Formula topups - Is Weaing possible???

[fluffball]

Hello all,

Baby is now 4 weeks old and we've had a tough time with the old breastfeeding. In a nutshell, she had low birth weight and lost over the expected 10%. The result was the midwives insisting she got formula top-ups amid fears of me having a poor supply. And me being terrified every time she gets weighed

At the moment, we are having a formula top-up of between 1 and 2 oz after each feed, roughly every 3 hours.

I now feel she is getting enough milk from the breast, but she is so used to the effort-free formula feed afterwards that she cries and cries after each BF until she gets some.
(Having said that, she also cries afterwards anyway. Might be colic or just being extremly clingy but she spends all the time crying)

So my question is, has anybody managed successfully to wean your baby off the formula top-ups??
And if so, how did you go about it?

The other problem is that at the back of my mind I'm still worried I may not have enough milk. I never "felt" the milk come in, my boobs don't leak and it doesn't come out in jets if I squeeze them, just in drops, although I understand not everybody does feel the engorged breasts and the leaking.
On the plus side, LO does always have some milk running down her cheeks when she comes off the boob and there is always a few drops straight away if I squeeze them before a feed.

Sorry, too much info in this post! But I am seriously considering giving up the BF and I would feel sooooo very sad if I did at this stage.

Thaks all!

 

[MagicMarkers]

il reply when not posting fr om the wii, hang on in there !

 

[beanie]

I did with Seren. Took me ages and she wasn't fully on breastmilk till she was 2 months old but I did get there. I just gave hjer boob as much as possible, then if I felt she needed a bottle I would also give her the boob after too, and I soon managed to get her exclusively on breastmilk. It was a great feeling when I managed it

I can't post too long as I am meant to be offline but I will get on tomorrow and post more.

 

[Mildly]

Yes it is possible to wean a LO off formula top ups. I currently mix feed but don't mix boob and formula in the same feed and someone on here (can't remember who) said that is better for your supply to do it that way. Basically if you want to drop the formula completely you will need to have your LO on your boob all the time for a couple of days to stimulate your breasts into producing more milk. If you don't want to stop the formula cold turkey because you are worried about weight loss or slow weight gain, it may be worth giving your LO one formula feed a day (night works well for us), that your partner can give your LO and you can express in order to assist in building supply. That way you can ensure that she is getting a certain amount in her during that one feed. Also you can start to substitute the formula with your expressed breastmilk

It might be that she wants to feed more frequently, my LO feeds every 2 hrs on the boob, sometimes more often. When I tried to space his feeds to every three hours he used to cry because he was hungry and I didn't realise straightaway.

It might be worth eating more oats and upping your fluid intake, both help increase your supply. I've never had leaky boobs during the day, only at night and my LO is taking around 8oz of boob milk from me per feed so I'm not sure whether it is much of an indication.

Good luck with the weaning, it might be a bit of an adjustment for you both for a few days but she'll soon get used to just breastfeeding

 

[kalia]

What Mildly said is excellent advice

 

[Sherlock]

Ditto kalia

FWIW I'd be looking to offer the breast more often than every 3 hours to help increase your supply. Your LO needs to feed often to help this. Oats (porridge for breakfast) are good at boosting supply. Take a couple of days off, get to bed, lots of skin on skin and cuddles with baby, let her feed often and keep offering your breast. This can help stimulate your supply also.

I'd be inclined to check the teats also and if they are too quick flowing and your LO is getting lazy with them maybe change to ones where your LO has to work harder to get the milk from the bottle. Also get nipple shaped teats so as to encourage your LO better on the boob.

I'd think atm that having 3 hourly gaps is hurting your supply building up and also making for a much hungrier baby so needing to top up on forumla. Also the teats are probably making it too easy to get milk so she is preferring the bottle over the boob.

I"d increase the breast feeds if LO will take them, let her just comfort suck a bit also to help boost your supply. And don't offer formula in the first instance after a feed. Pop her back on your boob and if she has emptied one boob, let her have some from the other.

 

[fluffball]

Thanks everybody for your invaluable advice!
And Happy New Year, BTW.

I feel terrible now. I think LO had a growth spurt for the last couple of days and I didn't realise . She's been much quieter today and more settled.
Of course, it doesn't help that I'm getting all sorts of contradictory advice from different bf counsellors MWs and HVs - it really has been driving me insane.

I have been leaving LO for as long as she wants at the boob, and somtimes she doesn't want any formula afterwards. It was just the last 2 days that she was desperrate for more.

I'll try wth the 2 hr gaps too. Anyway, I'll try to drink more. I already have porridge every single morning, so that's something.

Thanks again!

 

[Bloom]

Hi there what Mildly said was great advice.

My dd was 5'lb.7.5oz so quite small and i had the battle with weight gain too. All i can say is feed feed feed dd was on the breast constanly and i reallly felt like i could feed her no more. I did after 3 months give her 1 bottle a day to get her weight up. 3 hour between feeds is a long time and it never worked for me dd was small sh had a small stomach she needed feedig more often.

Hang on in there your doing great.

 

[Sherlock]

Probably a growth spurt. There are a fair few in the early weeks, iirc another one around 6-7 weeks and then one around 12 weeks.

Sounds like things are settling down again till the next growth spurt anyways

My thing was to trust my baby and let him guide/lead me. If he was rooting, I'd feed him (which was often ). We had some epic feeds lasting 2 hours or more sometimes. Don't forget babys tummy is about the size of a walnut so they need to feed little and often. I'd defo give feeding more often a try

 

[abcd1234]

I wouldn't listen to HV's etc i would listen to your baby, only you'll know what she needs. HV's are very quick to push the whole formula thing, i never had issues with BFing but i was constantly told "not to be afraid of giving her formula"

I think sherlock's basically said everything i would say to your questions, Tally was on my boob a lot at that age, even now she feeds more then some BF babies but she's happy and getting enough milk.

If you can i really would spend a few days just feeding her whenever she wants it and letting her have as much as she wants, it'll hopefully up your supply and you wont need formula anymore.

Good luck with it all

 

[fluffball]

Thanks again!
I think I just lack the confidence to say pants to the formula all of a sudden, but I'll try to wean her gradually.

Just a really stupid question- what does "every two hours" mean exactly?
I mean if we start feeding at 12 and she's still sucking away at the boob at 1, sholud we get going again at 2 or at 3??

Sorry for being so thick

 

[abcd1234]

Thanks again!
I think I just lack the confidence to say pants to the formula all of a sudden, but I'll try to wean her gradually.

Just a really stupid question- what does "every two hours" mean exactly?
I mean if we start feeding at 12 and she's still sucking away at the boob at 1, sholud we get going again at 2 or at 3??

Sorry for being so thick

Let her judge when she wants boob, thats what we've always done and i think most Bfers do. Sometimes that means a feed every half hour, others she can go 5 hours in between them.

 

[beanie]

when people talk about so many hours between feeds with breastfeeding it is from start to start (so when you start one feed, to the start of the other) but your baby knows what to do,and how to get your milk supply up. Trust them and follow their lead

 

[valentine]

The advice given above is brilliant, I just wanted to add also that I wouldn't bother worrying about the 2 hour thing, it really doesn't matter - just feed your LO whenever and whereever she wants and your supply will increase - if you start to time or space out your feeds, you may get frustrated when things don't go to plan or as expected - just let your LO guide you.

You are doing excellently - keep up the good work. Well done you!

Valentine Xxx

 

[fluffball]

Thanks a lot, everyone!

That makes a lot of sense, Valentine.
Because of the initial hospital advice of not letting her go longer than 4 hours without eating or she'll vanish into nothingness (or something scary like that anyway ), we are a bit over-regimented.
I often find myself trying to put LO off because "it's not time yet" and waking her up to feed when all she wants to do is carry on sleeping. Poor thing . Like you say, it can get really frustrating for the both of us.

I already follow her lead for night time feeds. It got ridiculous, to the point where I spent an hour trying to wake her up, only to give up in teras. And then she would wake up crying 10 minutes later. So I spent the whole night up