Bottles and breastfeeding

[SophieStripe]

Hi... I'm currently pregnant with my first baby and planning on breastfeeding for as long as possible. I will be off work for a year but obviously during that year there may/will be times when baby is left with dad or grandparents or what have you. My close friend wants to give me advice around introducing bottles with formula (because expressing is a faff) ASAP. I know it's all personal but is this the right approach? I don't really want to give formula if I can help it (not that there is anything wrong with formula before you all shout at me!) I just don't want to. I personally think that it is just more convenient, and cheaper, to just breastfeed. Having said that, if I want to go get a haircut or something and leave baby with dad, I also want him to be able to feed him. So when should I start trying to express and introduce bottles? Should I just use formula as she suggests?

pumping wont mess your supply - it'll increase it. If you pump at the same time each day then your body will come to expect it and make milk on demand at that time. Pumping can be a faff though and not everyone responds well to a pump.

You won't need to pump every day or even every week if you're just planning on giving the very occasional bottle to go to the hairdressers or whatever, you might only need 4 or 5 oz which you might get in one session (or might not). I think your mail problem will be ensuring your baby will take a bottle. I think that you'll most likely find that the regular pumping purely to keep your baby taking a bottle will not be worth the hassle and you'll either abandon the idea of bottle feeding or use some formula. Either way is fine or course!

Do it early, you don't need to give the baby loads of expressed milk but just give them a bit every few days to give them chance to practice. I did this from about 2 weeks, I think nipple confusion is a myth, all the experts say they've never experienced it!