expressing before 6 weeks?

[Hemera]

Hi
Just wondering what the negatives are for expressing and introducing the bottle before 6 weeks? Is it just the nipple confusion thing? Hes feeding well on the boob but the relentlessNess of it is really getting to me. I can carry on breast feeding physically but not sure how much longer I can continue to exclusively breast feed mentally! I'm crying most days especially as he doesn't sleep well and i'm exhausted.

 

[nikki8092]

I expressed milk right from beginning with my 2, mainly because i over produce milk. Neither of my 2 got nipple confusion so that was a plus side. You can get closer to nature bottles and teats which are good. Do what feels best for you. If you think expressing some will let you have a break while oh feeds then i would say go for it xx

 

[Smithy1980]

Hey hun, I'm not sure of the 'technical' reasons for not expressing before 6 weeks apart from confusion! But I waited and now have the opposite where LO won't take a bottle at all and she's 10 weeks! A few people at a group I go to have the same issue! So baby gets so used to boobie that they won't bottle feed!

There's also a couple of ladies at my group who introduced bottle early and baby will happily swap between the two with no confusion!

I wish I'd introduced expressed earlier now...but this is just my experience and you have to do what you feel is right for you and baby

HTH xxx


Sent from my nearly buggared iPhone!!

 

[nikki8092]

Hey hun, I'm not sure of the 'technical' reasons for not expressing before 6 weeks apart from confusion! But I waited and now have the opposite where LO won't take a bottle at all and she's 10 weeks! A few people at a group I go to have the same issue! So baby gets so used to boobie that they won't bottle feed!

There's also a couple of ladies at my group who introduced bottle early and baby will happily swap between the two with no confusion!

I wish I'd introduced expressed earlier now...but this is just my experience and you have to do what you feel is right for you and baby

HTH xxx


Sent from my nearly buggared iPhone!!

Yeah MW's tell you about nipple confusion but i found that because i introduced the bottle early that my babies were fine with it. Suppose it all depends on the child x

 

[hopefulmummy]

I'm sure there was someone on here who expressed early a LOT and ended up with mastitis and had to give up?

I expressed at around 3 weeks. Lo went between the 2 fine un til about 11 weeks where he refused bottle x

 

[traci]

I've expressed from about 3 weeks. Not every day, just now and then so my boobs get a break. Alice has been fine with both and not got confused at all. Just go with what you think is best for your baby, they are all different x

 

[frankie707]

Tbh if you've been successfully feeding for a month now then I wouldn't be too worried about nipple confusion - bfing is established. Obviously it depends how many bottles you're planning on offering - I just did one in the evenings in the middle of when he used to cluster feed to get a break so he was having 8/9 feeds from me for every one bottle so maintaining bfing wasnt a worry.
One of the other reasons they suggest not expressing too early is so you dont over stimulate your milk production and cause yourself issues. So dont express too much.

 

[Minchin]

I started expressing at 4 weeks and did it every morning til about 5 months. he had his dream feed from OH ina bottle (dr browns anti colic bottle) at about 10ish which meant I could try and get a few hours sleep