How bad is Formula?

[orangeguy]

I'm unable to breast feed. How bad is formula?

It's twice the work that's for sure but my floppy tits and 4kg baby is hard work

A couple of things that can help with pumping
-being near your baby or having something to make you think about them - a photo, a blanket that smells like them.

• Covering the bottles with socks so don’t get worried about how it’s going
• picking your time. If you’ve just successfully direct fed then it’s normal to get very little milk out. Different times of day will likely quield different quantities of milk.

Pumping and getting little milk is still stimulating milk production. At 10 days post partum your production will still be increasing and if your baby isn’t feeding successfully directly then this unproductive pumping you’re doing might still be making a difference for tomorrow. Has your baby been weighed in the last few days? If they are gaining weight well, that’s all that matters. If you want/need to supplement with formula or you’ve had enough of breastfeeding formula is fine and won’t hurt your baby.

Of course formula is fine. I'm just weaning from exclusively pumping for my baby and I've now switched to mainly formula at 8 months.

Let's see if we can help you with the breast feeding (pumping) as that is clearly something you are still wanting to try.

How old is baby?
Is your pump hospital grade?
How often are you pumping?

To build a good supply in the beginning you need to be pumping around 8-10 times a day as a newborn baby would drink. It's hard work but it does get easier as they get bigger I promise. Baby takes very very small amounts in the beginning, if it's early days your milk might not have come in yet.

Here to answer any questions you might have

Weighed today and is at birth weight (minus a few grams).

I had large breasts, flat nipples, and a baby that wasn’t gaining fast enough. I saw an IBCLC lactation consultant. She set us up with a routine that included a nipple shield. also something called an sns to start and a pumping routine to fill the sns.

That stupid nipple shield saved our breastfeeding relationship. I tried to ditch it a few times, but it was just necessary and I ended up keeping it all 3 years. I had them stashed all over the house. So many that I was finding them years later. It just gives the baby a little something extra to latch onto and your nipple a bit of extra shaping.

@mrshenny I'm not pumping enough.... he's 11 days old. It's a medeia so yes hospital grade.

Don’t worry about how much you pumped just now. How much have you pumped in the last 24hours?

And have you fed directly at all?

I would also just add that I nursed my first and if this is a possibility for you I would recommend it over trying to pump, it's much much easier once you're established. Pumping was a labour of love for me and was hard work, the beginning of nursing was hard but once we had it down it was so so so easy. I really do feel sad that it didn't work out with my second.

Are you nursing directly at all?

My ds is a strapping 6ft healthy 20 year old who was formula fed. Don't tie yourself up trying to do what others do. Do what's best for you.

A couple of times.

Not enough. Third pump in 14 hours. How long should I be pumping for?

I think I should buy some shields.

But how much is not enough? This morning you got 200mL? Plus 15 or so from this latest pump? Anything else? Counting a full 24hours including last night?

If you want to move to feeding direct I would let baby latch on everytime they squeak then give a bottle of expressed milk or formula after they’ve got frustrated with direct feeding.

If you want to exclusively pump you might need to add in more sessions. But if you’ve pumped 3times in 14 hours plus baby has fed directly successfully twice in that time that sounds pretty normal to me.

But again, you don’t have to do any pumping or breastfeeding if you are absolutely hating it.

You can try to get to fulltime breastfeeding, pump some or all of your babies feeds, mix feed breast milk and formula or go fully formula fed. There is no wrong answer as long as your baby is getting fed and is growing well.

What in person support have you had so far op?

If you want to establish a supply, you’ll need to express as often as you would breastfeed baby, including (and especially) overnight.

Have you heard of power pumping and hands on pumping? Skin to skin can help too.

With regards to physically attaching baby at the breast, have you explored lying on your side and/or ‘rugby ball’ positioning? Flat nipples aren’t the be all and end all but large breasts, a small baby AND flat nipples are a lot to contend with. Shields might help. They come in lots of shapes and sizes so it might be worth trying a few to get a good fit. You should hand express a little bit of milk into them to get the flow going first.

It's not. I couldn't breastfeed. I did try to pump but not for long. 3 kids, 2 at Uni, 1 doing A levels. More important to cuddle your child.

Absolutely nothing wrong with formula, why on earth would it be bad when millions and millions of babies have been fed it and thrived?!?

You need to pump a lot more often to increase your milk supply. Spend a couple of days resting, eating and drinking well and cuddling your baby and try to express at least every other hour for about 20 min.
It's generally easier to increase supply if you are actually breast feeding.

You asked how bad formula is. It isn't bad at all. It just isn't the ultimate food for a newborn.

OP the frequency of pumping is most important, to establish supply there needs to be demand. I recommend pumping 8 times per day at least in the early days.

Google power pumping, also there are some great pumping groups on Facebook that will be a huge help

Get a breastfeeding pillow and lie him there to feed. I have big breasts, flat nipples (at least with first) and managed ok. You need to let baby latch on as often as possible. It’s a new skill you both need to learn if you want to BF.

Are you not supposed to let the head flop/pull away if needed?

A breastfeeding pillow is not like a normal pillow, they can still pull away. They are £16 on amazon or I am sure you can find one on Marketplace for a few pounds. What saved me was also nipple shields and the pillow. You need lots of skin on skin and lots of latching on to try and establish feeding. Believe me pumping is a lot harder! I never managed it.

My nipples also completely changed after baby 1 and are no longer flat!