Can you combine breastfeeding and bottle feeding?

[Miss.Monroe]

hello mummies!

i was working on the baby section today on baby things, and was looking at the baby powder. can you combine breastfeeding with bottle feeding? i really want to breastfeed but am thinking if i find it hard of if OH wants to take baby out what is best to do?

this is a subject that is really confusing to me, how many bottles to buy if im wanting to breastfeed.

ive heard that expressing can muck up your 'routine' as boobs get full again when baby isnt hungry and so you need to keep on expressing?

also as time goes on the amount of milk baby will want will increase but the feeds will be futher apart.

whats your experience of this?

 

[Sherlock]

BF'ing class stressed that if you hope to BF you do so only from the breast for the first 6 weeks and not use a bottle before then as it can cause latching on problems and make things harder.

If you need to express and give your LO breast milk in those weeks they say to do so from a small cup as its better.

My MW said once 6 weeks were up I could express into bottles so OH could help with feeding then

So I have not bought any bottles, teats or sterilisers at all. I am going with breast only and seeing how I go and if need be use a little cup to help LO feed if things get desperate. After that we will see

I was advised to not mix breast milk and formula as this can cause upset to babys tummy etc. Either bottle or breast but not the two till LO is older.

 

[Krystal]

Yes I did, in fact I started bottle feeding then relactated, so he was having half and half although I stopped after a few weeks but that was due to the relactating part of it and me not bothering to persevere

 

[valentine]

Hi Miss Monroe!

I haven't mixed fed so can't really comment on my experiences, but its certainly possible. Lots of people do so really successfully.

Once you have your baby, its not recommended to express for the first six weeks or so, but I did around three weeks - I had so much milk and was curious to see if I could do it - I got off 5oz (lots!) very quickly! If you do follow the guidelines and don't express for six weeks or so you'll probably find that you won't want to be parted from baby for the first few weeks anyway so OH taking baby out somewhere won't be an issue.

Re. expressing messing up your supply - if you wait until your milk supply has settled down a bit, then express then it shouldn't affect your supply too much. You might feed from one side, express from the other then OH takes baby out with expressed milk in bottle. You may find that one or both boobs are really heavy and full by the time he gets home, but that's okay - you can express while they are out to relieve this or just wait until baby gets home - the relief when s/he feeds from a full breast! I know it all sounds really confusing, but you'll muddle through when you need to and find your own ways of doing things. The other thing you could do is get into the habit of expressing at the same time every day or every other day to build up a supply in breast milk freezer bags for the freezer, then when OH wants to take the baby out, you just defrost EBM (expressed breast milk) and put it in a sterilised bottle for using while he's out. Again, you might need to express the missed feed while baby & OH are out and about or you may just have a full boob by the time they get home. It really depends on your body, how good your milk supply is and how comfortable you are. I went out for the day for about 8 hours when DD was 7 weeks old and must have missed 2 or 3 feeds. She didn't take much from the bottle apparently but didn't seem that bothered while I was out but was very pleased to see me when I got home! My boobs were heavy and sore (I was out shopping and lunching with the girls and couldn't express) and I'd made good use of my breast pads with leaking but all was great with supply after that - I think I am lucky though.

Re. milk increasing and time between feeds increasing too - as I've always breastfed, I've no idea how much DD takes at each feed - the only thing I know is how long she's been on for and how many feeds a day she has. If you breastfeed though, you'll have trust in your body to give your baby what s/he needs and also to keep up with their growth spurts. Your boobs will make more milk when your baby needs it and decrease supply slightly when feeds even out. Your body is so so clever, trust it!

Re. bottles - personally I wouldn't bother until you are at that stage. We spent a fortune on TT Closer to Nature bottles before DD was born intending to use these for EBM dreamfeeds. DD was never really bothered about a dreamfeed (liked her sleep too much!) and consequently we had real problems getting her to take a bottle when we wanted her to. We went through many different bottles, teats, milk temperatures, people feeding her etc and have finally found a way that she'll take milk if I'm not there. It only took about 5 or 6 months! However, the bottle she will now take is not one that I bought when I was pregnant, its a dirt cheap bottle from a £ shop!

Its also a point that if you buy bottles and formula and keep them in your home, you may be tempted to use these if you are struggling with breast feeding, whereas if you don't have them in the house - the temptation is taken away and you have no choice but to persevere. Breastfeeding is really really tough sometimes and it may be worth only buying these things when and if you need them.

I hope this helps. I know my post is biased towards breastfeeding, but its been a brilliant experience for me and my baby and one I wouldn't have missed for the world - I want everyone else to be able to experience it too.

Valentine Xxx

P.S. Sorry its a bit long and rambly!

 

[smile]

There are 2 important things to remember

1) You will almost certainly be able to breastfeed and will never regret doing so no matter how hard it is to start with
2) Every mum and every baby is different

I get really cross at midwives and so called breast feeding experts that don't aknowledge that it IS hard and it IS painful to start with no matter how good your latch on and no matter how good your baby is at feeding - I think a little more honesty might help those people who are told it will be painless and find it isn't. If you are lucky and it is just a bit uncomfy then you wil be pleased but at least you won't get disappointed and think you are a failure if you find it hard - the vast majority do

ok rant over.. what was my point again?

I didn't keep any formula in the house as I did not want to be tempted to use it in desperation in the middle of the night! - i did get sterilising things and a couple of bottles as I wanted to express later and having them early meant that if there was a medical reason why I needed to use formula I just had to get it from the supermarket and everything else was ready.

I breastfed alone until he was 4 weeks old the started to express so that OH could give one bottle a day and I could get a little extra kip. One thing that really helped was that my mum came up on day 4 when my milk was coming in and helped me feed him - it was a bit weird as we don't see each other often but it really helped and we are a lot closer now too. It was better for me than seeing the midwives etc as I felt I could cry and get upset and be honest with her so got to the root of the problem quickly and by the end of his first week baby smile was feeding well - still hurt for several weeks though - now it only hurts when he is mucking around




Since about 8/9 weeks old I have expressed in the morning before his first feed to get 5/6 oz for bedtime feed at 7.30pm, I then express again before bed so I'm not uncomfortable and OH gives this as a dreamfeed at 2300 as it is easier to give a dreamfeed from a bottle than breast. This works for us - whenever you change feeding routine your breast misbehave for a day or so but then they catch up


Increasing amount and reducing feeds?
Baby smile has been taking about 5/6 oz at his evening feeds since I started expressing at 4 weeks - I don't know how much he takes at a breast feed but I expect it is about the same as my breasts feel the same before and after as when I express. He does feed less frequently and now feeds 4hrly in the day, then befor ebed, dreamfeed and rarely an early feed at 5/6am if he's had a busy day the day before. He has however become a lot more efficient at feeding and apart from his occaional 1 hr marathons (when I'm sure he is just kidding me as he wants a nice long lazy cuddle!) he can empty a breast in 10min now easily! (and he's not a big baby either)

 

[Fly]

My friend's baby was born beginning of february and she introduced combined bottle and breast about two/three weeks ago so she could go back to college and finish her course think she got the tommytippee bottles

 

[leckershell]

I did

We were probably the exception to be honest - used dummies, breastfeeding, nipple shields, cup feeding, expressing, bottle feeding (formula and expressed)... all from day 1 pretty much and we never had any confusion problems or anything. I think because Ryan wasn't so used to any of them, he was happy with his food coming from anywhere.

But everyone is different, if you want to combine that's really not a problem and don't let anyone pressure you not to

 

[clarey]

What Valentine and Smile said!!

I have been combining breast and EBM from a bottle for the last 3 weeks and everything is going fine. I had to start early as I had to leave her for an evening at 5 weeks and wanted to be confident she would take a bottle if she needed it.
I express once every day now and Eva has a bottle every 2nd day which OH gives her (I dont get enough in one expressing to make a whole feed so keep it in fridge for next day and combine two lots) I find this fairly easy, its a hassle to do it more than once, I am so lazy!!

I was told its advisable to wait until breastfeeding is well established before trying a bottle to avoid teat confusion but also not to leave it too late as bottle feeding is a skill babies need to learn and if you leave it too late they may refuse to in preference for your boob. Its tricky and you will get conflicting advice form all corners but just go with your instincts and dont stress, the advice I have got from everyone here has helped me loads, so youre in the right place!

Good luck

 

[Miss.Monroe]

thank you everyone for your brilliant replies, this is something that ive felt very confused about! i definatly want to breastfeed for many reasons!

valentine - your right, if i have bottles and formula, when things do get tough i would be tempted to use them!

smile - this is something i have been told that breastfeeding is painful and something that has to be stuck at to get the benefits for both mother and baby.thank you for your story.

Clarey - thank you for your advice, i hadnt heard that i shouldnt leave it too late to bottle feed so baby can learn the skill.

thank you again, you guys are great!

 

[hipchick5]

u can but have to wait a few weeks..not sure how long though... its because the different sucking can confuse baby and mess up ur own milk..

 

[Redshoes]

I would say its entirely dependant on your baby
I was set for fully BF'ing Isaac, but things happened and we ended up BF'ing and formula and bottle feeding (using Tommee Tippee closer to nature bottles/teats) in week one, he also had some sippy cup feeding. We never had any latching on problems or lackof/toomuch milk either, and I found combining the breast with formula very easy, and convenient, which I needed at the time.

If you wish to BF and bottle feed then you have to decide when to introduce the bottle, it is recommended not before 6wks, on personal experience I disagree with that but as I also said above, I believe it depends on your baby. If you wish to combine with formula, again, I would say sooner the better personally, but that's another personal choice, do what suits you and baby

I found expressing in the first weeks very upsetting as I wasn't getting much out, but Isaac was being satisfied when on the breast so I never carried on with expressing, so can't really comment on that.

Very best wishes

 

[mummy2be]

I did

We were probably the exception to be honest - used dummies, breastfeeding, nipple shields, cup feeding, expressing, bottle feeding (formula and expressed)... all from day 1 pretty much and we never had any confusion problems or anything. I think because Ryan wasn't so used to any of them, he was happy with his food coming from anywhere.

But everyone is different, if you want to combine that's really not a problem and don't let anyone pressure you not to

Same for me - and no problems!

 

[Hellokitty]

From the experience of myself and other women in my antenatal group I believe it depends uopn the feeding style of your baby.

Maia has always been a very fast feeder (7oz in 3 minutes by 10 weeks!) so about 12 weeks of age she refused to bf at all! I guess it was just too slow for her!

Another friend of mine's daughter is a very slow feeder (7oz or less in 30-40 mins) and she sucessfully combined breast and bottle (mainly because she doesn't like to bf in public) until her daughter was about 8 months old.

Another friend started using EBM in bottles and cup because of serious problems with latching on etc, she has persisted and now her baby is exclusively breastfed.

So basically, if you have a greedy baby you can't combine BF and bottle.

 

[clairescunny55]

i breastfed ryan for 4 weeks exclusivly then added a few bottles as well then gradually weaned him off the boob as it wasnt filling him because of his size. Milllie was the opposite ad wouldnt take ANY bottle, i must've spent a fortune trying different bottles. i fed her for about 10 months.