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!

It was the wording, your previous comments and well, there's a reason why more than one person recognises your name on formula threads.

But you cannot tell me there is a measurable difference between your experienceand mine...you can only give me your opinion on your experience of bonding.

The bond argument is shameful and an awful example of self righteous belief in being better. The bond I had with my baby was unfounded, incredible, joyful and I delighted in every second of her early years and getting to know her incredible personality. I am not stupid enough to consider my experience of bonding 'better' or 'stronger' than anyone else's...I cannot possibly begin to imagine how other people experience this and certainly wouldn't have the energy to begin matching it against my own.

The second we try to use our own experience to match against others whilst internally congratuing ourselves on bring better we loose so much of what it means to be open minded, compassionate and caring.

Annndddd finally for what it's worth I wonder how much of this narrative about bonds being stronger for breastfeeding creates a conscious bias towards bottle feeding mothers believing they are missing a 'bond' when they could just be revelling in utter newborn bliss.

Why has this turned into an argument about bf vs ff? The op asked for advice on bottle feeding!

The word baba makes me cringe

Does the cold water steriliser give the bottles a chemically smell?

Also, can people please share advice on how they stopped milk production from the start? Or maybe I should start a separate thread ... 🤔

Glass bottle recommendations also greatly appreciated

I have a 4 month old and have exclusively bottlefed. My baby is very happy and smiley and it's been very helpful to be able to get others to feed her when I've felt overwhelmed. I also appreciate being able to record the volumes of milk she is drinking because she struggled to have enough at the start.

Tips-

Premade bottles with teats (called "starter packs") for hospital. My hospital insisted that they provided milk but then ran out at 10pm one night!

Premade milk for days out.

Another vote for the perfect prep machine and measuring out milk powder in advance.

We were told to feed every 2 hours at first. Its normal for babies to lose 5-10% of their body weight initially but they should regain their weight after 2 weeks. Once our baby was back at her birth weight, we switched to feeding on demand. This means we feed when she demands it (every 3-4 hours normally) and if she doesn't want to finish a bottle, we don't force her. We just offer it to her a few times.

As you probably already realise, people love to judge women and especially mothers. There will always be something and it's their problem, not yours. I was asked by another mother if I had a natural birth or c-section with my baby and I replied that I had a c-section. She smirked and asked if I had been "afraid to give birth". So smug...

I breastfed for a couple of weeks first so not exactly from the start, but just wore a tight sports bra and hand expressed tiny amounts in the shower to stop being too engorged, actually stopped relatively quickly for me. I imagine if you never have the stimulation of baby latching in the first place you’ll make less milk and it’ll be even easier, but someone else might be able to confirm!

The one mantra everyone who has turned this in to a bf v ff thread needs to come back to is a fed baby is a happy baby.

1. you can buy the disposable small teat bottles that the hospital have from shops so you can have them ready to go at home.
2. a lot of people love the perfect prep machine however there is an issue re the fact the machines don’t kill the bacteria that lives in powder milk and thats why you should start the bottle off with boiling hot water. Told this by hospital nutritionist. Personally I would do your own research.
3. the non prep machine method that we used have boiled cooled water in bottles in the fridge. Then pour boiling water on to the formula and top with cooled.
4. agree to pp don’t invest in one brand your baby might not like it.

I combo fed as I had had a lump removed from one breast and as a result it produced significantly leas milk than the other.

Oh and no to the chemical-y smell for cold water sterilisers- they do when they first come out and they’re still wet (kinda chlorine-y smell?) but it doesn’t linger once they’re dry. You can rinse them in some cooled boiled water if it bothers you but I never did

I didn’t BF at all.
My milk didn’t really start and the bit that did stopped after a week

@JoyApple I did the same as @riotlady although my baby was largely bottle fed for the first 5 to 6 weeks I did about 2 breast feeds a day / expressed and when she lost interest in the boob mine just went away on its own. I think maybe they can give you something to help dry up milk x

@JoyApple for my first 2 babies (who sadly didn't live long), I was given cabergoline. It didn't work for me but that's probably because, in both cases, I had attempted breastfeeding.

With my daughter, I was supposed to have cabergoline but they kept forgetting to give it to me. I didn't attempt breastfeeding so the milk didn't come in that heavily and didn't cause me too much trouble. I just used breast pads for a week or so and gave the breasts a massage in the shower to soothe them.

I used MAM glass bottles and they are very strong, I dropped them on the floor several times and are still not broken.

Albeit short lived 😂

Request a dose of Cabergoline, inhibits prolactin. Generally a single dose is enough.

This is not a thread about breast feeding! So you're the one making it 'tit for tat' lol.. just go away with your 'baba' no one cares

I'm confused by your reply. Just to make clear what I'm saying, because I'm not criticising anyone.

You said : I wasn't going to comment until someone brought up breastfeeding and making the comment that breastfeeding mams all think that they bond better than bottlefeeding

And I commented to say no, that's not true, someone said that they can bond via formula as well. I've posted it below.

Nobody made a comment that was anything like what you said. You came and had an argument for no reason, which is a shame because it does not need to be an argumentative thread at all.

This 1000 percent!

We use kendamil with my little boy (8 months) and it is brilliant, he's a strong Nd happy little boy. I would recommend going on kendamil online and getting the repeat subscription service, it is fantastic and really takes the pressure off!

Sorry, multiple posts!

I am an exclusive bottle feeder here. The perfect prep machine is a life saver, I don't know how we would have coped without it. It takes you from a screaming baby to a quiet feeding baby in less than a minute! We also got the UV steriliser (also tommee tippee) which is amazing as all bottles come out dry and ready for use (with steam sterilisers they are often wet!).

Mam bottles are your friend, but don't buy too many until your baby is here as you may not get on with them and may prefer other brands!

Hope that helps!!

Inoby bottle warmer is portable & rechargable and great for heating up the ready made bottles when you are out and about or even in the early days when the perfect prep machine doesn’t make the smaller amounts.