Combination feeding

[TundraOwl]

Does any one else do this? I have been breastfeeding exclusively up until about a week ago, but was really struggling at night as she was feeding every 2 hours or so, then taking half an hour to settle between each feed. I tried expressing so OH could give her a bottle but it just didn't seem to be filling her up. For the last week we have been giving her a bottle of hungry baby formula at about midnight, after a bath and she will then sleep all the way through til about 6am! Its wonderful! The only thing I'm worried about is whether it is ok to do this, she is still breastfeeding well during the day, and I feel better as I am managing to sleep at night. Does any one else do this and do you think it's ok, it seems to be working well for us, she is just so hungry all the time and the formula is the only thing that seems to fill her up.

 

[LucyAnn]

WOW good on you for getting a good nights sleep it does the world of good.

I was combination feeding from about 5 day old. I started using SMA gold as you can Breast and bottle literally worked wonders, I like you was breastfeeding in day and through the night i started bottle feeding as like you say its so so tiring and you never seem to recover from lack of sleep and feeding. After a couple of weeks though i gradually introduced more bottle and less breast and by 4 weeks was completly bottle feeding as like you the expressing didnt seem to do the trick and especially when i was visiting or had visitors it was so much easier bottle feeding. i did find it so demanding breastfeeding.
only thing i will say is check on the milk its a combination milk as some milks are for bottle fed only, if thats the case maybe can get unsettled tummy?!? i still use SMA GOLD now xxx

 

[Alexandra84]

My LO was feeding every 2 hours at that age too. Seems that part of the problem is getting her to settle after a feed. Are you turning on lots of lights, waiting till she cries to feed, moving her around a lot? These things will wake them up more and make it hard for them to settle. It also wakes you up more and makes you more tired. Formula will make her sleep longer but that's because it takes so much longer to digest, which is not ideal, and many mums seem to give up bf-ing once they go to combination feeding. The 2h per night waking doesnt last long, she'll be going 3-4h in no time .

 

[pinkyprincess]

My midwife advised this to me if I was having problems with LO being too stressed out to take the boob (say if it takes a while for him to get it for eg) she's encouraged us to keep cartons ready and sterilised bottles in the fridge just incase.

 

[hopefulmummy]

Personally although I'm all for mums resting I believe if you want to bf, stay away from combination feeding. Everyone I know who has done this has ended up only bottle feeding very very quickly when that is not the way they wanted to go. At The end of the day, yor baby suckling is telling your body to make more milk. No suckling means eventually no milk. If you really want to continue bf I woul stay away from formula altogether. However, if you are happy that ou may stop bf soon or our milk will dry up, then that's fine! And before I get shouted at, this is only
My experience and opinion.

 

[AyeshaD]

if you want to combined the two, my advise to you give more breast than bottle, but if you give more bottle than breast and see I have no milk he will choice formula.. and that what my little one did. I regret it!!

 

[Kbex]

I have a two year old and gave her a bottle from about 10 days old for the 10.30pm feed. It meant I could go to bed (more rest helps you to produce more milk), have a bath, a break or go out! I used to express about 9.30pm and then either give her expressed or q mixture of expressed and formula. It never affected supply. After about 4 months my daughter wouldn't breast feed when out so I used to give her a bottle when out too. Again supply never affected.
This time (with my three week old) I am not bothering to express and just giving her a formula bottle at that time (aptamil 1). Supply is fine. Lot of my friends did this and their supply fine too even those that breastfed for over a year.
Checked with health visitor today and she said this is fine. She said making sure baby can take a bottle is a good idea as then if anything happens that stops me feeding I know she will be fine.
She is also reiterated that the main thing is what works for mother and family.
So my advice is to do whatever works for and feels right for you.
Breast-feeding is an emotional issue tied in with lot of guilt. I had to stop feeding my eldest daughter for personal reason about 5 months and really struggled. I found a website called fearlessformulafeeder which was really helpful and had links to a number of articles and research about formula feeding.

 

[hopefulmummy]

That's probably the ideal way to do it to ensure supply ( express an hour before you gave a bottle)

I'm Not sure that you can say that your supply has not been affected currently with your 3 week old by giving formula as its very early days. You may find it slowly Diminishes as your baby isn't suckling enough. But maybe it won't!

 

[knopk@]

I combination feed from 7 weeks, he wont give up the boob even if i wanted him too. I would avoid as it does decrease supply in most cases (if you want to bf) or you need to express the same amount. BF babies can want to comfort suck. In the evening your supply is the lowest, try pumping at night/in the morning and give that milk in the evening.

I would definitely prefer to bf but it was impossible with my supply.

Whatever you decide, good luck and remember - your job is to feed the baby, doesnt really matter how