Advice needed on combi-feeding

[Babushka]

I would appreciate any advice from mums who are combi-feeding or have in the past.

My daughter is 4 weeks old & is always wanting to nurse. She averages about every 2 hours but sometimes every 1 hour and occasionally 3 when I'm lucky. She also suffers wind so we spend most of the night awake with her in agony whilst I wind her, walk around the house & spend time bouncing up and down on the fit ball. She will then sleep but it happens again the following morning. I have a really good milk supply & she is gaining 250g a week, she has a very very healthy appetite! As a result I am extremely tired and am finding it harder to deal with the crying at night.

Obviously I don't want to interfere with my milk supply but am considering my OH giving her a formula bottle at 9 or 10pm whilst I'm nodding off to sleep & hopefully this will keep her a bit fuller for longer. Also, my OH is able to do Saturday night feeds which I will express for but she guzzles expressed milk so am thinking he could top her up with formula.

Does this sound workable without interfering with my milk supply?
Does formula create other problems such as constipation and more wind?
What is the best formula money can buy?
What routine do you use or have you used (i.e times when you have fed formula).

I really hope this makes sense, I'm getting 3-4 hours of broken sleep a night so aren't thinking too clearly

 

[MindUtopia]

I'd say all that sounds normal for a baby that age (probably not what you were hoping to hear!). If you do want to BF, I'd recommend sticking to BF or feeding expressed milk. Adding in formula at this stage will very likely affect your supply, but it's hard to say by how much and if that will cause problems. You may get some more sleep, but that might be at the expense of a good supply. I know when I switched to combi feeding (not by choice, but I was sick and my daughter had a lot of latch issues which finally just hit a head by around 10 weeks), my supply plummeted because she did sleep better. Less nighttime feeds mean less milk primed for the next day. You could prevent this by waking at night to pump, but that would defeat the point of feeding her a bottle anyway because you'd probably get even less sleep. Pumping for an hour, alone, in the middle of the night is way worse than feeding a baby for 30 minutes.

If tummy issues are the concern, breast milk is probably the best thing. Formula is usually more rough on tummies and causes more constipation and wind than breast milk. My daughter only developed reflux after we had to move her to formula. These things will eventually resolve themselves (her's went away in time), but she would have been happier on breast milk if I could have kept my supply going.

That's not a reason not to combi feed if it's the right thing for you. I'd just be 100% sure how you feel about things if it was to affect your supply. I didn't know how badly it would have affected mine (went from BF to no milk supply in only 2 weeks of combi feeding despite trying really hard to get my supply up again - teas, fenugreek, water, hours of pumping, etc.). I wish I knew then what I know now or I would have worked harder not to combi feed so I could have BF her for longer.

Also, keep in mind that breastfed babies will start to sleep longer stretches by 8-12 weeks and you will get a break. It might also help if your partner could help out more with the night feeds. My husband used to stay up until 1am with our daughter to make sure she slept so I could get a solid block of sleep from about 8am to 1am, with just one feed around 11pm when he'd wake me and bring her upstairs before going back downstairs again so I could sleep more. He also did all the nappy changes at night and helped with getting her to sleep if I was extra tired. A little extra help goes a long way and it's better for both of you to survive on 5 hours of sleep than only one of you to try to get by on 3 a night.

As for formula, just get whatever is easiest to buy at your usual supermarket. They are pretty much all the same and the more expensive ones aren't better. I tried my daughter on the fancy organic stuff and it made her sick (terrible painful reflex and projective vomiting after every feed). We switched to Cow and Gate (which is generally the cheapest - even though it's the same as Aptamil, which is the most expensive) and she did fine.

 

[Craigswife]

Hi Babushka
I could have written that. My baby is 6 weeks tomorrow and has been exclusively breast fed up until last week when I introduced formula at night.
She feeds roughly every 2 hours, 3 if I'm lucky and then teatime/early evening every hour. She was a bit premature and as a result suffers from reflux meaning I need to keep her upright as much as possible to prevent her vomiting it all up after feeding. So when she's on hourly feeds it means I can do nothing in between once I've fed, winded and kept her upright for half hour the whole cycle starts again. This can go on for up to 4 hours sometimes. I've got a 4 year old too, so makes it difficult to care for him too. So night times are really hard because of her reflux and being laid down all night it's worse and also she was wanting hourly feeds in the night and it was beginning to take its toll.
So after a huge battle with myself I bought a tin of SMA staydown (anti-reflux formula) and introduced it to the night time feed to help with the reflux and also to keep her fuller longer. It definitely seems to have helped, she can go 4 hours now, which at night is a godsend! Previously she was so grumpy at night and only giving me 3 hours sleep, not something I can sustain for many nights, especially having another child to care for in the day means I can't nap when my baby does.
I was warned my supply might be affected, but it doesn't seem to be so far. My advice would be try it and if you think your breast milk is slowing down and you still want to continue you can quickly abandon the formula and your supply should go back to what it was.
I'm pleased with combi feeding as it means she and we get the best of both worlds, my husband can feed her if I get really tired, which was what happened last night.
I booked myself a hairdressers appointment now my husband can feed her, I didn't fancy sitting in the salon with a baby on the boob!
I'd be interested to hear how you get on xx

 

[Babushka]

Thanks for the answers girls.

Well, we gave her a bottle of goats formula last night and she slept for almost 5 hours! I've decided that I will express shortly before my OH gives her the night bottle, which he can use the following evening for an earlier feed (giving me time to get things done around the house or even relax) and my milk supply shouldn't be affected.

The formula smelled pretty powdery and artificial, I felt guilty for giving it to her but today I'm feeling on top of everything and waking every hour to 2 hours isn't working for me in the long run. It's nice to feel sane again...

Interestingly, the wind/colic has improved today. Perhaps the crying was because she was so overtired which led her to swallow more wind. I've also started using Brauers Wind/Colic Relief so that might be helping.

Craigswife, funny how you mentioned the hairdresser as I was thinking the exact same thing earlier. Giving the occasional bottle of formula will give us freedom to do other things besides nurse. Hopefully there won't be any side effects though!