Formula Feeding

[Lou98]

I'm currently 31 weeks pregnant with my first baby and have been weighing up BF or FF. I am still undecided but for my own personal reasons I think it will most likely be FF. However, I'm really confused about it all and was wondering if anybody could help with answering some questions for me?

1. How do you know how much formula to give your baby and will I know when they're hungry/showing signs?

1. Is it best to stick to one brand of formula? So for example, if I give them aptamil but one day they don't have any in the shops, could I give them a different brand? Or would that upset their tummy?

1. What is your preferred brand of formula? And roughly, how much do you spend per week?

1. How many bottles roughly do you need for FF? And what bottles do you prefer?

1. If FF straight away after birth, does your milk still come in and if so how long does it take to "dry up" ?

Sorry for so many questions but I'm just so confused with it all! Any help would be much appreciated!

Also, when making up a bottle I know it needs to be boiling water added to kill any bacteria etc but if the baby is hungry is there a way to cool it down quickly? Running bottle under a cold tap or putting in a bowl of cold water for example?

There are rough guides on how much formula a baby has on the tubs of formula. Newborns will take 1-3 oz a feed initially and quite frequently, as their stomach capacity increases the frequency of feeds tends to lower.
You should choose a formula easily available in your area. The standard formuoas are pretty much the same so cost and availability are the only deciding factors. You could end up needing the more specialist formulas so do be prepared to change formulas in the early days. Our girls would become intolerant to their usual formula when ill and have soya based instead.
We chose cow & Gate initially as it's one of the cheaper and easy to get hold of.
6 bottles is enough and cost, at least £10 a week. Powder is the cheapest way to feed, ready made works out very expensive but handy in the early days or for days out. You can look to moving to cows milk at 12mth, if baby will take it (ours weren't keen). We've had avent and tommee tippee bottles before which were fine, gone for mam anti-colic this time.
Your milk will still come if you don't BF, how long until supply varies by individual do watch out for signs of infection too. It is beneficial to at least try to feed baby when they are born just to give them the colostrum, don't feel any pressure to continue or not. If you want to take formula in to hospital you can get ready made starter packs, they are 70ml bottles with individually packed sterile teats. I had those for our twins and have got them again for this one.
My milk supply is totally rubbish so I do offer breast after birth but then the formula.

@Chelyanne thank you, that is all really helpful! I was thinking of having the powder in the house and just using the ready made bottles for out and about for easiness.

I may start off breastfeeding, I'm just trying to get my head around the options really. Did you find that when you started off BF in hospital that they took to a bottle easy enough when you changed them over at home?

Never boiling water to the formula, I allow to cool for 10-20 mins. You can cool most bottles in a jug/bowl of cold water but it does take what feels like a lifetime when you have a crying baby.
We used to pre-make bottles with our eldest as it was okay back then, then heat in a jug of boiling water or the microwave. The ready made formula is helpful until your baby has a more predictable feeding routine.

Ours loved the bottle, it's a lot easier for them to get milk out of than a breast. Only trouble we had was them guzzling then bringing a fair bit back up.
Our 1st 2 were starving on breast as I was getting very little milk, I gave up on hopes of bf after trying all sorts of things to increase supply with our 3rd. I only realised how little when I tried to express for our twins. It would have been ideal to BF because of convenience and cost but never mind.

@Chelyanne thank you, I'll make sure to have in plenty of ready made bottles and take it from there. We do a perfect prep machine that was a gift from my mum but I've read so many negative things about it that I'd be wary using it.

That's good then that they took the bottle well! Roughly how many bottles do you think I'll need for him coming?
I have got a breast pump aswell and everything I'd need for BF, I may still give it a go or start off that way as it is much more convenient and know the pros etc, but want to be prepared either way

Op
Have you done any courses? I know blossom antenatal run free bf and bottle feeding courses

@orchidsonabudget no I haven't, I haven't heard of them. Are these online courses? I would be interested!

I have my next midwife appt on the 2nd of April so will discuss with her aswell but just want to be prepared as possible!

We use tommee tippee bottles as baby likes the variflow teats and some other brands don't do that type.
We picked cow and gate as it was cheapest, baby is the highest percentile so we go through 7 tubs a month so it's about £50 a month (but barely any babies ever go up to the over 40oz so your bill would likely be less)

I was always set on formula feeding as my sister was breastfed and my mum could never get her to take a bottle. Don't get me wrong many mums combine feed or switch to bottles without issues but I know I didn't have it in me to deal with no one else being able to give baby milk for the over 2 years mum did.

Oh and I got my milk to dry up 3 days after it came in, a very tight bra helped suppress it.

Would you consider breast feeding initially? Even if you can manage it for the first 3 months, then benefits are massive.

@1990shopefulftm thank you! I have a few of the tommee tippee bottles so will stick with them. How many do you think I'll need roughly to begin with?

Yeah to be honest that is one of the main factors leaning me towards BF. My sister had a baby last year and she wouldn't take a bottle at all so nobody could watch her. My DP works away for half the month on a 2 week on, 2 week off rota so I would really need him to be able to take a bottle so someone else can watch him for me for a quick sleep or what not. It's not the only factor but it is one of the main ones

@Stichintime I am considering both but think I'm leaning towards FF or at least a combination of both

@1990shopefulftm *leaning me towards FF, not BF

• In the first week mine were taking 3oz every 3 hours or so. When they are regularly draining the bottle, up an ounce.
• Stick to one brand of formula. If you want to change for any reason it’s a good idea to seek the advice of your health visitor first.
• We feed Hipp Organic and go through about a tub a week plus the odd ready made carton for when out.
• I like Mam bottles because you don’t need a steriliser if you have a microwave. We have 8.
• When my milk came in on day 3 with DC1 it was sheer agony and by far the most painful part of my c-section recovery. I had the good pain killers and they didn’t even touch it. Got my consultant to prescribe something (can’t recall what it was called) with DC2 which made sure it never came in.
• I love the Perfect Prep machine: ready to drink bottles made instantly with no faff. I’ve had one for each child and never had an issue with it. Do your own research but I think the problems of dirty pipes etc came from people using off brand filters designed for water jugs.

You should be aware that not everyone can express milk. I've ebf 2 DC (currently bf number 3) and have never been able to express more than about 15ml at a time. It doesn't mean you have poor supply if expressing doesn't work for you.

The difficulty you may have if you try to combination feed before around 3m is that you won't have fully "established" your milk supply. Breast feeding works mostly on a supply and demand basis - is the more baby tries to bf the more milk your body produces.

After a few months you can miss/skip a couple of feeds and your breasts won't reduce the supply of milk. If you skip feeds too early (due to giving formula for example) your supply may drop and then you'll find your baby is more unsettled for the next couple of days while they try to increase your supply again.
A lot of the fussiness people experience with ebf babies is actually the behaviour which brings extra milk in for growth spurts etc and isn't something to worry about (though it can be exhausting)

Good luck with whatever you choose to try

My baby girl is 4 weeks old. I had visions of breastfeeding her, it didn't cross my mind that I wouldn't be able to.....which I wasn't 😣my milk never came in and baby was just distressed/not satisfied despite lots of trying. So we pretty quickly moved to formula and she was so content/settled. We chose cow and gate, I use perfect prep machine and it's a GODSEND I honestly can't imagine not having one! I spent lots of time worrying about this before I had the baby and the truth is you'll just instinctively know/do what's best and right when the time comes ☺️good luck x

There's a book coming out in April called Mixed Up which is a guide to combination feeding without all the myths and random things you hear. I'm quite looking forward to it! You can also get info by following the mixed up page on social media or the author Lucy ruddle.

It's not a given that a breastfed baby won't take bottles, it happens with some of them, but others are fine. Mine were always both happy to swap between the two no issue.

On the swapping brand issue, I had DS2 in Germany and he was partially formula fed in hospital, where I was surprised to find they gave us different brands constantly, sometimes two or three within the same day. You hear so much in the UK that you must stick with one brand but I didn't find it was the case here so when we got home we did the same thing, getting whichever ready made bottles were easily available and then when we switched to powder I'd obviously use one tub at a time but I would get a tub of aptamil, then one of hipp, etc. Supermarkets seem to be smaller here and have more limited stock so maybe that's why but it didn't cause any problems anyway! It made me wonder if it's not marketing in the UK and brands trying to get you to stick to their own. Don't swap between normal and comfort etc but trying out different versions of the same first milk seemed to be fine. Some babies will be upset or unsettled by certain brands though.

Google 'paced bottle feeding techniques'. Good way to follow responsive feeding and avoid over feeding which is easy to do with a bottle.

I combi fed my eldest and EBF my youngest. Full disclosure I preferred EBF as it was just tons easier. She was asked to be watch by others, I just timed feeds around it, especially if they were in the house with me.

My son swapped between breast and bottle no probs. My youngest hated bottles and dummies even though we introduced them at the same time 🤷🏼‍♀️

Combi feeding can be really good, you need to establish breastfeeding first and use formula as an added bonus. Once all established you can move to a more regular pattern. I did 2 bottles a day at mid morning and mid afternoon.

2 or 3 boxes of the ready made bottles will do. You're best switching to the big cartons and bottles you will use long term at home. Can be difficult to swap them over to the powdered stuff after ready made too so try to do that quite quickly too.
I wouldn't worry about using the PP machine, many rave about it. I've been looking at getting one too, would have been a lifesaver with our twins.

@Lou98 8 of the medium sized bottles I d suggest.

Thank you everyone, I'll have a look at the different books/websites!

I know that not every BF baby will refuse to take a bottle, it's just the experience I've seen and just one of the few reasons that I'm leaning towards FF instead. As I say just because my partner is away for 2 weeks at a time, it isn't really a chance I want to take.

I know that if I combination fed I would need to establish BF first to keep my supply coming in, it is something that I've also looked in to. It's just FF that has been confusing me a bit so just wanted to get all the information for that, and there has been some great advice on this thread that's really helped clear up some questions! 😁

@Lou98 make the choice that's best for your family :)

You must do what is best and below are my tips for formula feeding:

1. stick to one brand only - changing can upset their tummy. Although they all should be the same - I found different brands affected digestion - ie some made him constipated. We settled hipp.

2. bottles - the more you have - the less washing to do. It's the worst chore - washing then sterilising. In the first couple of weeks I was feeding every couple of hours. I had 7 bottles on rotation. As baby gets bigger, feed grows and you are making less bottles.

3. feed sizes - I use a tommee tippee prep machine and the smallest bottle is 120ml. So we started there . Once the baby is regularly finishing that size, you start making bigger. Sometimes your baby drinks all the bottle - sometimes they snack and take half. You can't force a baby to feed so if they stop, they stop.

4. for hospital they do these great starter packs of instant formula and bottles.