newborn, I guess the mini ones are if you just want to be as hassle free as possible. Because you can just keep them with you and not even get out of bed to feed. That's good if you aren't feeling to good after birth, had a cs, or are worried about being hassled by midwives re bf. Whereas the big bottle of premade has to be refrigerated after opening and then heated back up.

If your hospital has, or is working towards, UNICEF ‘baby friendly’ status then they will not provide formula at all unless it is medically indicated.

Thanks @Thursdaydreaming, will get a couple of boxes incase im in hospital a day or 2 then and look at either the big bottles or just a tub of the newborn powder from there for home

I really recommend the ready made sterile bottles for hospital, so you don’t have to faff sterilising bottles while there. We used them and then Tommee Tippee bottles at home.

Pennine PCT refused to provide formula at 2am two days post partum
That is absolutely disgusting.

Why is it acceptable to feed all of the other patients but not a newborn baby??

Saw the big bottles of the ready made formula which I think would work out better value than the boxes of 6 pre made bottles that you just use for single use then throw out the bottle
I think that when you are in the hospital, it makes sense to use the pre-made bottles as how are you going to sterilise the bottles whilst you are in hospital??

The 6 x 70ml SMA bottles that @Iwantaunicorn posted are £8.00 in Sainsbury's

My hospital was switching from providing formula (mini bottles and tears) to not providing any in about April of this year. LO was born in March and they were still providing it but my midwife had to check when they would be stopping.

As a side note, my midwife said it's not rally a matter of pushing breastfeeding but more that it costs money to provide formula. They would probably have some emergency bottles but wouldn't just have them all there to help yourself. As it was, LO had a few bottles when I was still out of it and then we switched to breastfeeding.

We bought the little bottles that come with a teet. DS didn't really take to the teet on the bottle but the hospital provided alternative ones that screwed on the formula bottle. Worth getting a couple of packs too as once they are opened they don't last long- we threw away quite a bit of formula in the first day but they were still worth it for convenience.

They also sold them in the hospital shops but I was in a large hospital - not sure if this is standard

Ring your hospital and ask what they provide. Mine were great. They had the pre-made bottles and sterile teats along with a feeding room with steriliser, fridge, sink kettle and bottle warmer. After all there are women who were expressing and bottle feeding.

DS1 was BF the first day and then had his first FF in the night when I was ill, had no milk coming in and he wasn't latching on. I decided I was never going through all that again. With DS2, I put him to the boob when we got out of theatre. He was having none of it, so after half an hour we gave him a bottle.

I took a starter pack with me, but never used it as the hospital gave us ready made bottles.

@PersianCatLady I was thinking the big bottles for the first couple weeks and use the standard new born bottles. But didn't know if the teats etc would be too big on them and so would need to use the ready made individual bottles for the first few days or just in the hospital.
But will get the starter pack bottles for the first day or 2 in the hope of being out the hospital after that and can switch to my tomee tippee bottles

Ring your hospital and ask. My local hospital told everyone to bring their own. They did not announce the fact they did hold some when I called them (fair enough) but they did store some and freely offered it when I was there but I mostly used my own. I wouldn't bank on them having any and I'd definitely buy the starter pack.

@unicornchaser - I totally misunderstood you there, sorry!!

No worries, my thinking is that I may be a bit too out of it and overwhelmed still when I first get home so the ready made stuff might be easier to just bung in a bottle than mess about making up bottles from powder.
Dh May be in a better shape to sort it but he is a bloke and always best to have a plan B

@unicornchaser I would definitely go for the ready made stuff when you first get home.

Anything to make things easier in the early days.

Good luck sweetie!!!!

It is obscene that any hospital will not provide formula for any baby whose parent requests it. Disgusting. It is medically indicated because the baby will starve otherwise. The alternative is a hideous invasion of women's bodily autonomy. This should be totally unacceptable to all of us. Women must have control over whether and how they use their breasts. Holding a baby hostage to starvation, risking serious injury and lifelong damage to the baby, is horrific.

Please ask your hospital thier policy. If it is anything other than formula will be supplied without quibble by them to your baby when you ask, then make an enormous stink. We're to your MP, local newspaper, head of the hospital, head of the paediatric unit, etc.

Your body, your breasts, your baby, your choice. Hospitals cannot refuse to provide adequate nutrition for a patient and your baby is a patient who is very vulnerable to dehydration, and low blood sugar and jaundice if not given adequate nutrition.

Best wishes.

I bought a starter pack of Aptamil which I took with me, just in case my hospitals policy had changed from DD1 and they no longer offered formula. The midwife for my ELCS asked how I was feeding, and provided the little bottle with sterilised teat not longer after the birth.

DD2 came out of the womb starving 😂 she took about 60ml whilst I was still in recovery, so probably about half an hour after the birth. They then had the bottles and teats for us to help ourselves on the postnatal ward so I never used the starter pack I bought in the end as they provided SMA.

I’m really surprised to hear that some hospitals don’t provide formula!

We also used the Perfect Prep machine right from the start as DD2 is such a guzzler, she was getting through the 4oz bottles almost straight away.

Great post sycamore

@sycamore54321
Bloody brilliant post!!

I took an Aptamil starter kit, 4 very small bottles with teats, all sterile, be aware though you may throw a lot away if baby doesn't drink much, mine drank about a quarter of each bottle for the first few days
www.boots.com/aptamil-1-first-milk-starter-pack-ready-to-feed-6x70ml-10175040
I think her first feed was an hour after birth

I'm not in the UK. I had both my dc here in a public hospital. You can't get ready made formula here. The country is extremely pro bf. The hospital does provide formula but apart from the first feed you have to make it yourself and they don't look after the baby for you while you do it so each time you want to make a bottle you had to wheel the baby with you in the cot to the kitchen at the end of the corridor where you picked your formula from a selection in a cupboard and helped yourself to a bottle from a steriliser and there was two flasks of water at different temperatures. You're given the rest of the tub of formula when you leave. I think the hassle of making formula in that hospital was supposed to deter people from using it.

If you are sure you want to FF, taking your own ready made anyway seems like a good option.

If they don't supply formula what would they do if you couldn't feed for any reason? Ie if something happens in surgery?