So who is bottlefeeding for whatever reason?

[TheArmadillo]

Just wondering.

I am because of medication and health issues. Breastfed ds so have no idea what I am going to be doing with this one and worrying about it as everyone keeps saying how hard bottlefeeding is. Though breastfeeding wasn't exactly a piece of piss.

Anyone else out there? You don't have to give a reason.

No matter how many times it is repeated on here that bottle feeders are in the majority in RL so you don't need help and support to bottlefeed it doesn't help when you don't actually know any

At 36 weeks I've been given no information on bottle feeding - had to look it up online, but plenty on breastfeeding. Would be nice especially as they know I can't breastfeed, just to have a leaflet or summat explaining the health and safety aspects.

Another helpful hint!.. re someone reboiling kettle- with both my dd I bought £5 kettle from Tescos and kept it as the bottle kettle therefore didn't have to throw my eyes up at dh as much as I had feared!!

OP - there is an NHS leaflet on how to make up bottles and there is also a leaflet on the UNICEF baby friendly site about formula feeding - the differences between the milks, what they have to contain etc. Even the NCT site has a guide to making up formula - and other info is available on the babycentre website.

I bottle fed all 3 of mine. (now almost 6yrs old, 4yrs old and 2yrs old)

If you take away one tip it is this buy Dr Brown bottles and teats Ok, so they are expensive, but the anti-colic design made such a huge difference! DD1 was a very sicky/colicky baby, DD2 went the same way until a friend lent me a couple of Dr Brown bottles.... the difference was literally overnight and I had a much happier baby on my hands!

We used to put boiled water into the bottles and close up the bottles with the lids, and leave them on the side, and then add the powder when needed. You can buy little powder dispensers where you can measure out the correct amount of formula and the tip in the powder when out and about. Also, the cartons where a life saver for travelling.

I also made sure my babies would take milk at room temperature so I wasnt messing around with heating bottles.

Bottles are also sterilised if you put them in the dishwasher! The ease of chucking the bottles in the dishwasher was fab! We did have a microwave steriliser until we got a dishwasher.

You just need to work out what the current guidlines are - most tins of formula will state how to make a feed up!

Good luck!

Anything, with respect I think tbn was only trying to be helpful.

A thread with info about bottle feeding is a great idea - not so great if some of the info on the thread is incorrect. Posters who have stated that it's fine to make bottles up in advance have been corrected and nobody has jumped on them saying they are "bf bullies".

Also the comment about the BFN was a suggestion, not a requirement. I imagine it was just meant in the spirit of "Here OP, have you heard of this?" not "OMG your excuse is not good enough!"

Nobody should feel guilty for bottle feeding We all do the best for our babies that we can and we all make the choices that are right overall - I just think that they should be truly informed choices.

There is an NHS leaflet on bottlefeeding here by the way for anyone having trouble getting information out of their midwife - this leaflet should be handed out on request, so that is quite sad that they are refusing.

Niminypiminy - I did it your way, but didn't heat up, they just took it at room temp! Have two very healthy children so I must have done something right! Once you are actually bottle feeding you will find MW and HV more helpful (in my experience anyway - and as helpful as they ever are I suppose!) as they know you have made that decision. Lovely for the Dad and extended family to be a part of the experience as well
Don't use follow on milks when they get older either - a marketing con!

"thatbuzzingnoise... this is a thread for info about bottle feeding, not a thread for bf bullying."

that is evidence based information about bottlefeeding, no matter how you dress it up.

just because I correct a myth stated below and one which has been in the national press recently does not mean I don't like you. It means I care that correct information reaches all mother.

can't see how thatbuzzingnoise was bullying.

i have a question about bottlefeeding - ive heard about feeding on demand and also set feeding times, which do you do with bottlefeeding - i am totally confused, obviously with bottlefeeding i imagine it is easier to feed baby at set times so you can prep feeds.

am i being completely stupid?

I agree with spula, follow-on-milks a bit of a waste, I didn't use with first dd and never felt like I needed to, used follow-on with second dd as she was always hungry but it didn't help her!! She was just as demanding as a baby as she is as a beautiful, healthy, shouty 2 year old!!

I'd agree about the lack of info re bottle feeding. I asked my HV for advice on making up a bottle whilst I was struggling to bf, and she just said 'Well if you don't know how to make up a bottle, I won't tell you!' I couldn't tell if she was joking or not, until she left without telling me!

Fully intended to breastfeed DC so was shocked and upset when I couldn't, don't really know why now coz it's really NOT a big deal. Then immediately hit with huge learning curve on bottlefeeding whilst recovering from bad c-section. I wish I had more advise from people before giving birth regarding bottle feeding. So hopefully you're getting all the info you need from here.

Me and DC personally, loved aptamil first milk. So much so that no matter what follow on milk we tried, we switched back to Aptamil First. So he was on that for 1 year before switching to cow's milk(and the odd occasional sneaky buying of aptamil first carton for DS when he has a sniffle). We made milk the hard way, i.e. 2/3 cold sterilised water, then add powder to 1/3 hot-ish water to kill germs, then mix the lot together for perfect temperature. DC had diarrhoea and vomitting quite often despite ALL that so probably won't be doing that when I have DC2 but we'll see.

Tried Tommee Tippee bottles, including the anti-colic ones but for some reason didn't suit us although most my friends loved Tommee Tippee bottles. We ended up using Dr Brown for 6 months, godsend for us as his colic crying stopped within a couple of days. We had a happy baby then and he slept through the night(10 hours) in week5 and then 12 hours from week8, MIL says bottle change is probably co-incidence but guess we'll never know. We then switched to cups after 6 months and no more bottles after 7 months. DC has good appetite so this suited us. I would say we were just lucky having an easy baby rather than having made any good decisions.

58th message this one I think but still.. HTH!

breast and bottle fed babies can be fed on demand. if a baby is being formula fed from birth, it is recommended that the baby is fed on demand as well.

it mostly means that you allow the baby to feed as often as they like. He may only take a half oz (for the discussion's sake) at first but that is quite enough. He may be asking for milk 30 mins later and that is fine too. Tiny babies need frequent and small feeds for a lot of reasons, not just nutritional ones. So it is better to start off this way. Don't think that because the MW box says to give 3 oz every x hrs that you have to make sure he drains the bottle. A healthy full term baby will let you know when they are hungry. Just be responsive.

It therefore brings up the preparation question. For babies a month or younger in is more convenient and safer to use the expensive ready to feed cartons, especially if demand feeding in the beginning.

OP I would check with your hospital if they keep formula on the maternity ward - my local hospital (Macclesfield) recently stopped providing formula, and now insist that you need to take your own with you (pref. the ready-mixed cartons). Not sure if they provide bottles etc.

Your MW should be able to advise you if this is the case at your hospital

storminabuttercup - I fed on demand with bottles, I made up 3 bottles in a batch which I know is frowned on now but wasn't then That's why its handy to have a sneaky carton of pre-prepared formula just until you get into the way of how your baby needs fed!! My friends use Dr Brown bottles and swore by them, they also used infacol but I never really needed that.

agree with TBN regarding demand feeding

it may lead to more "waste" but is better for your baby as it allows them to regulate their own appetite and learn when they are full.

you may have heard that formula fed babies are more likely to suffer from obesity (that doesn't mean they all will, just there is more chance of it) and it is thought that this comes because people try and make babies finish a bottle when they don't want it, often because the packet suggests they should need a certain amount. this overrides the babies ability to tell when it is full. i think a study showed that bottle fed babies took, on average, 30,000 calories a year more than breastfed ones.

tho i don't know how they worked that out because how could you tell how much breastmilk a baby had had??? hmm

anyway, yes, demand feeding is generally considered best! and as tbn says that might be easier to do to start with at least if you use cartons rather than powder. also, remember that if you give a tiny bit and baby wants more it's easy to add to it and waste less than if you make up a big amount and then feel like you ouht to use it all up

to add, babies very often will fall into a routine by themselves, so you'll soon get to know when and how much s/he will want

Hello,

Re teats and bottles. Although tiny babies are meant to have the small size 1 teat, sometimes it is too small. Someone on my post-natal thread suggested I change the teat size to a size 2 as DD was struggling to feed and it worked a treat. I had to change to Dr Brown's bottles too as she couldn't manage the Tommee Tippee teats.

If I was starting again, I'd make sure I had the size 2 teat in for whatever bottle I bought just in case.

thanks ladies - i was worrying as i have worked out that a feed can take up to an hour to prepare - will be deffo buying some readymades :-)

Just to add I also FF on demand, as did other FFers I know. I think it would be pretty hard to force feed a baby formula, though this is often alleged as an issue with FF. Just because the bottle has 9oz in doesn't meant they'll drink it all!

Also always fed milk at room temp. Never used the damn expensive bottle warmer!!

to answer theLittleNutTree and quite a few others below:

HCPs are not banned or restricted in any way from giving you information on bottle feeding. They may say so and many do but they are lying or poorly trained into believing that this is the case.

I think someone earlier has already linked the NHS / DOH bottle feeding leaflet and mentioned the one from UNICEF? These are documents which the HV or MW should be giving you in your hand if you request information on bottle feeding. They are not doing their job if they do not answer legitimate questions on this topic.

In fact, if you were to ask a MW or HV how to make up a bottle, they are supposed to show you how to do it after your baby arrives, one to one and in your own kitchen. This is the DOH's own recommendations and with good reason.

Also (and here is hoping no one questions my agenda for saying so) there is absolutely no regulation in the UK or the rest of the world that prevents the formula companies from disseminating safe bottle feeding instructions. They know fully well what the rules are and how to do it. They choose not to do it. Presently, even the instructions on the back of at least one big UK brand does not comply with the latest safest information for safe bottle feeding. apparently because it makes the powder clump. Instead they disseminate marketing hype which undermines breastfeeding and muddies the waters for mothers who are hoping to feed their babies safely.

We bought a thermos and then would fill it with boiling water at the start of the day, leave the top off for 10 mins or so to let it cool slightly and then put the top back on. When we needed to make up bottles that day we would just use the water from the thermos - you still needed to cool the bottles afterwards but it did save having to boil the kettle each time and was useful to take upstairs for night feeds. No one else I knew ever did this but I have seen it recommended in some recent NHS literature (sorry can't remember exactly what) so it must be OK. We sterilised the flask with with a milton tablet before using for the first time, and only ever put boiling water in it.

The cartons are great though, especially in the first few days and when going out and about.

I know that Clare Byam Cook's book on breastfeeding isn't regarded that highly on mumsnet but a friend of mine lent me her bottlefeeding book and I found that really useful so may be worth picking up a copy.

Lola, it is possible to overfeed FF babies. It has to do with overriding the gag reflex and stretching a baby's stomach. After a few goes, the baby stops puking the excess and the stomach stretches to accept more than necessary. I can't get too technical about it but I'm sure that google could bring up some good information about it.

i think that the "encouraging" them to finish a bottle, or just have a bit more is probably not THAT common, but it does happen. I guess as with breastfeeding, women do worry about how much their baby is taking and perhaps just keep trying to get the bottle in the baby's mouth to see if it will take a little bit more?

as I say, I am sure most mums follow their babies cues however they choose to feed them

Stupid questions... how much feed are you supposed to give a baby? Should you worry if they don't seem to want to drink it all? I was going to express and FF and kinda mix it up, is that considered all right?

I just don't really think I'd personally feel confident enough BFing in public areas, and I really want to get DH involved in feeding DS. I'd like to try BFing, but if it doesn't work out for me I really don't want to feel like I'm a bad mother. I don't want to waste time feeling ashamed, I want to get on with the business of feeding my LO.

thatbuzzingnoise - did I say it was impossible to overfeed a FF baby? No I didn't. I said it would be pretty hard to do it. There are probably some people ramming bottles into baby's mouths, then again there are probably people doing all kinds of things that aren't advisable.