when to give bottle?!

[fabulousmama]

hi guys

i have introduced a bottle to my ebf baby. i only give her a bottle of formula twice a day. i started giving it at night but then HV said not to do that as breastfeeding is best at night for my supply.

any advice on what the best time of day is to give a bottle? i was thinking evening time around 5 and then one before bed as supply is lowest then? X

I don’t have an answer but following as also interested! Could be worth getting this moved to infant feeding instead of the pregnancy board though?

I really don’t think it matters too much, just do whatever works for you. DH used to give an evening bottle to DS so I could have a bath and get my head down for a couple of hours when he got in from work.

did this affect your supply? that’s the thing i’m mainly worried about because i still want to breastfeed but don’t want it to mess anything up

haha good idea! how do i get it moved?

just moved it thank you! didn’t realised there was a infant feeding section! X

I breastfeed and then once a day my partner gives our baby a bottle of expressed milk before bed at around 8pm (baby is 6 weeks). Whilst he does that I will pump for 20 mins and use rhay milk for the following day. Sometimes if I think baby needs topping up during the day I will give some expressed milk too but will then pump to replace the feed. I've not found it impacted my supply as I didn't miss a feed as such i just replace with a pumping session. If you are going to give a bottle you will need to pace feed to make sure baby has to work for the milk from the bottle like they would the breast or else baby can start to prefer the bottle. I have the opposite problem and baby prefers the boob so will be fussy with a bottle sometimes especially if I am around and she can smell or hear me! There's some good fb groups for breastfeeding 'breastfeeding yummy mummies' and 'breastfeeding and lactation support UK' - both are really useful and lots of info on there

I always gave mine a bottle at around 10pm, that way I could got or sleep early and it seemed to help them sleep longer through the night. They wouldn’t then wake up for a feed until 2/3. It didn’t seem to have an impact on my supply. I was able to breastfeed fine the rest of the time.
There is always a lots rules and advice with regards to feeding and I think you just need to do what works for you 🙂

I'd ask yourself these questions to help schedule the ff
Why are you giving formula? If baby isn't sleeping through and you're tired then maybe a 10pm one or a 3am one.
If you're giving formula then you're spending that time pumping why are you giving formula you're not saving any time and you're creating work
If you're really super keen to carry on breastfeeding then cutting feeds is a risk

How old is your baby? If you have an established supply already it wil adapt to fit around whatever time you decide on as being best to give formula. With my second From about six months he would have a bottle from DH at bed time which meant I could get my head down a bit earlier which made a massive difference to me.