Exclusively Bottle Feeding

[Hjudge56]

Hi All,

I’m 27 weeks pregnant with my first baby, a little girl! I will be exclusively bottle feeding my baby and wanted to hear from any fellow mumma’s who have done the same previously/planning to do the same. Do you have any recommendations/tips/experience/reassurance haha? Thanks!

I tried to breastfeed my first and ended up bottlefeeding, currently pregnant with my second and planning on exclusively bottle feeding from the start.

Tips

• don’t go all in buying bottles from one brand just yet in case your baby gets on better with another
• have a look round your local shops and see what formula is always in stock before you pick a brand- we were on aldi own brand for a while but they kept going out of stock and it was so stressful
• cold water steriliser is super easy and cheap- pop the bottles in with some water and a tablet abs you can leave them there til you need to use them
• if you can afford it, ready made formula is much easier for a long day out than faffing around with flasks of water to make up bottles

Also just to say I really enjoyed cuddling up with my baby giving her a bottle! I don’t know why people act as if only breastfeeding is a bonding experience

Buy a steriliser that isn't a microwave one as we found the steam caused the inside of ours to go rusty 🤦🏻‍♀️ We bought the Tommee Tippee standalone steriliser after that.

We used premade milk for the first two weeks (as we were planning on breastfeeding) and then switched to powder. For night feeds we would half make bottles up to put in the fridge (cold water and powder) then top them up with pre boiled water from a thermos as and when they were needed.

Also! Use a cocktail spoon to stir the powder into the water rather than shaking as it creates fewer bubbles. Just make sure you sterilise it with everything else :)

We found the Tommy tippee perfect prep machine very helpful especially at night we just bought the basic £60 model might be cheaper now.

We got on well with Mam bottles and you can also sterlise those in the microwave if you in someone else's house or on hols etc.

I had a boots brand hot water sterliser that was very reasonable and was fab.

If your going to give a dummy as well would get the same brand as the bottles.

We used formula from day one - brilliant as friends and family can also give bottles. My father in law says it was his favourite time as a grandfather when DC’s were first born.
Agree with other comments - check what brands your supermarket stocks all the time, ready made for when you go out and if you can afford it a perfect prep machine for upstairs and downstairs

I did, we shook from side to side a tip from the health visitor

These are all super helpful thank you so much!

I’ve decided to go with Kendamil as that has been most recommended to me by a trustworthy nutritionist so I am prepared to stock up on this and order online. Luckily they have the pre made ones so I’d been planning to get a few packs of this for the initial time post birth- which is reassuring as you guys are recommending it too!

I’ve used tommee tippee bottles with both of mine and they’ve been great.
Microwave steriliser is so quick and easy.
Make sure you don’t pre make any bottles, any made up formula needs throwing after 2 hours.
aptamil has been great with my first two, looking at trying kendamil this time as it’s cheaper
prep machine is an absolute life saver especially during the night, just make sure you are cleaning it properly and using the correct filters.
I used the hospital packs for night feeds during the first few days, was so much easier to have them right there

Just came on to say how lovely it is to see so many bottle feeding mums supporting each other, without any pro bf people coming in to convince you otherwise. I bf my kids, and my sil bottle fed. Seeing SIL feed her baby, cuddling her and them gazing into each other's eyes made me weep. A beautiful bonding experience. Congrats and good luck with everything!

@CallHerJohn i completely agree! I was annoyingly nervous posting this thread but the response is amazing xx

I did mixed feeding from birth. Tried a lot of different ways of making and sterilizing bottles along way and probably had it all figured out by month 4.

Tommee Tippee is your friend! The perfect prep machine is amazing. Especially at 3am. Choose glass bottles over plastic - better for the environment and easier to resell afterwards.

Electric sterilizer is the way to go. Boiling bottles is a faff and takes up too much stove top room all day long. Microwave sterilizing is even worse. Milton smells and, again, takes up too much space. We got a TT electric sterilizer on sale and haven’t changed since - 6 bottles at a time and it keeps them sterile for 24 hours.

Keep an eye out for sales - we bought everything piecemeal but there are regular sales and you can buy bundles too which makes more sense.

Here is my advice and experience.

1. we used mam bottles and sterilised in the microwave. Once your baby takes to these bottles - buy plenty. Washing is a chore but washing in a bulk once or twice a day is better than many times a day

2. formula - everybody will say they are the same but we didn't find that with my first. It took 3 attempts to find one that suited. He was either constipated or had really stinky poos and changing formula really helped.

3. infacol and burping. My first baby really struggled with burping as a new born and was full of wind by the evening and he had tonnes of wind. Infacol takes a few days to work but it works by breaking down the bubbles in their tummy.

And agree with another poster - we had tonnes of lovely bonding moments cuddling and bottle feeding my second. He is two now and won't give up his before bed bottle and still wants a big cuddle before bed

No one acts it. Its only cause breastfeeding releases a higher level of oxytocin. Not saying bottle feeding doesn't. It does just not near as high as breastfeeding. I've bottle fed and breastfed my son. Bottled of expressed milk. Ime I prefer breastfeeding as its more close and cuddly. The smiles are amazing when I catch his eye when he's suckling and he tries not to smile back. But always does in the end. It's adorable.

Nobody asked you what you prefer.

I never knew that ff babies don't smile or cuddle. Who knew.

Op, I bottle fed all mine, go into without any guilt. Most recent studies have shown that the only difference is a point or two in IQ, which is rubbish anyway.

@Emmamoo89 its actually astounding how many threads you manage to insert yourself into to talk about how much you love breastfeeding when it’s not remotely relevant to the topic. 🙄

I'm pregnant with my second and planning on bottle feeding from birth. For hospital I'm going to buy the small ready made bottles with the teats as they have limited facilities. It's a good idea to check if your hospital provides formula and the facilities they have. I'm not a fan of the ready made stuff usually as it's quite thin I so try and prep a bottle before I go out if it's a short outing. Always have some ready made in my bag though just in case. Agree with the perfect prep machine. They're a life saver. You can get them super cheap secondhand and just replace the filters.

The IQ point has never been proven - DT’s - 100% formula fed got all A’s at GCSE and A levels and both got 1st in their degree.

No difference in the bonding, cuddles and smiles. Got all three using formula and don’t know anyone who didn’t

Exclusively bottle feed 1st child now 27 and exclusively breast fed 2nd child now 24 - both experiences were fine and both children very healthy and both went to Uni. The only difference is it is nice sometimes to get a break by letting others bottle feed for your, breastfeeding it is nice you don't have bottles to wash.

🙄god forbid I should talk about enjoying bottle feeding my baby and bonding with her on a thread about exclusive bottle feeding without someone coming in to talk about how breastfeeding is better

for the record I also tried both and found breastfeeding shit and stressful but I don’t spend my time popping up on breastfeeding tips threads to share that

It's incredible isn't it??

used tommee tippee bottles with ds but he had terrible wind and reflux. Changed to dr browns with dd. They’re a pain to wash, but she never had any problems at all. It could just have been coincidence but I think the dr browns bottles did make a difference. We also had the big tommee tippee steriliser which is great. It’s massive so you can chuck all sorts in. Make sure you buy a range set f teat sizes, both of mine moved up sizes really quickly. I’d also recommend a Milton travel dummy steriliser. This was fantastic.

@Emmamoo89 wondered how long it would be before you popped up on here. Totally irrelevant to this thread, and there's not going to be much oxytocin released if a mother feels stressed and pressured into doing something that she doesn't want to do is there?

currently bottlefeeding my 5 month old and have another baby on the way!

Buy plenty of bottles so you can have them sterilised and ready.
Ready made formula with the little teats are amazing for when baby is super tiny and you’re doing night feeds!
Dont be worried about changing formula if little one doesn’t agree with it/you want to try a different brand eg I switched from Aptamil to mamia.

the biggest thing for me is the tommee tippee prep machine - a lifesaver and took the stress away - hate doing the whole kettle thing as it stressed me out so much at the start. however if you don’t want one then the whole premaking then putting them in the fridge works well too.

If bottle feeding is your informed decision then it should be supported.

I would be very wary of claims by your friend about the best brand though as there is absolutely no robust evidence supporting this. All you need to know is to use a first stage milk for the first year and then move on to cows milk. No need for any fancy formulas or follow ons. Sadly formula companies target professionals a lot in their advertising through sponsored study days etc but I can promise you that all formula are nutritionally equivalent and there is not one that is best. The brand you mention is a relative newcomer in the UK and has used some very pushy and very underhand tactics to try to get itself known. Fine if you want to use it, but do have a look at the evidence first.

First Steps Nutrition is an excellent, evidence based resource for formula feeding. You can find out all about different brands, what goes into them and why they are all the same! I would encourage you to really think about this, after all it is the first food your baby is going to have. I don't mean that to be patronising but if you think about it, most of the marketing is about fooling you in to spending more than you need to. One company makes two different milks in the UK, one of them is the cheaper £10 a tub milk and one is the super expensive £18 a tub. Why would they do that when the nutritional value is the same of not to make money?

I would encourage you to do the first feed in skin to skin after birth, it has a lot of benefits for you and your baby. Skin to skin is for bottle feeding too! You can keep doing some skin to skin feeds for those lovely snuggles after too. It will help keep baby warm, support her immune system by helping colonise her microbiome from you and release lots of hormones to calm both of you which will help all that lovely bonding you've been doing in pregnancy to strengthen. Your partner might be eager to do it too but they can wait! This period is actually really important for your baby to spend with you if possible.

Have a look at paced bottle feeding, so keeping baby close and quite upright, inviting her to take the teat and keeping the bottle pretty much horizontal with the end of the teat just filled with milk but still having an air gap in the teat. This means the milk won't just keep dripping into her mouth and she will have control over her feed. If she pauses you can lower the bottle (without taking the teat out of her mouth) and then lift out again when she starts the suck. Look out for signs she wants to finish the feed like splaying her hands or pushing the teat out.

Always look at the baby not the clock, feed her when she shows feed cues, yay might be at different intervals and she might take different amounts each time. That's fine. And limit the number of people who feed her to just her main caregivers not everybody who fancies a cuddle!

One of the reasons we decided on formula feeding was so lots of people could give feeds and enjoy cuddles. One of my favourite photos is a picture of my father in law feeding DS - he’d flown all night and was so looking forward to seeing DT’s and the look of pure joy on his face when we passed him DS and a bottle.