Combining breast & bottle feeding from birth

[Pheebs234]

Does anyone have experience/good resources for success with implementing both breast & bottle (either pumping or formula) from birth? I have disability which will make it difficult for me to be up at nights doing the feeds alone & then coping on no sleep during day & midwife has suggested husband could do one of the night feeds - but I understand this can be difficult to implement. would love to hear any advice/suggestions

Watching, as I plan to do the same 🥰
my mum said she did this straight from birth, dad did the 10pm feed with formula. I’ve read a lot of mums on here will say it effects the amount of Breast milk but I know it’s worked for a lot of people ☺️

We introduced the bottle (expressed breastmilk) once DS was 2 weeks old and he took to it really well.

I think the trick is not to introduce the bottle too late so that they only accept breast. But don't do it too early either. 2 weeks worked perfectly for us.

Breastfeeding is so easy at night if you can manage to breastfeed lying down on your side. I did this with my 3 kids and managed to dream feed them without getting up and faffing around with bottles and powdered milk. They didn't even have time to cry - I'd just pop them onto me as soon as they stirred.

I mixfed my dd from about 10/11 days old. We started giving a small bottle of formula at bedtime, it meant I could get an early night and a solid block of sleep. It worked really well for us. As pp says I would introduce a bottle fairly early , they only need really tiny amounts at first.

Justtickingboxes you do have to wake up to breast feed and the op wouldn't be making up bottles in the night, her dh would!

I combi fed my first.

You can get some starter kits of pre made formula with teats. These will be fab for those early days feeds until things settle down a bit.

During the day put the baby to breast as often as they need and really try to get through the day time cluster feeds.

Baby will cluster feed at night as well in the early weeks. This is normal.

The hard thing is that breastmilk helps them go to sleep and you have most milk in the night.

It might be better for your husband to do a daytime feed allowing you to have a decent nap in the afternoon.

Failing that an early evening one so you can go to bed early and get some sleep before a 10pm
Feed.

It's also a really good idea to put your feet up in the late afternoon and just chill with baby in front of the telly. That will also help you get some rest as well in the day.

We have ended up combination feeding from birth because things didn't really go to plan and I was quite unwell. It's been fairly straightforward to be honest, the difficulty is to build your supply as baby feeding brings your milk in and every formula feed is milk your body then won't produce. We do a formula feed at 10pm, so I can go to bed early and get a good chunk of sleep. We also do another bottle early afternoon. Baby is quite happy to switch between bottle and breast. We did use a cup for the first week for formula until I was well enough to hold and latch baby.

We did this and it was brilliant!I don't know why people do not do it as standard. Things that made it a success:

1. Only DH did the bottle, not me (I left the room)
2. Used ready made formula (HIPP Organic), not breast milk (expressing was hard work and she wouldn't take breast milk from the bottle)
3. Started when she was a week old
4. Tips in the Kellymom 'how to bottle feed a breastfed baby'

kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/feeding-tools/bottle-feeding/

@Justtickingboxes

Breastfeeding is so easy at night if you can manage to breastfeed lying down on your side. I did this with my 3 kids and managed to dream feed them without getting up and faffing around with bottles and powdered milk. They didn't even have time to cry - I'd just pop them onto me as soon as they stirred.

That sounds amazing, wish I'd managed that. I could never get her to latch on when we were lying down and my arm on the lying down side was always uncomfortable plus I was terrified of falling asleep and rolling onto her.

Yes - DD is 10 weeks and BF in the day FF at night.

Used the little bottles of pre-made with teats in the early days and used them whenever I needed a break really. Baby needs to be able to establish your supply so need to get the balance between this and the bottle. Would let her cluster feed for the evening then give a bottle at 9/10pm.

I did find I would leak a lot at night and wake up pretty full but my supply has settled now as we've got into a bit more of a routine.

At night used pre-made or have a bottle stored in the fridge so by the time you've changed their nappy your good to go.

Following, as I plan to do this with my second baby. Some good advice here!

I never really nailed the half-asleep night feeds that PP is recommending. And a large reason for wanting to combi-feed this one is because DD quickly ended up an adamant bottle refuser which, when you're six months in and truly mad from exhaustion, is a hellish place to be. Never again!

Look up paced bottle feeding. You don't want to make getting milk from a bottle too easy otherwise they might get a preference.

[quote Alicesays]We did this and it was brilliant!I don't know why people do not do it as standard. Things that made it a success:

1. Only DH did the bottle, not me (I left the room)
2. Used ready made formula (HIPP Organic), not breast milk (expressing was hard work and she wouldn't take breast milk from the bottle)
3. Started when she was a week old
4. Tips in the Kellymom 'how to bottle feed a breastfed baby'

kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/feeding-tools/bottle-feeding/[/quote] Full disclosure, I hate combi feeding and EBF my second because of that.

I felt it was more work to combi feed as I had to make up the feeds and think and plan for them. My son has CMPA as well so he had special formula that stank! It also made him sick (but not as bad as normal formula) it didn't come in pre made either.

He slept way worse than my second who was sleeping 10-5 from 8 weeks and was generally just way more settled.

The worst bit was before he was diagnosed with the milk allergy. Every HV was telling me to do a formula feed because of his weight issues. It was horrible hearing him scream in pain and then projectile vomit after every bottle. Add to that no one believing me that the formula was making him sick.

Sorry, that was a lot, but I think it's important to know that formula can be a hard option and isn't always a means to give mum a break.

Yes I did a random mix of both from birth and it was fine. The bottles were expressed milk though - I think if you use formula your supply will settle to a level that you always need some formula feeds. That may actually match your plan perfectly though, so is not necessary a a bad thing

I did it from 2 weeks in case I had to go back on medication.

My DP fed all the bottles to our DD until she was over 3 months. She then associated each of us with a different method of feeding.

We just chose the formula we got get the easiest from the nearest supermarkets.

We started with pre-made formula as we brought some for the hospital. Once that ran out we used powder formula of the same brand.

We had to try lots of different bottles. We found out DD was happiest using Boots and Asda own brand bottles. (Yep they were the cheapest.) We never changed to different teats so she was still using new born teats when she stopped using bottles.

We tended to do one bottle feed a day until she was over 4 months. That feed was when she was cluster feeding in the evening so it allowed me to go to toilet and eat while she got fed.

It was easier for me to breast feed her at night as I could do it in bed laying down.

I stopped breast feeding one day before DDs first birthday as she refused. Then a couple of days after her birthday she refused to use bottles as she was using a mixture of sippy cups and bottles.

Personally I wasn’t able to do it. I would just be careful with how much formula you give. Also it may not be just ‘one of the night feeds’, as breastfed babies can want to feed every 30 mins or every 2 hours or just want a bit of comfort feeding.

I mix fed my twins after day 5, due to weight and feeding issues. Unfortunately they never really took to the breast after and I stopped completely by 6 weeks. It got to the point where I was feeding, expressing and doing bottles. They didn’t want to BF when bottle feeding was ‘easier’ for them.

They were born at 37 weeks though, and as twins were small and it was pretty challenging with two. So you may have more luck if your baby is stronger and more able to feed/ establish your supply.

I don't know what your disability is but with my first I struggled with not sleeping well and waking up lots (so husband did some cup feeding with expressed breast milk). With my second we co slept from birth and after a couple of weeks I honestly barely stirred to get a boob out, baby would feed and we'd both snooze away. I was way more rested and happier that way and she tended to sleep through till 9AM which was lush

Oh yes, don't change test size if you're combi feeding. Your nipples don't change so the bottles don't need to either.

You also do t need as much as the baby will self regulate when breastfeeding. Our dietician said a max of 5oz feeds.

I found sleep with a newborn so difficult.

Cosleeping was the only option that helped me. Once I tried that I got plenty of sleep.

Trying to give the baby a bottle for a night feed wouldn't have worked for me. My hormones/instinct in the first few weeks were very strong and intune with the baby so if he was awake I woke up. If he was in the other room with someone else I couldn't relax...I could only sleep with baby next to me for the first weeks of his life.

I know that not everyone will feel like that, but I also know that plenty of mums do- so it might be worth bearing in mind that a bottle might bring you less sleep, not more.

We have combi fed all 3 from birth (youngest is 3 weeks old) and it works brilliantly for us.

Make sure baby is majority breastfeed on demand to begin with to help establish your supply and perfect the feeding technique, which can be tricky for some babies and mothers.

When introducing formula they only need the tiniest little feeds to start with, we use the teeny pre made bottles at the moment with our newborn. When she's bigger and taking more we'll move on to powder and bigger bottles.

DH does one feed in the evenings/night. It's not always at the same time at the moment as DD is breastfed on demand and doesn't have a routine yet but once we establish a bit more of a routine the bottle will be at approx the same time each night.

I fed the older two until around 7 months, at which point I gradually phased out breastfeeding and replaced with bottles. They were happy to take either. Hoping DC3 is the same.

Mine had a bottle last thing at night from about 2 weeks old.
It meant I had no problems leaving them if needed to go out.

really helpful responses thank you everyone

I should add my DD feed a few times in the night until about 4 months so it was easiest and quickest to put her on the breast rather than for us to make up a bottle.

This is why her bottle was in the evening during her cluster feeding period rather than at night.

Totally agree with Red Marauder, breastfeeding overnight is by far the easiest option as no need to make up bottles.

The best solution for us was a late-ish bottle so I could be sleeping or at least resting if possible (10/11 at night) but I'd continue to do the breastfeeding at 2am/4am or whatever and DH would get a decent sleep then.

Such good information on this thread. I've learned lots too. Thanks everyone