Opinions on breast and formula feeding

[Mumtobe2021x]

So originally I planned to just formula feed ( no judgement please) but now I’m thinking I don’t want her to miss out on the benefits of breastfeeding but I don’t want to just breastfeed and rely on just breast milk alone so I’m thinking maybe both but I don’t want to confuse her. Anyone done this before ? How did you go about it? Baby is not born yet

I combo fed my daughter from birth. She had a bottle of formula every evening at “bedtime” that my partner gave to her. Then whenever I wasn’t there she had formula too.

You could do first and last feeds of the day as bottles or midday and last bottle. I think having set times works best for combi feeding based on my experience

My opinion is try breast feeding and see how it works. It’s one of those things in my experience which either works really well for you, or ruins your life and makes you miserable. Give it your best shot and then if it’s not for you and you struggle with it look at either Combi feeding or formula feeding.

That way you can honestly say ‘I really tried’ and you’ll have no reason to feel guilty. Remember ‘breast is a bonus but fed is best’ however that is achieved xx

I combi fed. Just one bottle a day to start with. It is best to stick to the same time every day for bottle feeds so your supply can adjust accordingly.

I think it's very achievable but a lot of MWs will lead you to believe giving a bottle to a baby you plan to breastfeed is the work of the devil. I think nipple confusion is hyped up to try persuade you away from FF, but I am not an expert and I only have antidotal evidence that babies do fine combi feeding from birth.

@Lonelylooloo I believe your post was very supportive but I'd add that no mum should have any reason to feel guilty on how they feed their baby and don't need to "honestly say they tried" breastfeeding to be guilt free. It's a weird thing I hear (and have felt myself in the early days of trying to breastfeed) that you need to give breastfeeding a "proper go" and not give up at the first hurdle in order to not feel guilty. The implication is that you should feel guilty if you didn't attempt it or if you didn't put enough "effort" in. I know that wasn't your intention but aware that some mums may read it that way.

It's not nipple confusion which is a problem with combi feeding, it's the supply and demand of breast milk and generally introducing formula makes it very tricky to ensure your body is producing enough supply as the demand is met elsewhere. Some people manage this well, for others the formula is the start of the end because the baby stays fuller on formula so they stop feeding so often and then the milk just isn't there when they do want it.

Congrats on your pregnancy. I had a terrible time trying to breastfeed DD1 (100% tongue tie, colic, big baby etc etc) and became depressed. So with DD2 decided at first to formula feed, but like you then decided I would like her to have breastmilk too. I decided to express my breastmilk from the start. When she was born (by c section) she was given some formula and then the midwives helped me to express colostrum which were stored in small syringes. Then after 24 hours I could start pumping. As I couldn't do much physically for the first 4 weeks after surgery pumping was quite manageable as I was sat down most days! I could also produce enough milk for her. She was using the bottle from birth so when I introduced some formula around 4 weeks she was fine. I continued to combi feed until about 10 weeks when I moved to formula completely. It worked well for us and was a much better experience than my first one.

I combi fed both of mine and plan to do the same with my 3rd.

I did breastfeed exclusively initially before introducing a bottle at about 4 weeks with ds and 2 weeks with dd. I wanted to ensure that breastfeeding was well established first and build up my supply. I found breastfeeding really easy (especially for night feeds) and both bits fed really well.

I made the decision to introduce one bottle a day with ds as he wouldn't settle at night when not being fed and would wake up as soon as he was put down. I would feed and then go to bed at about 9/10pm, dh would then stay up later with ds and give him a small bottle of formula to give me chance to catch up on much needed sleep.

We gradually increased the amount of formula in the run up to me returning to work when ds was 6mo. He would then have formula throughout the day whilst I was at work and be breastfed at other times.

A lot of people will try to dissuade you from combi feeding but it worked for me and I highly recommend.

I think I agree with the poster who said you should have no guilt and just work out what is best for you and your circumstances. But also, on a practical level, with Bellagonna. I think if you breastfeed for the first few weeks and it works out for you, then the supply is there and it’s much easier to switch to arrangements like the first few posters suggested of a bottle at morning/night/overnight etc if you prefer. There are lots of benefits to this that aren’t just about nutrition. The biggest being that someone can give you a break, which isn’t possible if you solely breastfeed. You have to do every night time feed yourself, which can be hard. So, even though I’m saying biologically, breastfeeding exclusively for about six weeks then switching to a mix will likely work best for supply, I’m also mindful that this is a very very long six weeks. It’s especially hard if you have a difficult birth and need rest to recover and constant breastfeeding makes it hard to get sleep in anything other than tiny chunks.
I’d say that it’s also important to not get too wedded to any particular plan as you have no idea how your baby and your body will react. Stay flexible and prioritise your happiness and baby’s need to be fed and ignore anything that feels unhelpful. Good luck.

@Bellagonna that is true. I'm caught up with the nipple confusion thing as a midwife literally snatched the bottle out of my hand as I fed my newborn and admonished me for confusing him. I felt like punching her but instead burst into tears.
You will feel vulnerable after birth and you'll have so many peoples different opinions thrown at you, I wish I didn't listen to half of them and instead listened what me and my baby needed. Whatever you choose will be the right thing for the two of you.

If breastfeeding works out, it’s actually much more convenient than bottle feeding, in terms of preparation. It’s always to hand and there’s no cleaning bottles etc. See how it goes first. Good luck.

Congrats OP!

My best advice is to prepare for both bottle and breast.

Get a good pump, plus bottles and lansinoh cream, nipple guards etc. Have some instant and powder formula to hand.

Try bf, and once established introduce a bottle within the first 2-3 months. This way, you can opt for either. Any longer, and you might struggle to switch, too soon and you can interrupt bf. Go with your gut on it. Mama’s know best!

Keep bottles on hand, see how is goes and combi feed when you’re ready to slow down bf or switch.

Combi feeding is awesome. Best of both worlds, and you can pump or give formula once bottles are introduced. It will also ensure you have the option to do what’s right for you and baby, with less pressure or mum guilt!

Good luck x

Once my babies had formula there was no going back. Why not try breastfeeding for a set period (say 1 month) then start to introduce formula once a day?

Mine had 3oz of breast milk pumped from me and if she was still hungry I topped up with formula. She en ever ever took more than 5oz at a feee though, right up until she was a year old.

You never know what will work for you and baby until they are here.
Start out with just breast and see how you get on for the 1st week or so but also have formula and bottles ready to either top up or switch.

I set out to breastfeed our older children. 1st 2 lost far too Uchida weight in their 1st week and needed to have formula. 3rd I tried so many foods/supplements to try improve milk supply but again ended up on formula. Our twins I was prepped from the start with formula in my hospital bag and used a pump to give them mine but never got more than 4oz a day pumping. Current newborn I couldn't bf for the 1st 2 days because I was too unwell after birth, dh gave her the formula I had packed. I did start to offer breast which she took well to but needed topping up with formula, after a week she started to reject the breast in favour of the bottle. She's 2.5wk old and will have 4-5oz every 3-4 hours.

Uchida? Should be much... weird autocorrect

The thing is that everyone has a different experience so my opinion is that you should see what works for you and your baby and go from there.

Combi-feeding wouldn’t have worked for me personally because of supply issues but I have loads of friends it worked brilliantly for.

I have heard that there’s benefit in breastfeeding even just for the first couple of days because the baby gets colostrum.

I combi fed DS from the start. He was in NICU so tube fed for a few days and then bottle fed. I didn't have the chance to bf until a few days later. Due to a rough birth, my supply was pretty low but I kept at it and topped up with formula. I continued for 6 months bfing during the day up until bed time and then bottles at night. It worked really well and meant I could leave him during the day if necessary.

I planned to do the same with my second. She had different ideas and would never take a bottle at all. Or a cup. Or formula. I bf'd until 15 months and she hasn't drunk milk since (she's 17yo now!).

I think my advice would be to just go with things and take each day as it comes. You can't really plan.

If you're planning to breastfeed or combi feed, make sure to read up on newborn breastfeeding behaviour and cluster feeding. If you look up the Kellymom website, there's info on everything including combi feeding.

I recommend a book called 'mixed up' it's about combi feeding.

I'd suggest concentrating on the breast feeding first for a couple of weeks at least then introduce a bottle.

I combi fed from birth more by accident than design. I only ever gave one bottle of formula a day though (two at a push once breastfeeding established) didn’t have any supply issues.

There's a book about mixed feeding that came out this year, Mixed Up by Lucy Ruddle. The kindle version is a bit tricky to read but I'm told the print version is better.

She wrote it because there is often this divide where people assume either you want to exclusively BF or you want to stop BF and there's no advice about maintaining a combination.

I’m currently doing it…Day 7. So far so good! Get as much help with the latch as you can at the hospital and watch a few YouTube vids about different holds and the deep latch. My baby was doing maybe 20 mins on the breast (it is cute if she’s attached well) And then maybe 10-20mls of formula so the colostrum must be incredible stuff.

I would recommend getting nipple shields -they were a game changer once my milk came in on day 3 to give my nipples a rest. Baby seems to have no problem going between the three…seems all milk is good milk!

My plan was to mixed feed anyway, and if you’re not bothered if your milk supply runs out and you eventually switch to formula (in my case) I think it works really well. No grumpy hungry baby but lots of cuteness and fewer bottles to sterilise.

Definitely see how you feel when LO arrives. As with all things baby’s related it’s great to know all the options but it’s difficult to plan ahead.

I had planned on combi feeding but it took a good couple of weeks to establish BF and by that point I had got used to it so just continued. Before he arrived I felt like bottles would be more convenient at certain times but afterwards I felt like it would be more time consuming and as he’s a demanding feeder I felt like I could feed him quicker by BF and save both of us stress. It’s not for everyone though and I know people who would like to BF but couldn’t or didn’t end up enjoying it so I’d say as with birth plans etc have your ideas but don’t put too much pressure on yourself and see what works for you both :)

I think it should be completely your choice and what works best for you as a family.
Dont feel pressured to BF but equally if you want to then you can get help from your MW and other organisations to do that if it doesn’t go smoothly.
Some people who plan to FF change their mind when the baby arrives but I didn’t and both my 2 were FF and I am very happy and guilt free about my decision. FF is fine if you want to do that and there are benefits to both ways of feeding your baby.
I think it’s a good idea to plan for both (and get some basic equipment for both) but make a final decision based on how you feel when baby arrives

I combi fed right from the start, although I was mostly breast feeding apart from at night where she was bottle fed - helps them to sleep longer. I agree that both your body and the baby need a system/rhythm, and I'd try basically only breast feeding for the first few days a) to get them the liquid gold, and b) to get your body starting a milk flow. Everyone says given a choice babies prefer the bottle because it's easier - but my DD defo preferred me.