Mumsnet users share their combination feeding experience and tips with MAM

[JustineBMumsnet]

While some MNers find breastfeeding as easy as falling off a log, others say it can be a big challenge, especially in the early days. One MNHQ survey showed that 53% of MNers were exclusively breastfeeding at six weeks (itself lots more than the national average), and 19% at six months. Whether sticking exclusively with breastmilk or not, it seems that lots of MNers discover that combination feeding as a solution that works for them.

With that in mind, MAM would like to hear from those who are combination feeding or have done so in the past.

Here’s what MAM has to say: “Here at MAM we believe in supporting every parent on their feeding journey, whichever journey they end up taking. We believe in parents supporting each other, too. Whether you breastfeed, bottlefeed, or use a combination of the two, MAM wants parents to feel confident and babies to feel good. Today we want to open up a discussion about combination feeding, which means feeding bottles of expressed breastmilk or formula milk to your baby alongside breastfeeding. There’s very little information out there on combination feeding, so if you know the ropes, or would like to share your story, we want to hear from you. Every drop of wisdom could go on to help another parent out there.”

What has your experience of combination feeding been, and what led to your decision to combination feed? Do some styles of bottle work best for your baby when combi feeding? Perhaps you have tips on encouraging your baby to continue to latch on to the nipple once they’re used to a bottle? Or for getting them to accept the occasional bottle?

Whatever your experience or tips, share them below to be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

Breast fed and bottle fed my daughter. Bottle fed my twins. They were prem and had reflux. It wasnt worth the stress to me. I think you should do whatever you feel comfortable doing. There is too much pressure on new mums

I tried so hard to BF fully as I had imagined when I was pregnant. It didn't work out and I ended up expressing and using formula. I returned to work full time pretty quickly so used formula and expressed at night and froze my milk for my Mother to bottle feed whilst I was working. As most say a baby with a full tummy is a happy baby (or something like that...!)

I am medically unable to breastfeed, but didn’t know that until after DC had been born. It is still an enormous grief to me. All DC’s nutrition therefore came from formula, but it was still important to me to nurse for comfort (mine as well as DC’s).

I am still breastfeeding my DD at 3 years and 5 months. She weaned at 6 months and thought she was going to stop naturally but then came back on in a big way and has it along with regular food. I know she gets a lot of nutrition and immune support this way and it's a very wonderful bonding and comforting experience for both of us. She always wants more if she has a cold and I sometimes will feel inexplicably tired the few days leading up to me or her getting cold symptoms and I know then that my body is making the specific antibodies that she needs to fight it off.
Some of my tips:
Making a C shape with your hand around the breast helps the initial latch-on.
Get everything you need - drink of water, tissues, mobile/remote control etc and I found I could get quite a bit done on computer once I bought a wireless mouse (and free on-screen keyboards are readily available) and get comfy as feeds can take a long time. Try to think of it as relaxing time for both of you.
V shaped cushion is brilliant for BF and DD is still using it to play/relax on.

I had three very different experiences with each of my 3 children. No.1 was tongue-tied and struggled with breastfeeding so was bottle-fed in hospital inititally. Thanks to the persistent of a member of nursing staff and the use of a pump, I was then able to breastfeed for nearly a year. Child no.2 breastfed well with few problems but I did worry about whether I could / should mix feed to get a break with bottle feeding so didn't do it often which meant he struggled to take a bottle when needed. Child no.3 I went totally with no pre-conceptions of what I should or shouldn't do and didn't worry about whether to mix feed or not and it was the easiest to do both. Because I was able to mix bottle and breastfeeding I actually managed to breastfeed her the longest of all three and it fitted into our lives much better doing both bottle and breast feeding. I think the lesson I have learnt is there is no "right" way and to not worry what others say or think.

I had a premature baby who struggled with his feeding reflex, but because he was also jaundiced it was really important to get fluids into him. I was desperate to breastfeed successfully but it was really hard and when my GP suggested I mix feed him I caved and did it. He never breast fed again - it was just too much like hard work for him - and went on to be exclusively bottle fed. I feel the advice I had was poor and the complete lack of support from midwives or HV was the nail in the coffin. The trouble with failing with breast feeding is that it tends to knock on to subsequent babies as well. Breastfeeding is hard for some women and if you've moved on to the bottle once and are comfortable with all the sterilising etc, the lure of it can be too hard to resist. It would be so great if there were more support to call on. The midwife/HV provision once you're at home was not enough even when my babies were small and is probably woeful now. And charities like the NCT and La Leche are all very well, but they're not there in your house when you need them, the baby's screaming and failing to latch and all you want to do is cry. I still feel sad about it all when I think back. Anything that can help new mums is a good thing in my view.

During pregnancy I decided I'd like to give BF a go but wouldn't put pressure on myself if it wasnt working out and would be happy to bottle feed. Combo feeding wasn't mentioned in any of the baby books or classes and I didn't know it existed! All the info was one or the other.

When DD arrived she was straight on the boob and latched perfectly the first few times but once we got home it got a lot harder. I think as I already had large boobs and now they were swollen and this tiny baby, it was hard to find positions which worked for both of us. 4 days in it got really hard for her to latch and my nipples were bleeding and sore,but she was hungry and my instincts said to just keep trying. After 2 days of trying to express then feed her to give my boobs a break, I was like a broken woman so 'gave in' and fed her formula. It was the best decision as it took the pressure off, gave my body a bit of time to heal and also meant we had more flexibility in terms of travelling (my partner doesn't drive).

Mam bottles were recommended to me when I realised that DD had a lot more wind when bottle fed, and they are excellent. She's loved them from day one and I now have a very happy and thriving 7mo.

For my first I had combinations feeding whilst in hospital, was there for 5 days due to complications though baby was fine. Struggled at first with latching on and as was so tired (no sleep to be had in hospital ward), seemed easier for the nurses to offer the bottle and feed him for easier life without hungry baby crying. I pushed back at first then conceded as the pressure is immense. First tired SMA gold disposables and ended up conferring with medicine cup. Think this helped to stop nipple confusion. Once left hospital continued to co- feed, and was much easier to be at home. Sought some help from midwives and after trying numerous bottles for ready made formula (too nervous to try powered), ended up using doidy cups. These were great as could use for pumped and formula. Ended up bf for 26 months. With subsequent kids (2 more) didn’t bother cofeeding persevered with bf which was very hard in hospital at first but had shorter stays which helped. Continued to use doidy cups with expressed milk and feel lucky to have got to feed all to 26 - 28 months, would have liked to have continued to 36 months but this is so alien in the UK, you feel the pressure all the time to wean.

My advice stay strong in hospital and persevere with bf if you want, and if you don’t stay strong too, most important thing is that you and baby are happy and healthy, no matter which works for you keep that in mind and whichever way you both find works well done, you’re doing great. Xx

With all 3 I combination fed. I found it particularly helpful to give a bottle in the evening when cluster feeding was going on! This gave me a break so I could have a couple of hours sleep whilst my partner looked after the baby. That way during the night I was alright getting up every couple of hours to feed. Used mam ones for all of mine.

With my daughter I exclusively breastfed for the first 3 weeks then started adding a MAM bottle with expressed milk at least a couple of times a week which worked great. She took to both really well. However when she was around 3 months old, for a full month I didn't need to express so exclusively breastfed and that was the biggest mistake I could have made. She then refused to take a bottle until the age of 18 months! If it wasn't direct, she would turn it down. Luckily now she's happy with a bottle, but I'm due with child number 2 in a few months and plan to combination feed. I will make sure I give a bottle of breast milk at least a few times a week so that he's use to it from the beginning and won't be too much trouble when I fully switch over once going back to work.

I BF exclusively for the 1st 12 days, then introduced a single bottle of formula which DH gave at midnight. Looking back, I don't know how I'd have coped if we didn't do that (I tried expressing and failed dismally) - that single bottle enabled me to get a full 3 hours sleep in one go, and saved my sanity.

For medical reasons I wasn't allowed to BF beyond 3 months anyhow (which I knew up front) so during that time I gradually introduced an extra bottle of formula every week or two so that the transition was gradual which worked really well

I bf my first 2dcs for around 2 weeks then combi for about another week and ff from there on. I bf dc3 for 18 months never giving her a bottle through the entire period and I was 🤪
With dc4 I exclusively bf her for 4 months and in the past month have been introducing formula during the main hours of the day (basically with the exception of morning and night feeds)
My reason for this is because I selfishly want to start wearing normal clothes again and normal bras that dont make me look like granny agnes, and it is helping her to sleep through the night longer. It also gives my partner and mum a chance to 'get a shot' of feeding her. I'm keeping the mornings and nights because it works well for me not having to get up to make up bottles so basically laziness! She also loves to come in got a special cuddle at those times as she is sleepy and wanting her usual comfort.
I'll keep going the way I am for now, probably until she starts weaning properly as it suits me.
I forgot how annoying it was with milk spit up and constant rotation of bibs though tbh, oh and the bottle making is a drag!

I have recently started giving my son a bottle of formula once a day. I EBF for 5 months but he became very fussy at the breast for some reason and wouldn't eat for more than 2 minutes and seemed constantly hungry and upset. I suspect it was when he got a very bad cold. Once I gave him a bottle a day he is (so far) much more settled and breastfeeding better. I wish I knew combination feeding was an option from the start as it would have taken so much pressure off me. I was seriously considering just switching to formula but for the moment it seems to helping. We are only a few days in but the difference in him is amazing.

I breastfed both of my babies, but would have loved to have been able to introduce the occasional bottle (whether expressed breastmilk or formula) to be able to leave them for more than ten minutes! However I didn't manage to get either of them to take a bottle - tried all the suggested tricks, different bottles/teats etc and eventually gave up because it was more hassle than it was worth. I found HCPs utterly useless when I asked for help.

We had a really, really rocky road at first- my son was born by emergency section and by the time they let me hold him the ‘golden hour’ had been and gone. Getting him to latch on was near impossible- about 30 different midwives must have tried shoving my breast in his mouth and by the time he was 24 hours old they were worried he may have an infection and I got pressured into giving him formula. I felt like I’d completely failed at everything I’d wanted for him. I begged my sister to bring in my pumping stuff even though I was told that there’s no way my milk would be in yet. I kept at it and joyfully managed to pump about 100ml. Midwife couldn’t believe it. That whole first few days he was combi fed formula and as much EBM as I could provide. When they finally gave him the all clear and let us go home, I tried breast feeding again and it was like all the pressure being off just made it a totally different experience and he FINALLY latched on! Since then I haven’t stopped pumping at least once a day to keep my milk going as I’m positive this is what saved my breast feeding experience (which I persevered with through nipple thrush, mastitis and the death of my mum causing my milk production to decrease). It’s been great for my husband to be able to give him a couple of feeds too and he has never had a problem with accepting bottle or breast since as he’s known both from the start.
I love using the mam self sterilising bottles as they make it easy to travel around and not take a whole sterilising kit with you- this made a real difference in the first couple of months when my mum was ill and I had to take my newborn on the train regularly to go and see her so minimal luggage was a necessity.
I don’t regret combo feeding at all as it worked for us in the end and I love knowing that I am doing everything I can to make him healthy and strong.

I combination fed for around 2 weeks after my daughter was born - it was a traumatic emergency caesarean and breastfeeding took a while to establish. It was very stressful. My daughter was healthy, but quite small and just didn't seem to have the strength to breastfeed for long enough, or to latch on properly at all. They couldn't explain any reason for this, no tongue tie or anything like that. As a result she lost a lot of weight in the first 5 days and we had to go back into hospital. We had no choice but to top up with formula each feed, after trying to bf and also bottle-feeding her the breast-milk that I'd expressed. Advice at the time was that bottle-feeding might make it even more difficult for her to get the hang of breastfeeding but nothing could have been further from the truth - even though we stopped combination feeding after those two weeks, the formula probably saved her from getting seriously ill and I'm so glad we did it. As an added bonus, although she was EBF for around 6 months and still breastfeeding at bedtime up until recently at 2 years and 3 months(!), getting her used to a bottle meant that I could express sometimes when she was small and hand night time feeding-duties over to my husband. Sleep, glorious sleep! Fed is best, and combination feeding was an absolute life-saver for me as a first-time mum. I'm due my 2nd baby in a few months, and although I plan to breastfeed again, I won't think twice about feeding him some formula too if we need to.

With my eldest I exclusively breast fed until
6 months with the odd expressed bottle on occasion and then started introducing more regular bottles at the same time as weaning in preparation for going back to work when she was 9 months old when she moved onto bottles of formula only. I was lucky that she had no real issues and took the first bottles we tried!

With my youngest I went back to work much earlier - part time phased return when he was 10 weeks old working up to full time after 6 months. Combination feeding was my saviour! It allowed me to work knowing he would have bottles for my husband but I still had the bond of breastfeeding morning and night (and multiple times through the night lol!) Again we were lucky in the he was not fussy and we had no issues other than a little colic at times. I combination fed until he was 1 when he switched to bottles of regular milk.

I do think combination feeding is the best of both worlds and should be talked about more. In my experience breast feeding is harder in the first 6 weeks but easier to do long term while bottles are convenient but become a faff the longer it goes on.

With my first baby, in 2007 who was premature, my first experience of lactating was through expressing, which they would feed my tiny baby through his ng tube. His first feed was 0.7 of a ml! He never had a bottle in neonatal - I worried about nipple confusion. Flat nipples and he only managed to latch on without nipple shields once, then never again. Nipple shields damaged my supply when we got home - could see it happening. After 3 days I took the decision to Express and feed the milk. I had a hospital grade pump and had been doing it for 6 weeks already.
First bottle we tried was Tommee Tippee closer to nature - total disaster, milk pouring down his face. We had more luck with breastflow, but they were complicated and took ages to drink from. The MAM ones worked a lot better - I found that they didn't give him as bad wind/reflux. I also liked the fact you could disassemble them completely for cleaning and sterilising, which was reassuring and they fit well in my steam steriliser. I seem to recall they had a rubbery valve which stopped a vacuum from building up causing discomfort.
I carried on exclusively expressing for 6 months, then moved over to formula by 7 months.
My next baby was full term, but although was more able to latch could never get a full feed. Zilch support in the hospital, so after a few days started sleeping through feeds. I told them this and they acted all shocked and insisted on formula supplementation. I was surprised how easy and acceptable the little glass bottles and disposable treats were to them. They wouldn't give me a pump do I brought my own pump in from home. I pumped every 2 hours for the next 24 and my milk came in. I managed to get to the point of supplementing only a small amount and once I left the hospital, was attempting to bf, then supplementing, then pumping.
I tried so much - breastfeeding clinics, had people came round, more milk supplements, everything. Every time I tried to just feed directly, my baby would poo green and lose weight. Eventually I was struggling to have time to Express as she wasnt sleeping as wasn't full, so it was easier to adopt a more 'exclusive expressing' style and just bf for comfort. I again kept pumping until 7 months, but with a toddler and a much bigger baby, I kept formula ready made on standby for those times I had no milk pumped ready. If I hadn't done this I would have had crying baby and no milk. She then started to sleep much better with better feeds.
Would I do anything differently? I wish I had been able to enjoy my baby better as I feel like all the expressing made it stressful, but I am glad they got breastmilk too.

My daughter is 9months old and currently still mixes feeding . She was exclusively breastfed till 7months. We introduced a bottle of expressed breast milk when she was a week old and it’s Been a success ever since

My experience was very traumatic. Awful emergency c section after 3 days of failed induction. I was exhausted and my DD was born early with jaundice. She wouldn’t feed properly because she was too sleepy, even though she could latch on. It was so exhausting to keep trying over and over again with her constantly falling asleep, and I was in agony from the c section. We weren’t allowed to go home until the light therapy had improved her jaundice and we were told feeding her was the only other thing that would help it, so we were put under lots of pressure to formula feed as a result. I was desperate to go home and of course worried she wasn’t eating so did what they said.
At home I kept trying but found latching her on for any time very hard. I had a breastfeeding consultant who wasn’t very honest to start with, but who eventually said my breast tissue/ducts looked very poor/I probably had low supply. I tried really hard to express and combination feed and managed it for around 6 weeks but the lack of sleep from the expressing and trying to feed her from the breast and feed her formula everytime she fed was far too much. I put myself under so much pressure because I didn’t want to “fail”, and we really didn’t want to go back to hospital with the jaundice.

In the end I had to stop, I was anxious, exhausted and basically couldn’t move trying to do it all so felt I had to stop to save a bit of my sanity. It was an awful start to being a mum and I had really bad PND.

If you can combination feed without the pressure and because you want to then that’s great, but for me it wasn’t worth it and wish I’d stopped much sooner to give my body time to heal and to let me bond with my baby rather than finding every feeding time an anxious upsetting experience. My anxiety probably didn’t help the production, I never made more than 30ml during and expressing session, but I’ll never know if I just didn’t have the right machine or the “wrong boobs” or low supply or all three.

Not a great advert for it, but my honest experience.

Combo fed my baby from 5 days to 7 months as I just wasn't producing enough milk for her. Tried all the remedies - pumping, domperidone etc but it never increased enough. Baby also had tongue tie fixed which improved the latch but not the amount of milk. Found it the best of both worlds - great for bonding but also formula is great for sharing the load with others and she has always slept longer than the breastfed babies I know. Only stopped when she got her first teeth!

My first child BF like a charm. It went really well, and I Bf her until she was one.

My second child it was a whole different matter. BF worked, but I got hideous post natal anxiety, and it was really debilitating. In order for me to be able to rest, we decided to introduce mixed feeding. The feeding was working, but I was exhausted and finding everything really stressful. I felt horribly guilty about not fully breastfeeding, and my GP was really kind. He said: 'whatever works for your whole family'. It was the best thing.

So we started doing two feeds at night of a bottle, and I got some nighttime medication.

My health visitor was horrid. She came and said that this was a slippery slope to bottle feeding, and that mixed fed babies prefer the bottle as time goes on. She made me feel a failure, when it was a huge thing for me to bring in a bottle. It was hugely detrimental, even though I knew their comments were probably correct, they were not helpful.

Anyway. We persisted with the bottle, and we happily mixed fed for a year! My supply did NOT drop, as we had lovely time cuddling up each day when I would lie and feed and enjoy that closeness. In fact, I produced loads of milk: my body knew what it was doing!
And the bottle was great. She never liked it as much. But it worked. And I got better. I felt SO much guilt about mixed feeding, and I wished there was more support out there. Once your supply is established, your body will produce what it is asked for!
Hope this helps someone..

I have combination fed with both my DC. Giving a bottle has made it easier for me to hand over my babies to my DH and others in our family for a few hours. This has been so important for my own sanity!

I have tried expressing milk but personally I prefer formula. As I mainly breastfeed I don't feel bad if the baby has the occasional bottle of formula.

I think it's important to make sure you have all the right equipment to hand if bottle feeding and bottles remain clean and sterilised. I'd recommend anyone who wants to bf to also consider bottle feeding and have the equipment you need ready before baby is born.

Before I had DS the advice was clear that combination feeding would cause nipple confusion and mean BF would fail. Well that was BS!
My DS was in NICU for a week and the staff did not have the luxury of waiting for my milk to come in - they went straight to formula. So going home, I had to try to introduce and establish BF. It was hard work and I was unable to produce enough milk. So against health visitor advice my DH also gave him at least one bottle a day of formula. This lead to me being able to continue to BF for 6 months. There was no nipple confusion- he was happy with both options. Maybe a bottle was easier to accept because it was ‘Daddy’s feed’.
Incidentally with DD I planned to combination feed but actually she was really efficient at BF so I never needed to. I just moved her on to follow-on milk in a cup at 18 months.

As PPs have said, fed is best. There is an enormous amount of disinformation around feeding of babies. I firmly believe that for some babies BF is easy and makes them happy and for others it just doesn’t work and formula works just fine. And that combination feeding can be a really good way to share the parenting.
Incidentally one of the closest adult mother daughter bonds I’ve seen is with an adopted daughter - so no BF bonding there!

I would have loved to just breast feed DD like I did with DS, however I wasn't producing enough milk. The nurses kept saying to keep trying and that it should be enough, yet it never was. As a mother, you just know when your kids are not getting enough milk. I was pretty emotional to be honest because DD kept crying all the time and yet these nurses were telling me it was all normal?! I decided enough is enough and bought formula and never looked back. DD stopped crying. I continued breast feeding but then would top up with formula. Throughout the whole time, there was never a day when breast feeding was enough, so it was a forced situation where I HAD to give her formula too. She was just a tiny baby too, but now if you see her, you'd never think that she had issues. DD never had issues having a bottle and then breast feeding or the other way around. The combination worked for her, although I still wish I had produced more milk.