Help needed - Vegetarian/vegan baby formula

[K2012]

Hi ladies

I’m vegetarian and only found Kendamil baby formula to be vegetarian all other brands I’ve seen contains fish oil which I don’t really want to give my baby and want to avoid giving soya as well as you shouldn’t give it before a baby is 6 months old??

Community midwife said today in case I can’t breastfeed straight after birth I need to buy baby formula starter packs (ready made milk in sterile bottles) and bring that to the hospital. I can’t find Kendamil starter packs anywhere online (will go town tomorrow to see if they got any) so wanted some advice on what vegans/vegetarians have done in terms of baby formula?

Thank you in advance 🙌🏻

Talk about setting you up to fail! The vast majority of women can bf successfully from a physical perspective. You may need a bit of support getting the latch right.

I bf my 3. I didn't buy formula in advance. Ds1 took over 24 hours to feed initially, mainly I think because he had a tough time coming out and was sleeping it off. Luckily no-one was pushing me to ff. It was fine.

I am in the minority who couldn't lift, feed or change my baby's nappy for about the first 48 hours due to severe PPH, had it not been for formula she wouldn't be able to have any food for the first 48 hours, I was so week and unwell. The midwives were really good and tucked her into bed next to me so we could have skin to skin but they and dp done most of her care.

I then had Ds who I successfully breastfed.

Did the midwife tell you to bring formula in, or were you asking about vegetarian formula and she basically said if you want vegetarian you need to bring your own?
She shouldn't tell you to bring your own if you are intending to bf however I can see why she would tell you to if you've been asking for a particular type of formula.

@Fixyourself Sorry for the daft question, so I understand you won’t start producing milk untill 2-3 days after birth but I’ll have very little milk to breastfeed my baby for the first few days or not? And that will be enough for baby for the first few days as I understand you feed many times in the first few days?

I don’t want to give baby formula but need to be prepared in case I’m unable to breastfeed.

The first few days you'll have colustrum which is early milk. If you want a backup in case you can't feed the baby you could try expressing before you give birth and taking it in syringes. There's advice here- and hopefully your midwife or hospital can advise.
Antenatal Expression of Colostrum - La Leche League GB

Women who have C-sections find it harder on average to breastfeed than those who give birth vaginally - but that doesn't mean you'll have issues- especially if you have good support there's no reason to think you won't manage.
There's some advice here:
Caesarean Birth and Breastfeeding - La Leche League GB

I planned on breastfeeding but I was really sick during labour and it took a while for my colostrum to come back (I’d managed to get a little bit from antenatal harvesting). Hospital were happy to leave DD for a bit. After a few hours, she was struggling to settle and my colostrum still hadn’t returned and so the midwives just gave her a small amount of formula. It won’t be vegan/vegetarian but for the short time while you get yourself recovered I would use theirs if you need to and accept it isn’t perfect but only temporary.

We ended up being readmitted due to losing too much weight and she needed topping up with formula. If that’s the case, it’s just about getting baby’s weight up rather than the perfect formula. When we were released from hospital we stuck with the hospital formula (SMA) and we had to try a few formulas but are now using Kendamil. If you end up on formula (I stopped breastfeeding at 5 weeks as it was just too much), I’d recommend Kendamil. The downside is that they’ve only just introduced the starter pack (which is out of stock) and are meant to be introducing 200ml ready made bottles soon but no idea when they’ll actually come out. I end up using a different brand (one that she’s previously had) for ready made bottles when we’re out. You might need to look at taking the hot and cold water flask with you if you go out and want to use Kendamil.

The breastfeeding team at the hospital is a good start but I would also do the following:

Check NCT website to see if they have a breastfeeding counsellor drop in, they may also run a preparing to breastfeed course (though it might be too late). See if they have any bumps and bavies/early days (pre crawlers) groups running locally - this is good for meeting other mums of very new babies where the feeding stuff comes up a lot.

Check if you have a branch of La Leche League or Baby Cafe locally.

Check if you have a peer support group - google "breastfeeding peer support <town>". If you have a sure start/children's centre, there might be something run through there.

Join a breastfeeding support group on facebook (be careful because some of them are a bit nuts - take with a pinch of salt and remember it's only FB)

Follow some breastfeeding support personalities on social media. I would recommend Lucy Ruddle and Lucy Webber.

Buy a breastfeeding book with a troubleshooting section, if you don't have one already. I liked Amy Brown's Positive Breastfeeding Book. The Womanly Art of BF is also very good.

I fully recommend The Positive Breastfeeding Book by Amy Brown. It has loads of useful info and advice. But no, you don't need to take formula to the hospital, and if you are planning to breastfeed it's better if you don't. Mothers who don't have formula easily available at the first sign of worry are more likely to succeed and breastfeed for longer. Newborn babies have teeny tiny tummies and the little bit of colostrum they can get from you before your milk comes in properly will be enough. And if you truly struggle the hospital won't just leave your baby to starve, they will have formula available there, although it may not be free from fish oil.

Oh and print out all the breastfeeding phone helpline numbers and stick them on your fridge.

I never managed to express colostrum but if you do then yes you do it into 1ml or 2ml syringes, which you can buy from a pharmacy (if you buy online you need medical/food grade, not craft grade) and store in your freezer, then you can either take them when you go into labour or get your partner to bring them the next day if you need them.

You'll have colostrum before your "mature" milk comes in and this is enough for your baby but sometimes with a c-section it can take 5-6 days rather than the typical 2-3 for milk to change to "mature" milk and it's worth knowing that in advance, so you aren't worried if that happens. Skin to skin contact and putting baby to the breast lots can help with milk coming in as quickly as possible and with baby gettig lots of colostrum.

Maybe it's worth looking up c-section friendly feeding positions after birth?

I planned to bf (and did) and the hospital told us not to bring formula. In fact, we had a baby that wouldn't feed and while I was trying to express (he was in NICU) they cup fed him some of their own formula. He also wouldn't take being cup fed so that didn't last long. But we were specifically told not to bring formula to hospital if planning to bf. So check with the hospital. Although of course, the formula the hospital used wouldn't have been vegetarian.