Want to breastfeed - but should I buy FF stuff just in case?

[wondering7777]

I’m hoping to EBF my first baby, and hope to express milk for any times when I have to be away and DH is in charge.

However, I’ve read that some women struggle with breastfeeding and that it doesn’t always work out. I’m wondering - should I buy formula feed (and all the kit?) in advance of the birth, just so I have it to hand in case I can’t BF my baby? I don’t want them to go hungry!

If you live within reach of a decent sized supermarket, no you don't need to get it all in advance. Save your money for a bit and invest in researching local breastfeeding support, particularly IBCLCs. Midwives and HVs and Doctors don't always know very much about breastfeeding. A large proportion of women who don't achieve their breastfeeding goals are failed by their support, not by their bodies.

Might be worth buying a bottle and steriliser anyway as they're useful if you're planning to express but I wouldn't buy any formula yet. You'll be able to grab it pretty easily should you need it.

I am very much in the same boat! Although plan to combo feed at some point

I have bought a prep machine (it’s useful later on even if you don’t formula feed for drinking water, weaning, etc and then combo feeding later) and some bottles/brush/formula inserts in a kit - it was about £50 for all of it from Argos.

I haven’t bought a tub of formula but did get some of those pre made bottles for the hospital bag and then another box to have at home - basically enough to get me through birth until someone goes to the shops if I can’t BF!

I found that it chilled me out to know I have it and for £70 or so it’s worth it :)

You can buy pre-made bottles - just unwrap and pop on the teat that's included and off you go. I bought a pack when expecting both my children. I figured if I needed to ff I could use those while stocking up on bottles and formula. I actually ended up ebf both times but liked to have something for peace of mind.

I had no idea you could buy pre-made bottles - that’s great to know! I think it would be good to have some kind of back-up just in case.

Thanks for the tip about IBCLCs as well. Do some areas have free breastfeeding clinics or anything like that, where you can get advice and help if you’re struggling? Or do you have to pay for that sort of thing? (I’m in London).

Our local 24hr corner shop sells pre-made stuff, so I would save your money if I were you.

I wouldn’t even buy all the expressing stuff outright - not everyone gets on with it. I rented a pump for the first month (then bought one once I was happy I wanted to continue) and bought a couple of bottles/teats and a microwave sterilising bag. That is plenty enough kit for expressing, assuming you aren’t going to be expressing 24/7 but just if you have an evening out or to save you getting up for every night feed. If it is only one bottle a day, you don’t need a massive standalone steriliser like you do if you are FF with 8-12 bottles a day to sterilise.

You don’t have to warm expressed milk or use a perfect prep machine etc, it can be used straight from the fridge. You also don’t need to boil water for babies to drink once they are over six months (and they shouldn’t have water instead of milk under six months as they need the calories), so buying a prep machine purely to make drinking water seems a bit of a waste.

It's personal.

I didn't want to but fiancé did so we reached a compromise.

We did buy formula but then my fiancé hid it so that I didn't know where in the house it was. That way my concern that I'd cave in during a rough night or something was removed.

Ds didn't have any formula at all in the end and I breastfed him for over 16 months.

In our part of London, there are daily BF drop in clinics to get support and advice (SE London). They are NHS, so are free. Ours are called “Milk Spots”, but I’ve seen them called breastfeeding cafes, and various other names. Ask your midwife.

The premade bottles are amazing. Just one, and you have back up.

(And don’t get me started on the ‘don’t have them in your house, it will tempt you to give in to formula feeding, and you can Always send your DH out for stuff’. I’m an adult who can decide how to feed my child, the existence of the bottle does not somehow give me more or less breastfeeding support, and dh was not running out to get formula when baby was not feeding well, had severe jaundice, we were on our knees and it was 4am in the morning.

Oh and there are 24hr Free breastfeeding support hotlines too. Their advice can be hit and miss but it’s great to have someone to speak to!

If I were you I would buy one bottle and 2 or 3 cartons of ready-made formula.

Even if you never use the formula you could use the bottle for expressed breast milk if you express in future.

Don't do what DH did and buy an entire tin of powdered formula, open it and use it to make up one bottle of formula, thereby wasting the rest!

There was a great thread on this in the last couple of weeks, I’ll see if I can find it.

Your milk won’t come in straight away anyway and for the first day or so your baby only needs colostrum, their tummies are absolutely tiny. So if you plan to bf you don’t need to take bottles to into hospital. If for any reason you had to stay in and had trouble feeding they’ll give you what you need.

No harm in having some of the readymade Aptamil bottles in and a cheap feeding bottle as you can get these for under a fiver. But no, I wouldnt spend money yet on boxes of formula, bottles prep machines and sterilisers. You can get it all very easily should you need it.

When I had my first I bought a sterilising kit and bottles and also some ready made formula just in case bf was not working. I would still recommend the steriliser etc but perhaps not the formula. It was too easy when things weren’t going right to switch to formula instead of seeking more help and support with bf. I didn’t really have any idea how hard bf is and how long it actually takes to establish properly. If you have plenty of shops around then I would maybe wait on the formula front and see how things go.

I'm due my second in nearly 4 weeks I tried to bf last time but didn't end up working out, so I have a perfect prep and lots of bottles etc but I'm not getting them out until/if I need them. I've bought a pack of the milk starter kits with the sterilised teats from the supermarket, and a cheap haaka type pump. I have one from last time but not bothering to find it for now, I would just start breastfeeding and see how you go, you can always buy things later. Just do as previous posters have said and either buy a few bottles of pre made and a bottle, or a starter kit and go from there? It makes me feel more at ease knowing I'll have it somewhere in the house

I didn't. I think if I had had formula in the house I would have been far more likely to give it when I was tired and in pain at the beginning, and especially when certain family members were undermining my self confidence with their "you shouldn't need to feed that often, that baby is starving, give her a bottle" shite. By the time I had my second and third babies I knew what to expect, what was normal and that it would get better, but first time I was very unsure initially. If there had been formula in the house I would almost certainly have given it and that may well have been the beginning of the end of breastfeeding.
If you are serious about wanting to breastfeed then I would fill your house with good sources of information and support, not formula. If you do need it, there are few places where it would be a problem to get hold of some day or night nowadays. I live in a rural area and even we have 24 hour shops so you would need to be somewhere very isolated or to have no support for that to be a big risk.

I agree with getting a four pack of the ready made formula bottles. I certainly wouldn’t bother with all the FF paraphernalia unless you need it! I also don’t agreeing with the whole ‘don’t have it in the house’ thing, I figure that if you’re desperate enough to want it despite wanting to BF then you don’t need to be bothering with finding a shop in the middle of the night. Having a newborn is hard enough!

If you are keen to breastfeed then the best thing you can do is set yourself up to succeed by learning about it as much has possible before your baby arrives and making sure you know here to go for support afterwards. It doesn't have to be hard, but like anything you doing for the first time, a little bit of knowledge really helps!

There is only a tiny minority (5-12%) of women who cannot breastfeed but lack of support and other factors like jaundice and tongue tie can make it harder and when you've got a brand new baby you've got to keep alive and who keeps crying and you are knackered and not thinking particularly straight you aren't in a good place to start trying to work it out.

Ask your midwife if they offer any breastfeeding workshops and if not, try and find a private one. See if you have a local branch of La Leche League near you and go to some of their meetings, they also have brilliant peer supporters on the phone to help you trouble shoot when your baby is here.

I found KellyMom, MN and Babycentre websites helpful at 4am.

This is where I rented my pump from (but you may get given a leaflet in hospital with a discount code, so don’t rent it just yet):

www.ardobreastpumps.co.uk/shop/rent-a-breastpump/

It comes with two bottles, I also bought some freezer bags, some microwave sterilising bags and a teat, and that was all I ended up needing. BF until about 20months, but didn’t need to express past 1 year because it was mostly just feeding to sleep at that stage.

I didn't. I did end up suplimenting for a while and sent SIL to the supermarket, she was a good egg.
Second one I didn't get any as I knew it would sabotage me and I just got on with it.

I got one MAM self sterilising bottle and a carton of formula last time. I never used the formula but the bottle came in handy when I needed to leave him with expressed milk. I don’t think it would do any harm to have them in your house. If you are really desperate then, yes shops are open 24 hours, but would you really want to go out at 2am?

I just bought a few of the premade ones that came with a teat that you can screw on. They're pricey but I only got a few and we were in hospital for quite a while as DS was poorly so it meant I didn't need to worry about sterilising anything. I combi-fed for a bit, then went back to EBF. I'm not sure I agree with the not having it in the house. At points during those first weeks I felt so tired and desperate and knowing I had something available if I really needed DH to do a feed was reassuring.

I'm not sure I'd bother with the expressing stuff until later on when you know whether you will need it or not. I splashed out on an electric pump before he was born and then hardly ever used it- I think I'm in the minority with this but the only way I've ever been able to get anything out was with one of those hand pumps.

Few more links:

www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/drop-in/

And on the off-chance you are in Lambeth or Southwark:

www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk/our-services/maternity/after-your-baby-is-born/community-breast-feeding.aspx#na

The only thing I'd bother getting at this stage is some little sterile syringes (your midwife might be able to give you some). If you do have problems breastfeeding then you can express some colostrum into the syringes and feed using that.

Everything can be bought in a supermarket or with next day delivery from Amazon so I wouldn't bother stocking up on stuff you might not need.

No harm buying some of the little bottles in case of emergency. We use 100ml of formula most days and buy them like this. I did buy the powder but I absolutely hate it. I try and breastfeed and express all the rest of the time but sometimes I need peace of mind that she's definitely eating

Also recommend a Milton cold tank steriliser. Really cheap and easy and what they use in the maternity wards, you'll need a steriliser for pump equipment anyway