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Pregnancy

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Original poster

Combination feeding: breast and bottle with expressed milk

34 replies

Sandrine1982 · 03/05/2019 17:14

Hello there. So I'm 22 weeks pregnant and have been wondering about this. I am planning to breastfeed when the baby is born, but I would also like to introduce some bottle-feeding with expressed milk (mainly so that dad can feed too, or when I need to go out or catch up on sleep, or when I drink alcohol).
Do people actually do this? Do babies accept both breast and bottle? I'm not talking about formula, just expressed milk. I've also heard that babies might go off the breast if they find bottles easier.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated. :) xx

OP posts:

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workinprogressmum · 03/05/2019 17:22

Following as I'd like to do this with #2

TwittleBee · 03/05/2019 17:29

I can only offer my own experience, we introduced DS to the bottle at 3 weeks and it took us a couple of days persuasion to feed off the bottle from his Dad but he took to it well but certainly didn't have a preference over the bottle to boob.

The other mums, in our NCT group, that introduced the bottle early also found the same, that there was no nipple confusion or bottle preference.

Those mum's who waited longer had more difficulty getting their babies onto bottles.

So interestingly, I think our NCT group of mums found the experience to be the opposite to what the breast feeding specialists were telling us on their visits.

RedSheep73 · 03/05/2019 17:36

I thought this would be a good idea, for the reasons you describe, but it didn't work out that way. DS flatly refused to have the bottle in his mouth. After a few tries and lots of screaming I gave up, and just bf. I didn't even bother trying with dd. Unless you really need someone else to feed them, I wouldn't worry about it - all that pumping and sterilising is a real faff.

Seraphimofthewilderness · 03/05/2019 17:36

You can drink alcohol and breastfeed - just not get drunk 😎

Pamplem00se · 03/05/2019 17:37

I've tried to feed all three of my babies ebm in a bottle (or rather my dh has). My first had it at 3/4 weeks no problem but we didn't keep it up regularly and by 12 weeks she was having none of it. Second wasn't interested at all. Third had 10 days in itu with sepsis at 6 weeks. By the time she was out she was having none of it....

louella99 · 03/05/2019 17:37

My 8 month old DS accepts breast and bottle but massively prefers breast! He had a few top ups via bottle in the first days of his life, due to significant weight loss. To be honest it can be such a faff in the early weeks, you're so exhausted that trying to fit in 'expressing' sessions on top of feeds can be such a pain. It's easier to breastfeed, go to bed while Dad holds the baby, then breastfeed again when baby demands. Trying to pump in between was a chore really!

But once they're older it's good. Now my baby is on solids he goes a lot longer between feeds. So I can express, I do it once most days and have built a stash. It's been handy the odd time I've gone out for a haircut/to see friends.

In the first 6 weeks or so, you need to get your supply established so having baby directly to the breast as much as possible is the aim. Good luck!

SoBoredOfWaiting · 03/05/2019 17:47

Hi OP- my DS has both breast and bottle. As long as it is my milk, he will take it! We did try formula at one point out of curiosity, DS was not impressed.
He does prefer breast though.

Ccec · 03/05/2019 17:50

I was lucky enough to have a DS who took to both breast and bottle. I went back to uni when he was a couple months old and then back to work by the time he was 7 months old so I needed him to be used to a bottle while I was gone. I started expressing when he was 4 weeks old and started with just a bottle a day given to him by my mum/partner at the time to get him used to it.
I then got into a routine of pumping a bottles worth in the morning and after getting back from work/uni and would freeze them for use in the following weeks. I actually ended up with way too much in my freezer and alot got wasted in the end ☹️
He took really well to the tommee tippee bottles and would suck on them in a similar way as the breast, he never got confused or preferred one over the other. So it certainly can be done, just takes some planning and patience and not all babies take to the same bottle so might take some trial and error.
I'm hoping to start pumping next week for DD as I will be returning to work when she is around 7 months old and fingers crossed she takes to it the same!

RChick · 03/05/2019 17:51

I tried but found it exhausting to find time to pump and feed and build any sort of store.

Definitely get an electric pump if you decide to try. Manual pumps are only really ok for occasional use.

Leleophants · 03/05/2019 17:54

Does anyone know about this with regards to breast and formula mixing?

My midwife had 'mixed feed'as an option and I'd like to see how to do this best from people who've actually gone through it

FatandSassy · 03/05/2019 18:05

@Leleophants my son was bf and bottled from birth. Bf during the day, bottled during the night. Not my milk, he was on formula during the night unless I could get something out for him. He went on boobstrike at 6 weeks so was exclusively formula fed from that point on.

Flatwhite32 · 03/05/2019 18:17

Yes! Bottle introduced on day 3, and DD never had trouble switching between the two. I chose not to follow the 'don't introduce a bottle until 6 weeks' advice and never had any issues with supply.

soontobefour4 · 03/05/2019 18:17

I'm doing exactly what you describe with 3 week old DS2.

I tried to breastfeed DS1 (now 21 months) and failed miserably despite being really determined and seeking specialist help. I accepted it just wasn't meant to be and invested in a double electric pump and got on with it. He had some formula top ups but was mainly fed expressed breast milk for 6 months until I'd had enough.

DS2 has taken to breastfeeding much better and it's going well but I like the flexibility of having bottles as an option. Yes the pumping and sterilising is a faff but you soon get into the habit and in my opinion it's worth it to be able to have a bit of a break to do things with DS1.

soontobefour4 · 03/05/2019 18:18

Should add he will also take formula and doesn't appear to recognise any difference.

Original poster

Sandrine1982 · 03/05/2019 20:50

Thanks, this is really interesting. So many different experiences. I guess we'll just have to try and see what works :-)

OP posts:

TerriB1984 · 03/05/2019 20:59

I did this with my DD. I will say though that although the experts suggest waiting until 6 weeks my experience is the sooner you introduce a bottle the better. We had to combi feed initially due to weight gain problems and she happily took a bottle no problems. Once this was sorted i stopped the bottles for a few weeks to give me a chance to properly establish my supply. When I did reintroduce a bottle she wouldn’t take it and it took a lot of patience and trying different brands before she would take it again. One piece of advice is regardless of age stick with a newborn teat. If the milk comes too easy it is more likely that a bottle preference will develop.

snoopy18 · 04/05/2019 02:11

Hey as some OP have mentioned above I mixfed my boy from birth too - he is still mix feeding at 8 weeks.

Now that it’s past 6 weeks, I’m aiming to try up pumping to build a supply in the hope of getting in off formula.

It’s challenging BF and expressing early on I personally found along with the being tired and getting to know baby as newborns feed so much so often but I guess people do it often!

He hasn’t had nipple confusion but I would recommend as OP said to stick to a newborn teat and a slow flow teat to mimick breast flow as I’ve found my boy is starting to be funny on breast so we have ordered slow flow new born teats to try and discourage the fast flow of milk in bottle!

The first 6 weeks they recommend not to use bottle as it effects your milk supply as milk comes in supply & demand so may be worth sticking to breast only.

Bf can be challenging so just do what’s right for you and baby! A fed baby is happy baby no matter what 😁

YesimstillwatchingNetflix · 04/05/2019 02:20

Good on you for planning on breastfeeding

If your body responds well to the pump it can be a great way to get some flexibility back into your life.

If the baby is attaching and feeding well from the breast experts recommend avoiding the pump for the first six weeks because it can confuse your body into creating an oversupply. I'd spend the first 6 weeks just with baby on the breast to regulate your supply with the baby's intake and then look at pumping.

That said if the baby isn't attaching or you have a supply problem anyway, then the pump is your best friend from day one.

53rdWay · 04/05/2019 02:29

No problems here with baby preferring the bottle. However we didn’t do as much as initially planned, mainly because if you’re skipping a feed when the baby’s having a bottle you end up having to pump anyway to avoid your breasts getting engorged (and mine would get engorged really easily). So it wasn’t the break I’d been hoping for. Still useful occasionally though.

Someoneonlyyouknow · 04/05/2019 02:35

@Leleophants I did mixed feeding with my third child. I found expressing hard work and decided he would still get all the benefits of bf even if he had formula in the middle of the night. Mostly it was me giving him the bottle but he took it happily from other people as well. He had a slow test (newborn) because otherwise the milk seemed to come too quickly and drown him!

b0bb1n · 04/05/2019 03:45

Honestly my advice is, if you can breastfeed then just breastfeed. I had my heart set on bf but as it turned out I've no choice but to bottle feed. So I exclusively pump breast milk and it's the single most difficult thing about having a newborn, to me. I would do anything to have that special bf bonding time, no constant washing and sterilising and warming up milk and living by the clock keeping check of how long this container of b milk has been out of the fridge, etc etc. Not to mention how impossible and soul destroying it is to never be able to find the time or be in a position to pump every 2-3 hours to keep the milk supply up, and all the worry and I'm failing my child thoughts that come with that. I currently have a blocked duct on right side and mastitis on the left because I haven't been able to pump frequently enough lately. I don't know why anyone would choose this if they could exclusively bf.

2BthatUnnoticed · 04/05/2019 04:52

I had actually planned to EBF from the start, but then my baby couldn’t latch and was not gaining weight.

So OP I ended up doing what you are planning to do, for the first three months while getting BF sorted. It was quite exhausting keeping on top of bottle sterilisation (etc) while also being stuck on the couch either with bub on the boob or me with the breast pump.

(My baby did accept both bottle and breast though which helped - it varies a lot though, really depends on the individual baby.)

Once I got BF to work, I just breast fed with an occasional bottle of formula if I had to miss a feed for some reason. I didn’t like pumping much - again it varies and you might not mind it at all!

Good luck

lazymare · 04/05/2019 06:33

Mix fed DS from around day 2 - breast and formula for 8 months.

Tried same with DD but from around 2 weeks in she refused the bottle.

Never had enough milk with either to express.

KateTTC123 · 04/05/2019 07:21

My lo was a 29 weeker so it was a different scenario but he was combi fed expressed milk by bottle by the NICU nurses and bf by me once he was off the tube and we carried on doing this until he was 6 months old. No issues and he was great with both. Highly recommended MAM bottles for this; the nurses in the NICU were very impressed by them.

KateTTC123 · 04/05/2019 07:26

I would also second posters saying not to be afraid of formula too. Ebm is great but don't worry if you can't pump much, formula is perfectly fine instead

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